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News surfaced yesterday that Richmond CEO Brendon Gale had last month attempted to get his club’s Round 4 clash with Geelong shifted away from Simonds Stadium.
The fixture was locked in for Geelong’s unfurling of the premiership flag, but Gale clearly wasn’t feeling sentimental about playing out in the sticks.
“I’ve got a responsibility on behalf of our members to push to get them into venues where as few as possible miss out,” Gale said.
“One of the guiding principles of the AFL fixture is to maximise attendances and we’ve got a situation here where 20,000 to 25,000 of our members are going to miss experiencing the game live. Etihad Stadium is vacant on the day in question and we’re talking about a ground with double the current capacity of Simonds.”
What a joke.
It’s Geelong’s home game so they should, as often as possible, be able to play it where they wish.
Sure, more of Richmond’s members may be able to attend if it was in Melbourne – but why should the venue of a Geelong home game be decided by Richmond members?
It’s ludicrous. Especially considering that were the game moved to Melbourne, there would be Geelong members that miss out (the time and money it costs to get up the highway should not be underestimated).
But what truly made Gale’s suggestion out of whack was two factors that Caroline Wilson, the Richmond-supporting journalist who broke the story, failed to mention.
The first is that only last year, Geelong played a home game against the Tigers at Etihad. It attracted just 33,761 supporters. (25,000 Richmond members missing out? Err, where were they all that day?)
The second point is that if the Tigers are truly so appalled about their members missing out on an away game, perhaps they need to look at the venue of their Round 16 home game.
Yep, that’s right. It’s in Cairns.
Not sure how many members will be able to make it up to that one.
While Gale was partly pushing ahead with his club’s request to ensure they don’t get games in Geelong down the track, the fact that he’s made a big deal out of this year’s fixture was poor form.
If your club is going to sell a home game, you can’t expect other clubs to give up their home games to compensate you.
Some might say that he had a point when he said Carlton and Essendon – who have (slightly) fewer members than the Tigers – don’t travel to the Cattery.
But that was a dud point too. The Blues and Bombers were finalists last year. One of them beat the Cats, the other lost only after a concussed ruckman missed a set shot from 15m out with less than two minutes remaining.
Clearly, a clash between either of them and Geelong has the potential to explode into a blockbuster. You cannot say the same thing when Richmond is the opponent. Not yet, anyway.
Make it to September, and develop even a minor modern-day rivalry with the Cats. Then, Brendon, you can get back to us.