Travel blues giving Eagles a headache

Of the seven matches this year where a team currently in the eight travelled to play another team currently in the eight, the home team has won every game. “Tell me a side that’s actually beaten a top eight side interstate this year,” Simpson said. “It’s bloody hard to win away. But we do it every second week. We have a crack at it.” Some Melb clubs travel a handful times a year yet this is what WC faces every fortnight (they are either recovering from travel or travelling every week) which is why the media pick easy targets by focusing on teams like WC seeing that they travel more and get a new opportunity to have a crack at them every few weeks. It's clear to everyone that no top 8 team has beaten another team on an away deck but let's just ignore that stat shall we. Did the Vic media share these home truths with the footy public or did they just throw out another headline for people to jump on? This is why it’s so much harder for an interstate club to win a GF against a Melb club and why interstate flags are worth at least two Victorian flags. That’s why the Lions 3-peat is far and away the most impressive AFL flag record of the modern era. The Hawks would need to a 5-peat to match what the Lions achieved. TOP EIGHT TEAMS v OTHER TOP EIGHT TEAMS INTERSTATE IN 2016 Rnd 1 North Melbourne b Adelaide by 10 points (Etihad Stadium) Rnd 2 GWS b Geelong by 13 points (Manuka Oval) Hawthorn b West Coast by 46 points (MCG) Rnd 4 Adelaide b Sydney by 10 points (Adelaide Oval) Rnd 5 Sydney b West Coast by 39 points (SCG) Hawthorn b Adelaide by 3 points (MCG) Rnd 6 GWS b Hawthorn by 75 points (Spotless) WC and Adelaide are the only clubs to have played another top 8 team twice away from home this season and this weekend it will be the 3rd time for both of clubs while some top 8 sides haven’t played an interstate top 8 side once. Yeah, it’s a really fair fixture and competition and media do a great job of educating the fans, not. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/31519535/interstate-wins-not-just-an-eagles-problem/

The past 5 seasons include a wooden spoon from the Eagles, hardly surprising arguably the best team ever had the wood over them. Same with Port and the Crows, neither have been exactly powerhouses the last 5 seasons. Not only that but WCE only has the games against top 8 opponents measured not just every away game they play. I don't pretend to know the stats exactly but say Hawthorn travel "5" times for the year, their breaks in-between such travel are considerable. Not every second week. Not to mention that of the "5" interstate games several of them will be more than likely against teams that are NOT top 8.

"So you pick the teams that have spent all or most of the last few years at the bottom of the ladder … yeah I wouldn’t be surprised they had bad away record either … bad home records too." Yet WCE first finals appearance in a number of years was last year. Wouldn't have exactly said that they were the pick of teams either, but you go on Samantha continue to tell us how easy it is to fly across a continent and beat top 8 opposition.

Nice excuses, but AFL is played in Geelong, it is not played in those other places, apart from the occasional pre-season game.

Sorry Sam I meant major cities and population centres rather than smaller regional towns. I didn't include Wagga, Shepparton or Moe either.

Games are played in Geelong at Kardinia park ... Hawthorn has not played there since round 3 2006.

I'm not sure I understand your question Don. Hawthorn doesn't have a 'losing percentage of 70%' anywhere over the past few years. And as stated above for the period 2011-2015 actually has a slightly better win ratio away from the MCG.

Kurt, are you arguing that Hawthorn has a greater losing percentage than 70% at home?

That is literally the opposite of what he's saying Don.

Hawthorn has a slightly higher winning percentage over the past 5 years when playing away from the MCG compared with playing at home. We also have a winning record at every ground and in every city where the competition is played.

Nah, don't remember that. Definitely remembering winning a preliminary in Perth and then smashing the Weagles on GF day, and travel not having any impact whatsoever on our performances and literally no one at the club mentioning it. Is that the situation you're referring to?

So its greatest losing percentage is when it has to travel. Good point AB.

