1 hour ago, Ungarieboy said:

Who's our double ups

Essendon, Hawthorn, Gold Coast, Fremantle, Western Bulldogs, Richmond.

Despite finishing in the bottom 6 we play 2 bottom 6 sides and then 3 finalists and the 9th place finisher that was only a game out of the 8. Seems fair doesn't it 🤦‍♂️

3 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Maybe cause Saturday evening is past your bedtime.

If we want this club to survive into the future we need to be able keep the Mobs attention (especially kids).
Play fast entertaining footy or die.

3 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Maybe cause Saturday evening is past your bedtime.

If we want this club to survive into the future we need to be able keep the Mobs attention (especially kids).
Play fast entertaining footy or die.

Of course it is all selfish. Just saying I prefer Sunday afternoon games to Saturday. Winning is what drives children's allegiance. Do that and all of a sudden we have a lot more of all ages going to games as we saw in 2021 through 2023. People of all ages like winners. Unless we have early wins in 2026 we will struggle to get membership numbers above 50K.

MFC Byes: Opening Round, round 16

Good of the AFL to give the boys a rest when they'll be in dire need of one.

Edited Friday at 03:482 days by Bring-Back-Powell

what's interesting is that, from my understanding, the whole point of the deal to play in the nt is that it was meant to mean that we wouldn't have to play a 'home' game at docklands

that seems to have fallen by the wayside since 2025

a ruthless, rather than toothless, club would tear up the nt deal if this is the way the agreement is going to be handled

My god, I was putting our games in my diary for next year & I mean I knew we had mostly Sunday games but I didn't really pay attention to how many.

Until you write it down, it's unbelievable. Also I'm not sure ch7 would be overly thrilled that we're the games to lead them into their news.

9 other teams have their 2nd bye before we have our 1st in round 16 what a joke of a competition

Foxfooty:

“Overall you probably would’ve expected an easier draw for a bottom-six team that should be taking a step backwards given its aggressive trade strategy.”

Its a boost for us the GC has probably the hardest draw next season.

16 hours ago, John Crow Batty said:

It would not surprise. Our season depends on beating Essendon twice plus Eagles, Tigers and North.

Perhaps we're even with Port and not too far behind the Saints but every other game would be an upset.

How did we stuff it up post 2021 so badly

As others have said, it's pointless analysing difficulty based on double ups by 2025 ladder position. Someone next year will be this year's Adelaide/GC, or Port Adelaide/Sydney. There are other metrics I'm far more interested in.

The timeslots are to be expected, but at least Sunday 3.15pm games are on FTA which helps.

We lose the Geelong game but it's "traded" for another interstate game, effectively Hawthorn in Tasmania. Our Melbourne games remain 15 (12 at the G, 3 at Marvel). Our travel feels spaced out much better this year - no 6 road trips in 10 weeks this time. On the flipside, the longest span we go without travel is 3 weeks (Rounds 9-11, albeit two of those are Marvel, and Rounds 18-20, another one of which is Marvel). We never play more than two straight games at the MCG.

On a related note, St Kilda doesn't travel after Round 13 on 7 June. One game in Geelong and every other game in Melbourne from Rounds 14-24. Double-ups are never going to be equal. Travel also can't be equal with 8 non-Victorian sides. But this is completely within the AFL's control. It's beyond a joke that any side gets the best part of three months in their own beds. Don't worry about how we, or any other Victorian club feels, how would any non-Victorian club feel travelling every second week in winter whilst St Kilda go absolutely nowhere?

On 13/11/2025 at 15:16, beelzebub said:

Tbf... its arbitrary in a fashion. Is based on what was... not what is...or will be. So I'm not really sure of what value that kind of metric is. Only valid if every team remained the same.... which they won't.

Yep.

And i reckon any unfairness in terms of our double ups is more than balanced out by not having to play the Lions at the gabba and the cats at kardinia given the nuts win loss ratio both teams enjoy at their home grounds (I'd be guessing the top 2 winning percentage over say the last 20 years by a country mile)

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by binman

On 13/11/2025 at 17:05, WERRIDEE said:

The bottom 6 teams hey looks like this draw will give us a top 2 finish just like the women too bad we play too many Sunday games I hate Sunday games

Agree Sunday games are tough when you have to work Monday & live 4.5 hours away

Never mind I’ll get to as many gam games as possible 👍

On 15/11/2025 at 11:48, Demonsone said:

9 other teams have their 2nd bye before we have our 1st in round 16 what a joke of a competition

That’s just not fair, May as well scrap the Salary cap because the mob that run the AFL are money hungry grubs

On 14/11/2025 at 11:35, Demon_spurs said:

I dont get the reluctance to announce the complete fixture, not just Rnd 0 to 16, Dees have 2 interstate games in the last 4 rounds, makles it difficult to book early for good prices on air travel and accommodation. This farnarkling with the time slots in the last 9 rounds is ridiculous.

It's all about what the media want Ds. Fans who actually go to games run a bad last

16 hours ago, binman said:

Yep.

And i reckon any unfairness in terms of our double ups is more than balanced out by not having to play the Lions at the gabba and the cats at kardinia given the nuts win loss ratio both teams enjoy at their home grounds (I'd be guessing the top 2 winning percentage over say the last 20 years by a country mile)

On the double ups, I reckon there such was a big drop of between the top 4 teams and the block of teams between 5 and 10 that it's really only last years top that is relevant.

And really, given the pies fell away lin the last third of the 2025 season and their ageing list, you could argue it's just the lions, cats and the crows teams need to get worked up about playing twice (and in any case we only play the pies one).

We only play the 2025 top four once and as I note above two of those games, the cats and lions, are on our home deck which is obviously much better than the alternative.

We of course also play the pies on our home deck, not that has helped us for the last few seasons, and in terms of playing the crows we have a decent record at AO.

Personally, I'm OK with double up games against Freo, Hawks and Suns as, if we are any chance of making finals, which i am hopeful we will be, we need to be competitive with those teams.

I think another positive is getting away to a good start to the season will be critical and we a decent first 5 games - winning 3 of those 5 games is not out of the question.

And whilst I hate 3:15pm Sunday games (you have to wait all weekend and not back home until 7:30 on a Sunday night), and our crowd numbers will take a hit, they are actually really good in terms of getting free to air games and the viewership.

For footy fans, traditionally footy fans knew there was a Saturday night game they could watch on 7 and so for many neutral fans watching that game was part of their weekend routine

That's no longer the case, so that leaves just Friday night and the Sunday twighlight games as timeslots neutral fans know they can turn the TV on and watch a free to air game, which is particularly relevant with the cost of living atm likely meaning Kayo and fox subscriptions numbers are at best static.

For a big chunks of the year when neutral fans do so on a Sunday arvo they'll be watching the dees, which is great for our sponsors and brand awareness.

Finally, another positive and I reckon it's a big one, is, as pointed out by a poster above (apologies to them, I forget who, but it was an excellent point) is our interstate games are spread our much better this year meaning recovering from travel won't be the same challenge it's been for the last few seasons.

I reckon Selwyn G will be very pleased as the travel caused merry hell in terms of recovery and preparation over the last few seasons.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by binman