Scrap the pre-season and have a fair dinkum draw
Roar Pro By Bruce Walkley, 21 Jan 2009 Bruce Walkley is a Roar Pro
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It’s time the AFL scrapped the pre-season kick and giggle event and ran a fair dinkum home-and-away competition.
For too many years the draw has been lopsided and unfair to clubs – some much more so than others – and, more particularly, the long-suffering fans of every team except the ones outside Victoria.
Sydney and Brisbane both get to play 11 games at home and 11 away, while Adelaide, Port Adelaide, West Coast and Subiaco all have 12 because they play each other in their local derbies, as well as their 11 games against visiting teams.
That’s as it should be – but that’s where the justice ends.
Collingwood play no fewer than 18 games in Melbourne, 14 of which are at their home ground, the MCG, even though five of those are classed as away fixtures.
The Magpies are “away” at the MCG to Geelong in round three, Essendon in round five, Melbourne in round 11, Carlton in round 17 and Richmond in round 20.
Historically the fixtures against Melbourne and Richmond can legitimately be classified as away, and one of the Magpies’ two games against those two teams would still have to be counted the same way in a pure home-and-away draw.
But the 14 games in Melbourne mean the Magpies play only once in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, and they don’t set foot on Geelong’s home ground at all.
Nor do Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.
Of the Cats’ eight home games, only three – against Melbourne, North Melbourne and Richmond – are against Victorian teams. There’s not even a local derby against the Western Bulldogs to give the Geelong fans something to get their teeth into.
Fremantle get to play at the MCG only twice, while West Coast and, amazingly, St Kilda, only once each.
The anomalies keep piling one on the top of the other, as Martin Windsor-Black, the indefatigable statistician on the Footystats website, http://footystats.freeservers.com, points out.
A few examples in Windsor-Black’s list: North Melbourne will be at home to Fremantle for the first time since 2004; Geelong will be classed as “at home” to Hawthorn for the first time since 2006, even though the game will be at the MCG; Hawthorn will have to travel twice to both Perth and Adelaide; all Brisbane’s games at the Gabba will be at night, prompting Windsor-Black to quip that Queensland should be renamed the Moonshine, rather than Sunshine, state; and, most interestingly to Tigers fans who are pinning their faith in Ben Cousins seeing out the season, Richmond have the luxury of seven straight games at the MCG from rounds 15 and 21.
The answer behind most of this lack of a level playing field in the fixturing is, of course, money. For example, Collingwood at Kardinia Park? What about the thousands they’d have to turn away?
And, you say, a true home-and-away draw would lengthen the season.
Yes, it would – by one week.
Last year the season stretched from the first NAB Cup game on February 9 until the grand final on September 27. This year the spread will be the same, from February 7 until September 26, although last year the pre-season competition occupied five weekends, and this year it will be six.
If you take away the weekend’s rest between the NAB Cup final and the first round and there’s only one extra week needed from start to finish for a true 30-week draw.
I’m sure there are plenty of coaches who’d welcome every weekend meaning as much as the other, rather than fronting up for what are essentially meaningless practice games once their teams have been knocked out in the pre-season.
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January 21st 2009 @ 1:37pm
Forgetmenot said | January 21st 2009 @ 1:37pm | Report comment
RedB,
Yes the SANFL and WAFL held the game back by not wanting to establish a national comp back in the 70′s and 80′s, but nowadays the AFL is still influenced far too much by its Victorian supporter base.
The WAFL is doing work getting South Africans into the game, and the SANFL was doing work with the NTFL. AFLQ has now taken over the SANFL project.
Im sure that the SANFL and WAFL were playing games overseas as well for while.
But overall i feel it is the Victorain supporters themselves holding the game back by not letting any of the clubs merge or relocate. They still refer to non-victorian clubs as interstate clubs.
January 21st 2009 @ 3:11pm
Michael C said | January 21st 2009 @ 3:11pm | Report comment
4getmenot -
it’s the Vic supporters who for so long just wanted VFL with 6 games on Saturday at crappy suburban venues and during that relatively painful period of nationalisation, relocation and merger……that’s when we probably felt most vulnerable for example to a basketball.
Now – - it’ll be the introspection of Victorians NOT embracing the international potential…………which is why the AFL has tread lightly and not overly vocally along this path……….but, enough of what Dave Matthews has said and implied is positive for the future.
January 21st 2009 @ 3:15pm
Redb said | January 21st 2009 @ 3:15pm | Report comment
Forgetmenot,
You can’t blame fans for wanting to hang onto their traditional team.
Redb
January 21st 2009 @ 6:01pm
SQUIZZY said | January 21st 2009 @ 6:01pm | Report comment
The fixture will work its self out when the AFL realises the need to bring back cross town rivalry. Fremantle and Port Adelaide need there own stadiums so as not to live under the shadow of the Crows and Eagles. SA & WA fans must be annoyed at having to play Victorian clubs at the same 2 venues, except for Skilled stadium as a change of scenery. Victoria needs another large stadium to create a (STK/DOGS/KANG DOME), (DEES/PIES/TIGES/ MCG), (DONS/BLUES/HAWKS NEW GROUND) and CATS helped out to get stadium to at least 40,000 seats. It would not kill the likes of Collingwood, Essendon and Carlton to play more games interstate and at Skilled Stadium after all Manchester united plays at way smaller grounds but the club takes a larger slice of money on advertising on the games shown on tv. I think there should be only one practice game at the start of season with large interchange to give young kids a taste. Some sort of rivalry game WC/FREO CROW/PORT RICH/ESS HAW/CARL etc, done over 2 weeks with one week rest before start of season. Those games would draw large crowds instead of the meagre crowds we get for NAB Cup.
