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There is nothing better the finals footy. The hits are bigger, the stakes are higher and any mistake could be a team or player’s last until they take on the summer’s gruelling pre-season campaign.
Everything is at stake. What you have given your whole season for all comes down to this, so surely any advantage should be grasped with both hands. But what happens when you don’t get the advantage you deserve?
An advantage is defined as ‘a condition or circumstance that puts one in a favourable or superior position’. The big one in footy is the home ground advantage.
Recent seasons have shown us the House of Pain (or Subiaco), the SCG, UTAS Stadium and Skilled Stadium have become fortresses in which teams are at an advantage playing in front of their home crowd. So surely a team that finishes above another should have a home ground advantage coming into the finals right?
Ask any Geelong supporter in Week 1 of the finals if they would prefer their beloved Cats to be playing at Simonds Stadium or the MCG and you will get a resounding Simonds back.
However, a team from Geelong that finishes second on the ladder now effectively gives up home ground advantage and is forced to travel 75 kilometres down the Princes Highway to the MCG to play a team that finishes below them on the ladder at their home ground with, more than likely, more fans at the game.
The current rules state that, apart from the grand final, any final will be played at a venue in the home state of the team who has earnt that right. It does not give exclusive home ground rights. So isn’t it time we changed the rules?
There are contractual obligations with the MCG about the number of finals that need to be played in any year, but isn’t it time the AFL had talks about these obligations to bring fairness and advantage for those who deserve it back into the game?
I know the MCG will triple the number of people through the gate. In Round 21 Geelong had a crowd of 33,000, whereas this game at the MCG will likely attract a crowd of up to 95,000, which means more gate money, but this should be about more than money.
(Image: Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
If GWS had finished in the top two this year, it likely would have played at ANZ Stadium, a ground the Giants haven’t played at all year. Even worse, if they managed to run into the Swans, they might have been forced to play at the SCG, which would be a major disadvantage for the higher placed team. The fact that Spotless holds only 24,000 people should be irrelevant.
This is not the first time this has happened. In 2004 the top four spots on the ladder were occupied by Port Adelaide, Brisbane, St Kilda and Geelong.
Brisbane earnt the right to a home preliminary final against Geelong, but due to the agreement then in place with the Melbourne Cricket Club for at least one game each week of the finals to be played at the MCG, they were forced to travel down to Melbourne and play the lower-placed Geelong. Port Adelaide were then offered a home preliminary final against St Kilda.
It didn’t matter at the time anyway as Brisbane won the match, but the following week in the grand final Brisbane were forced to travel again. They lost the grand final, ending a dynasty and losing the potential to win four straight flags to make them one of the greatest teams ever.
In 2012 Geelong finished sixth and Fremantle seventh, but the AFL denied Geelong its right to host a home elimination final at Simonds Stadium and forced the final to be played at the MCG, but the following year when Geelong finished second and Fremantle third the Cats were allowed to host their final at Simonds Stadium. There is no consistency and too much grey area.
A rule needs to be put in place to eliminate this grey area. Simply, a team finishing higher on the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season can allocate their final at a ground of their choice.
That would bring the advantage back to the higher-placed team, and although that could mean fewer people through the turnstiles and therefore less money for the AFL, it would mean a team gets rewarded for 23 weeks of hard work, grit, sweat, blood and tears – plus the TV ratings would be higher.
Acting AFL operations manager Andrew Dillon said this week, “the factors that we’ll look at are absolutely the fans, the broadcasters, the contractual obligations at venues, and the days breaks”. But Mr Dillon forgot to mention the words ‘advantage’ and ‘fairness’.
It does not matter whether that game is at Metricon, Domain, Spotless, Skilled or the Gabba – we should give the advantage back to the team that deserves it regardless of numbers or dollar signs.
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