Kardinia Park: The biggest advantage in the AFL

Spoken like a true one eyed Geelong supporter. Go Cats.

Ive seldom read such rubbish , the cats play 7 games at Simmons stadium in the immediate past years (8 in 2015), so they won 10 away games in 2014 ,they lost to hawthorn and north in the finals (could and should have beaten north ), but were running on empty toward the seasons end , a tired injured group with not one fit Ruckman , its got zero to do with venues, its foolish to use winning percentages in a period when your talking about the best side Geelongs has ever produced, go back to darker days and ive seen the Cats lose many matches there, You honestly believe that Geelongs home ground advantage where they play in general terms, teams that are struggling and would beat in any paddock in Australia, greater than Freo , West Coast , Magpies , when have they played Collingwood , Essendon , Blues ,at Geelong , i find your comments about Scarlet and Enright pathetic and dont warrent further discussion.

The author claimed that geelong in general and Enright and scarlett inparticular would not be as good if they didnt play the majority of their games at kardinia park. this cannot be backed up by stats. Geelong were less than par from 2000-2006 (other than 2004). They lost many games at kpark. From 07 onwards they havent lost many games anywhere.

If you calm your persecution complex for a minute you'd note the author is not trying to denigrate players but point out that Kardinia Park is a very different place to play football than some other grounds and does favour some defensive methods over those used on wider grounds -- even Geelong players are willing to acknowledge that the ground changes how you have to play.

This is the kind of article where the author has an opinion and finds arguments and statistics to support their argument whilst ignoring anything contrary. Geelongs home ground has been at kardinia park for the best part of 70 yrs. Its only been an issue for the past 8 to 10yrs where we have witnessed the best geelong team in their 150 year history. During geelongs dominance from say round 6 2007 to the premiership in 2009. Geelong lost 1 game in kardinia park to port adel and 1 game interstate to brisbane when fielding a sub par team after losing to stkild at etihad. the only other losses were at the mcg to coll and hawks. cant remember 2010 and 11 but they didnt lose many either. Your criticism of scarlett and Enright are both insulting and nonsense. Scarlett arguably the best full back in the games history at any ground. the fixturing is more in line with revenue than ladder position. It makes more economic sense to play hawks. Coll. Ess. Carl at etihad and mcg. Brisbane played at kardinia park during their 3 peat era and now. Port freo syd north and gold coast are all favoured to make the 8. They are all playing in simonds this year. So more bolox with ladder position. Also a 17-5 record with 7 wins at simonds = 10 wins away from simonds. Not exactly struggling away. A more informative article would be highlighting freos pre ross lyon where they won easily at home but struggled to win against easy teams in melbourne. Freos overall record is 60% wins at home and just 30% away. History shows that all great teams eras come to an end. You dont need to tarnish their record just because their era is lasting longer than you would like.

As a mad Demon supporter, I've always felt it's unfair that MFC have to play in such a foreign environment when the bigger more successful clubs don't. The Pies for instance never have to play their or the SCG(another tricky ground to conquer), and they don't sell games. Basically that's a three game advantage they have on my team. It's such an unequal competition. I understand the reasoning on these decisions but at what stage does fairness and credability come into the equation?

Cheers!

Has the revamped Kardinia Pk taken away the Cats advantage? The new stands look to protect the field making conditions easier to read for away sides?

"The narrow grounds of the AFL allow defensively minded teams prosper. I couldn’t think a more perfect fit for Lyon other than Fremantle given their home ground’s dimensions." And this is where your entire theory breaks down. The Cats are not defensively geared, but I will agree they had a great defence in their premiership years. In 2007 they were perfectly balanced in their scoring and defending ability relative to the average score across the AFL. In both 2009 and 2011 they were more offensively orientated. If we compare this to Fremantle, they were significantly more defensively orientated (and still are) and lack the two way running capacity of the Cats at their best. You are also forgetting that the Cats are one of the best teams in the history of the AFL, so it stands to reason during these periods they are going to statistically have a better home record anyway. Of course it's going to be less at the MCG also, because one could argue when they play here it is up against other Melbourne based teams who play MORE games here than the Cats. Fremantle have also been one of the best teams in the competition during this period also, so it's hard based on a few games to come to any conclusion here. They also have a game plan that can stifle the Cats offense, which is critical in defeating them. An interesting read and well done on putting it all together, but I don't think you have made a compelling enough argument to convince me of anything here.

This year Geelong's home games are Freo (SS R2) GCS(SS R3) North (SS R4), Carl(ES R8), Melb (SS R12), Bulldogs (SS R16) Bris (SS R18) Sydney (SS R19) Hawks (MGC R20) Coll (MCG R22) Adel (SS R23) so no, they play 1 home at Etihad, two home at MCG (all against the big drawing clubs). The rest are against the "lower" drawing teams and interstate teams at Simmonds.

Don't they only play a handful of games there every season though? They have to play the big teams and big games at the G.

Or just that Geelong and Sydney are less likely to be playing the larger or more successful clubs at their homes of Kardinia Park or the SCG as these games are often played at the 'G or Homebush. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

This is a very good article and a very good point. Some other reasons worth mentioning: 1. Geelong are the only team based at the ground. So, unlike in Adelaide or Perth, they don't have to share, and get the sole benefit of being familiar with the ground. 2. The teams they (pick to) play in Geelong are usually teams they can easily beat, like the lower performing interstate teams, the expansion teams or poorly performing Melbourne teams. They never play Collingwood or Hawthorn down there. 3. Geelong being a separate city means most Melburnians will not travel all the way down there - even if they're lucky enough to score tickets. This gives games at Simmonds Stadium an interstate-type home ground feel that can be intimidating for away teams and Geelong don't have to worry about the travel factor that interstate teams have. 4. Geelong get the benefit of interstate home ground advantage, but also benefit from home games at Etihad or the MCG. They get the best of both worlds and can basically choose where they want to play. Play the big games at their MCG home, play easy-beats at their home ground fortress. 5. Geelong get all the money from the ground. They have a great deal, mainly because they are the only home team. They get the massive financial advantage of having their own stadium, but as above, they get good drawing home games in Melbourne, they get that financial advantage also.