UPDATED: AFL Finals fixtures week one: Who plays who, when and where

No I don’t normally seek out Fox, (who would?) it just appeared via the feed. Nothing against Dixon, but he’s certainly no ‘great’. I think even he would agree with that, well maybe. Fox doesn’t have a clue.

Carlton in 94 was almost as sweet in the straightest of sets since MCEnroe and Connors on grass in 84

In spite of RichieTiger and others banging on about fairness and so on, this is all about the hardcore Melbourne clubs maximising their advantage and dollars. Demetriou would have cheerfully sold his mother into slavery to get another bum on another seat and Gillon is no better (except when he’s taking time off to sort out visas for his cousin’s au pairs).

You look at Fox? Nearly as bad as Barrett or,shudder..Cornes. Try having Dixon hailed as a "great" when he's the boundary rider during Eagles games on 7. Not a thing of beauty.

I am not sure what you are trying to explain. Let me again use the Hawthorn example and compare with Richmond. In a given year Hawks may have 6 MCG home games, 1 Marvel and 4 Launceston. Richmond have 10 MCG and 1 Marvel. If all other things are equal, i.e. they have the same opponents for home and away, then Hawks have a better draw. Why? Because Hawks have a greater HGA at Launceston than Richmond have at the MCG by virtue of the fact that their opponents will play less there than they do at the MCG. In other words, when Hawthorn played Carlton in Launceston earlier this year, they had a greater advantage that Richmond did playing Carlton at the MCG in round 1.

Let me explain it to you. Richmond and the other co-tenants play far more games on the MCG than all the others,Carlton is a co-co-tenant. That means that there are thirteen other sides that do not have the MCG homeground advantage. That is only four fewer teams than Geelong. We are comparing Granny Smiths with Jonathons. How exactly do other teams get"more help in getting there"?

Is it that hard? Richmond does not have much or any home ground advantage against Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Melbourne or Hawthorn and a significantly lower home ground advantage against other Victorian teams than Geelong enjoys at home. The teams with the best draw are Geelong, Hawthorn and North. The latter two due to their Tasmanian games. Port is also up there with their "away" games in NT and China. We can and will argue on this until the cows come home, which is fair enough because we are comparing apples with oranges. No doubt MCG tenants have an advantage come finals time (if playing a non MCG tenant) if they get there. Other clubs have more help getting there so maybe it balances, but we can only argue about that because proof is hard to conne by.

2015 Bulldogs hosted Adelaide at MCG rather than Marvel (then still Etihad) in elimination final so definitely would be at MCG if it were Collingwood.

And in breaking Fox Sports news: “Hawthorn great, Ben Dixon, says Brisbane can win the Premiership despite Richmond loss”. That’s astonishing. Not the prediction so much, but that Dixon is a ‘great’ of the game. Only Fox could come up with that.

Why are the elimination finals being played before the qualifying final? Doesn't the higher ranked team normally get the longer break going into week two? The Geelong playing away thiung is wrong, but this is wrong and bizarre.

Different to the Tigers finishing third due to their disproportionately large home ground advantage how?

Wouldn't want to meet Bulldogs that's for sure.

well obviously eagles if they are coming off a road trip and we have had the week off - we just beat them after all not sure how to rank our win over you in the run home, both teams will be markedly improved in the semis Cats thumped us but that was another life. they may do so again. we can't get the Lions. i wouldn't want them. they are a real good team.

Maybe one of Tigers and Lions out in straight sets as well....

Bruised Swan and Maxmean! A marriage made in . . . if only she'd let go of the Scribe's shirt tails!

Ay PW I love how everyone on the radio n paper are saying Brisbane won more of this more of that. But the things that Ppl don’t see on tv if there not on the ground is that we run harder then the lions...more one percenters,second n 3rd 4th efforts n the organisation of the team is first class, we talk more..point more, the lions boy had hands on there hips halfway through the last QTer...

Haha love it

Danger sphere....... time to stop taking issue with the rules of the day and get on with it. The AFL has never ever sought to have a fair comp in all respects. Only in draft mechanics has it sought to level the field. But in fixturing it has always been lopsided and is driven by the $. When the players are happy to have a shorter 17 game season with a smaller broadcast deal and subsequent drop in wages then you might start seeing fairness come into it. But that will never happen. The AFL is always about the $ (locking in the GF at the G, blockbuster games ect) and self interest.....be it player, club, state ect. Your are dreaming and yelling into the wind about playing your game at the G. Eagles had to do it last year against the Pies and did it. You guys played 3 games per finals series at the G to win in 07/09/11.......so Chris Scott needs to change his mindset fast so that the club and its fans stops focusing on this distraction. Go the Dogs, woof woof.

Who would you rather play in a prelim? Pies, Cats or Eagles? You can’t say Brisbane, we all want them!

mic drop...