Travel: Is it fair for the non-Victorian teams?

On the flip side WA teams have a strong record against teams travelling from interstate to WA. With the current draw WA teams get 10 games a year against teams travelling from intestate. I haven't done the math but Victorian don't get as many games against teams travelling from interstate to Victoria. I think its likely we would find the home state advantage for Victorian teams is less pronounced as other states are better are travelling because they do it more often. As well as disadvantages, there are also advantages.

Revenue is 1 answer - particularly in Collingwood's case (in the eyes of the AFL), answer number 2 is the uneven number of teams spread across the nation. How do we fix this issue? Oh I know lets merge all the Vic clubs yeah that'll do it............................. Hey why is the MCG and Etihad so empty all of a sudden it doesn't make sense? Oh I know we merged all their teams didn't we, yeah now we've lost all those Vic based fans. Whoa AFL you can't stop playing footy what about the fans............... and the AFL says the funds aren't available to run it! There are your 2 answers - it is impossible to have an even comp this way or as I like to call the V/AFL, the alternative is to do the above and go back to state leagues. In my opinion Vic could have their own AFL teams like the rest of the states and the VFL reverted to the way it was could be the feeder.............. just like the WAFL and SANFL would be to their state teams.

What are you trying to say I'm not following?

If WA disappeared the Austrlian economy would collapse. We've been carrying the country for decades. You guys move over here, there's plenty of room ;)

your wce fixture is a joke right. you have 14 home games and 8 away. its called an away game for a reason north are well entitled to play wce in hobart. would you be happy if west coast had to play home games in alice springs because Brisbane claimed Perth wad too far.

Why can't these Victorian teams play in tassie there flight is one hour from Melbourne for the dockers and Eagles it's at least a six hour flight then turn around a fly back there more support over there for the vic sides than a none vic side now the Eagles have to fly to Darwin as well seems to me the afl look after the Victorians than the none ones who ever does these fixture should get Collingwood out of there comfort zone or is Eddie paying them money under the carpet this is not a fare fixture at all unless there are more complaints it won't be fixed

You don't really get it Tom.The home game advantage is negated by the substantial travel every second week There is two days extra recovery time for all the non'travelling Victorian sides compared to the West Australian sides- for all their players.If players are roughly equivalent in skill.fitness and endurance, the advantage will always be with players and their teams who haven't had to travel the previous week. Plenty of scientific studies have shown it.Go to Google Scholar, put in "sporting teams travel medical reports" and read for yourself Victorian teams can be lazy in their prep, or even go overseas in the bye and know that with enough rest all will be well The WA teams don't have that luxury.

Clearly the problem is geographical, even the most fanciful fixture can't fix it. Accept that Perth WA is in the wrong place and move the state capital to Perth Tas (5 mins from the airport and 15 to 20 mins from aurora stadium) travel issue solved.

Your on drugs mate it s about being a fair comp and at the moment it's not a level playing field and until it changes team like Collingwood and Nth Melbourne have the upper hand

Elite training facilities 5 min from the MCG. 14 games at their home ground a year. Only travel 5 times a year. Squeakiest wheel of a President ensuring they get pampered by the league. Why arent the Pies top four every year?

'The Eagles only play two games in a row at Domain in Rounds 2-3 and then do not have back to back games there until Rounds 19-21.' You forgot to mention that they only get this 'advantage' before or after playing a derby which are some of the toughest games of the year. 'The Magpies play five games straight at the MCG. Yes they are not all home games, but they still have the advantage of not travelling more then 2138km plus every two weeks.' Perth to Melbourne is a 5,460km round-trip, maybe they should jog there? Get on You Tube and search 'Scott Pendelbury Recovery Collingwood TV' David Buffiant (or however you spell it) was showing off their facilities and he said 'Collingowood has an advantage over other clubs because our facility is right next to the MCG and our players can start their recovery in our state of the art facilities before any other club which GIVES US AN ADVANTAGE'. His words, not mine. WC can't do a recovery session anywhere that level of professionalism and comfort every 2nd week while conversely the Pies are only encumbered 5 times a year. The air-miles and disrupted recovery add up over the course of a year and they compound season upon season. Get on You Tube and search 'Scott Pendelbury Recovery Collingwood TV'

True but that doesn't mean it's fair

This article is pointless. Yes the eagles travel more but due to their home ground being so far away 1 could argue this gives them a much larger advantage for a home game. The big melbourne clubs when they play at home v another melbourne club could be argued get no advantage of a home game. Anazc day for example the crowd is split fairly evenly, compared to say a west coast north melbourne game where the crowd is 95% west coast.

Rob, Wouldn't be a typically sanctimonious Vic pov would it? Non Vic teams were invited to join a new comp called the AFL, and paid handsome licence fees for the privilege, staving off certain collapse of most of the Vic domiciled clubs, say all but 4 of them. Even today the majority are still financial and/or performance basket cases. The VFL became the premier competition amongst the various states in the early 1970's. This coincided with increasing numbers of non Vic players joining that comp for money and fame, fair enough. May be a slight generalisation, but what typically followed was that the top 6 players in each of the clubs that were successful from 1975 through 1985 were from interstate. The rest and assorted snippers were from guess where? Not too long after came the AFL, which is only beginning to emerge as a truly national comp. Probably has a generation to run before that objective is achieved. If we are both around long enough you will see maybe 4 to 6 Vic based teams out of a total of maybe 14. Then the number of interstate travels will become much more even and other anomalies will begin to be ironed out as well. Dimertriou was a brilliant strategist and what I'm suggesting above, along with free agency and other equalisation measures will be his legacy. As a result of so many intransigent and broken Vic clubs of the 1990's, he had no other way of spreading the balance of power and taking the AFL to the top of professional national sport in Australia, probably never to be dislodged from that position.

There are 10 Victorian teams and 2 Western Australian teams, and the draw is arranged to try to benefit each team. What's the point of this article? A Melbourne based team has 9 other Melbourne teams to play, and only 2 Perth teams. The two draws you've suggested would be almost impossible to apply. You have basically suggested Collingwood never get a home advantage, and the eagles get a home advantage over a dozen times, which is very unfair given that only 2 teams in the 18 team comp come from WA. If the Eagles want 4-5 home games in a row, then somewhere along the line they will need to play 4-5 games in a row away from home.

It's a disadvantage but it's their full time job and they've got ample recovery time all sorted for them by their club experts.