January 21st 2009 @ 6:49pm
Forgetmenot said | January 21st 2009 @ 6:49pm | Report comment
MC,
Yes i agree it is looking positive for the future of football for the time being. Im just very impatient to get things going.
RedB,
Yes thats true, but i would have thought that people would not support other clubs just to keep them going, over expanding the game. I fully support people wanting to keep THEIR club, but not a club that they think is in trouble.
January 21st 2009 @ 10:46pm
Guy Smiley said | January 21st 2009 @ 10:46pm | Report comment
SUrely this all boils down to cost? Comparisons to the Premier League in the UK are unfair as the cost of travel is nothing compared to what is here – plus their supporter base is approx three times as large. The economics may not stack up despite it, in principle being a great idea. Our geography is a curse sometimes and only the strongest national comps survive (AFL only one that springs to mind, possibly V8s? NRL is not a national comp.
SQUIZZY – Victoria does not need another large stadium – even the biggest cities in the world would struggle to justify that kind of infrastructure to the bean counters. Short term, and especially long term. Stadiums are difficult to run profitably.
January 22nd 2009 @ 10:46am
Canga said | January 22nd 2009 @ 10:46am | Report comment
Why is it every Nab cup COllingwood always play fremantle or West coast its been like that atl least for he last 5 or so year hmmm…… And if they win guess who they play next either fremantle or west coast again???
Canga
January 22nd 2009 @ 12:29pm
Redb said | January 22nd 2009 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
Guy S,
I agree with your comments. Stadiums are difficult beasts. I think we all know ANZ stadium in Sydney will have trouble staying afloat , the MCG and TD survive due to football and other sports, concerts,etc.
From a revenue perspective it is vital the AFL maintain it’s blockbusters. 2009 looms as a beauty with the big four showing signs they will feature in and around the Top 8 this year. It’s been a long time coming since Carlton and Richmond were competitive at the same time as Collingwood and Essendon.
Redb
January 22nd 2009 @ 8:35pm
Forgetmenot said | January 22nd 2009 @ 8:35pm | Report comment
RedB,
It is going to be a beauty of football in Victoria this year. Hopefully a few non-victorian clubs stand up as well though.
January 22nd 2009 @ 10:27pm
Kathy said | January 22nd 2009 @ 10:27pm | Report comment
This discussion is beyond belief!
Scrap the NAB Cup just because the major draw is uneven, and lengthening it will make it ‘equitable’? Whatever medication you are on, I suggest you up the dosage, for it is clearly not working.
Some of the points put forward have clearly not been researched nor fully understood; an example of this is the obligatory dig at Collingwood’s 14 games at the MCG (of course forgetting that St. Kilda has 15 at Docklands). This situation is not of Collingwood or the AFL’s doing – It is as a result of an agreement between the MCC and the AFL – and YES it comes down to money and attendance. Collingwood fills grounds, always has and always will – that is the premise one must accept as a point of origin when discussing Collingwood’s position in the competition. This premise also leads to the understanding that many other clubs request that they be fixtured to play a home game against Collingwood.
VFL/AFL ground rationalization years ago has resulted in the concentration of games in Melbourne to two grounds (and some in Geelong) So of course clubs will play some ‘away’ games at their ‘home’ ground.
Extending the Premiership season (under the current 16 team competition) encompases a 30 week home and away season (no mid season break) and 4 weeks of finals withe GF at the end of September. Such a season must start on the first weekend of February. With the climatic seasons appearing to occur later in recent years, the height of Summer is seemingly February-March, or the first eight rounds. This must require changes to heat policies of the AFL, within OH&S… extending the interchange, longer playing lists. Oh yes, and remember the MCC/AFL agreement would still be in place, Collingwood would still be playing at least 14 games at the MCG. In a 30 game H&A season, with 6 non-Victorian clubs – Collingwood (and all Victorian clubs) would be playing 24 games in Victoria.
Bearing in mind the AFL’s plans to expend the competition to 18 teams by 2012, an 18 team competition would have a 34 round H&A season. If the AFL Grand Final is to remain on the last Saturday in September, the first round of such a season must often conflict with the New Year’s Cricket test in Sydney… Collingwood would now be playing 26 games in Victoria (at least 14 at the MCG).
The answer to an equitable fixture is not in the extension of the season to a length that is beyond logic or the physical capacity of the players; but sadly in the merging or relocation of some Melbourne and maybe a struggling non-Victorian club. This is a very harsh thing to suggest, but in the face of the current global financial crisis; can the Melbourne market sustain ten clubs? How long can Port Adelaide survive while playing before half to nearly empty houses?
An equitable 22 round season must have 12 teams, 26 rounds for 14 teams.
The NAB Cup may be a largely ignored competition by the wider community, it (and practice matches) still serve valuable purposes… if only to stop a Collingwood V Geelong game clashing with a twenty20 international on TV.