Demonland

LIKELY ROUND 12 FIXTURE (All times AEST) Friday June 4 Melbourne v Brisbane Lions, Giants Stadium (7:50pm) Saturday June 5 Sydney Swans v St Kilda, SCG (1:45pm) Adelaide v Collingwood, Adelaide Oval (4:35pm) Essendon v Richmond, Optus Stadium (7:40pm) Sunday June 6 Carlton v West Coast Eagles, SCG (3:20pm) Fremantle v Western Bulldogs, Optus Stadium (6:40pm)

I forgot to pull you up on this on the podcast last night. We did not hub in Tweed Heads last year. I believe we were near Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. Tweed Heads is actually officially in NSW just south of Coolangatta. Last year our short stint in a NSW Hub was in Manly.

Richmond has to be one of the clubs.

When would we have flown out to NT? Thursday? Wednesday (to do community stuff)?

That's what I thought going to Adelaide. Brisbane are a much better team than Adelaide.

Further to this we are not seeing the bleeding of unaswered goals that we used to. I would assume that the tightening up our defensive game is going to have the effect of lower scores offensively.

I would say the contemplation is based around the uncertainty of whether the AFL will need to return to a hub scenario in order to continue playing the season and avoid having to negotiate with state governments to allow for exemptions and minimise disruptions and preparation of teams subjected to a FIFO scenario. FIFO did not do us any favours last year. We played our best when we were settled in the hub. The FIFO for the North and Adelaide games in Adelaide were the exceptions to this but they were both the bottom teams. It's just a fact that interstate governments aren't going to let their teams FIFO of Victoria and we can't have teams not knowing where they are playing until midweek each week whilst the teams and the AFL scramble. This lockdown is not going to end this week and even if things ease in the coming weeks things are not going back to normal straight away. We have to get used to hubbing again for a month or maybe two.

Looking like QLD wants teams to hub for at least a week in Sydney. I doubt they will change their minds. Decisions would need to be made very soon for some of these last remaining matches that currently don't have a venue.

I guess it all depends on what the situation is in Victoria and the AFL footy landscape post QB. If we are destined for a couple weeks or a months or 2 of hubs then where is the best place to play QB? If we hub in QLD beyond QB would the Gabba be a better option than the SCG in terms of bums on seats and in turn $$$.

While we wait ....

This is why we will not be playing at the Gabba. St. Kilda struggling to get an exemption to play and then stay in Cairns for the next week. I would imagine QLD would be telling the AFL that they (Saints) can hub in Sydney for a week and then come to Cairns the following week. If they offered a FIFO to the Saints I'm sure the Saints would prefer to play in Sydney this week and then travel to Cairns the next week. To the Gabba guys would you prefer to play in Sydney this week with proper match day preparation or would you like a FIFO of the Gabba scenario? I doubt we will even be offered this from QLD but if on offer would you take it?

I would hope that the playing group have that attitude. It's us scarred supporters that want to play every game in our own backyard against Dimboola Thirds.

I'm coming around to this idea however I don't have the confidence that we can beat them there in front of a hostile home crowd. I think I'm just scarred from my Adelaide experience. I like the idea of recouping some of the losses from NT & QB by taking a 45,000 fan gate but I'm not convinced that giving the Dees/Neutral fans first dibs at tickets will lessen the hostile home crowd effect. A win in the belly of the beast would be a further stamp on our credentials though. I think this is all a moot point as I don't believe the QLD government will let us in without hubbing in Sydney for a week or two.