History is not much help in a game of footy, Samantha. Lots of those 14 losses would be because they were not much good. They are good now. That helps.

Over the past five seasons, Hawthorn has a 70 per cent winning record when playing interstate against the strongest non-Victorian teams (Freo, WC, Crows, Port, Sydney). Last year they won four out of five away games against the non-Victorian sides that finished in the top eight. So good teams can and do beat other good teams when playing interstate.

WCE had pretty favourable draw in 2015, a lot of the tougher clubs were played at home, and a lot of away games were against easier sides. the draw was a result of the 9th finish the previous season as the afl try to even out the comp each year. they had a lucky draw, but a team can only beat who they get put up against... and they beat most teams when travelling they were expected to beat. they lost to bulldogs early, maybe they should have won that, at that stage no one knew how good the bulldogs were. they lost to kangaroos in tassie, and adelaide in adelaide, but most teams dont have a good record in those places. the one away game they should have won in hindsight was gold coast, that was a bad one. ...and obviously the grand final! this year they have lost on the road to hawks and sydney - how many teams can say they have a good record against these teams away from home? i dont expect them to beat geelong this weekend either. but does that surprise anyone? not many teams have come away with a win from skilled stadium in the last few years (63 wins in the last 69 games i heard!). WCE have a tougher draw this year, but so they should too, after getting in the GF last year. talking about the draw and getting a good/bad draw - its time the afl changed the season so all teams play each other twice, home and away... this would get rid of good and bad draws... why cant they just make the season longer? look at the premier league in uk, and other soccer comps, nba, nfl etc etc. the seasons in these sports have a large number of games. the afl will always say they have to play on cricket grounds so cant make it longer, which is fair enough. but they can make mid week games... then the afl will talk about player fatigue... but the teams could be allowed bigger lists, then teams would then have the opportunity to rest and manage players when there are 3 games in a week or whatever (as they do in premier league). then the afl will say it costs too much to have more players, games etc. this would probably be the sticking point, because money is usually the driver in the afl... especially for smaller clubs and clubs in nsw and qld.

"Sure its harder to win away, but I doubt any other team has as bad a record as WCE do."

Would WC's travels be similar to US teams' regular travels from one side of the US to the other? They seem to have adapted better, or at least complained less than WC supporters.

So you pick the teams that have spent all or most of the last few years at the bottom of the ladder ... yeah I wouldn't be surprised they had bad away record either ... bad home records too.

I'll go out on a limb and state that if any team is going to win by 10 goals this week it will be WC. They've been generating huge inside 50 numbers but JK and Lecca have been missing easy shots. JK kicked 3.6 last week and that's been the story of his season so far. All they need to do is straighten up in front of goal as most other indicators are looking pretty solid and it's only a matter of time before they do. I hope it's this week. In saying that, I think that this will be a close game that could go either way with the Cats at home the obvious favourites. Every week we have upsets in this comp so I won't be suprised if WC wins this one as they are the better team on paper. If WC are on the Cats will lose as the Cats defence will struggle to cover all of WC's forwards. If WC keep dishing up inconsistent football like they have been then they will lose, it's that simple for me. WC know that they need to get some away wins on the board and what better time to do it than this week. As a supporter I'll be happy win, lose or draw so long as they give a consistent 4 quarter effort and kick straighter as that's all that has been missing this year and that can be fixed. I have a feeling that WC are slowly beginning to click into gear. If not this week then very soon, they aren't very far away now.

You're absolutely right Tom. 8 games is one-third of the season, add on travel and it's not hard to see just how much more difficult it is for the WA clubs to achieve anything in this competition. All interstate clubs travel fortnightly and while the following statement is a guesstimate on my part it's quite likely that the WA teams travel twice as many miles as the next interstate club which is probably the QLD clubs. Geography can't change that but fixturing can help to mitigate its impact but the VFL has never been interested in giving the WA clubs much of a break, quite the opposite in fact.