Every year we see the same headlines pop up.
People talk about which team has the best chance in the upcoming season and which players are rated elite and how the draw can favour one team due to the way they placed the previous year, given that each team plays each other once before the other games to make up the required 22 games per year are allocated.
But the unspoken, ignored injustice of a Victoria-centric landscape of the AFL goes unmentioned.
Maybe the fact that Melbourne had 18 games in Melbourne in 2019 could be ignored or the fact that Collingwood, Richmond, North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs had 17 in their home city is just the way the draw works out.
Then I could be excused for mentioning that Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Essendon and Carlton all had 16 games in their home city.
Richmond took full advantage of their MCG home-ground advantage in 2019. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
But when you see that Adelaide, Brisbane, Freemantle, Gold Coast, Port Adelaide, West Coast, Greater Western Sydney and Sydney all had 12, that’s when the real injustice is seen.
Financially, the more your fans can attend games in your home city, the better. It’s not hard to see why clubs with 16 or more home-city games each season can attract supporters to every game.
Outside of the financial benefits, there is the travel logistics, the impact to player recovery, and costs to teams in terms of impaired preparation.
Think how easy it is each week for teams that can simply drive down the road to play. Then on the flip side, interstate teams need to travel, recover away from home, organise accommodation and be separated from their families and fans.
When drawing up the new season’s fixtures, the AFL does attempt to make the draw fairer by providing teams that finished in the bottom half of the ladder the previous season with fewer games against teams that finished in the top half of the ladder the previous year.
While this does serve as a way to alleviate the symptoms of a team struggling lower in the ladder, it does assume – with the absence of a crystal ball – that teams will perform similarly to the season before.
The issue of draw inequality for non-Victorian teams in regards to games in your home city is a challenging one for the AFL, but it starts by recognising firstly that the inequality is real and that the AFL is not simply a Victoria-centric game.
I understand that most Victorians simply do not care but accepting the problem may go a long way to understand why teams like Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast struggle to get a strong supporter base in their home state even when they are successful.
BEN JOHNSON
Guest
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/saving-football-new-documents-reveal-how-close-the-vfl-came-to-shutting-down-20160408-go1x0m.html
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Brilliant Scotty - all non vics should get a go on the MCG, as that is where the b****y finals are played. Some teams get one game there a year - while others get as many as 18 ! Hmm. Imagine explaining that to an English soccer fan ?
IAP
Guest
It's no conspiracy - the long term data supports it. Have a look for yourself if you don't believe me - West Coast's free-kick differential at home over the past 15 years cannot be ignored.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Need to be a full member.
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
What do you mean by you don't get a finals ticket "yet"?
Dukey
Roar Rookie
You need to do a lot more study before you make a comment like that.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
AFL sell GF tickets to Radio and TV networks who give them away, horribly wrong. Should be for Club members.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Not me. Jacket and tie only when you want to dine in the long room. Most are normal afl supporters who can wait. Who wears jacket and ties now anyway.
HedleyLamarr
Roar Rookie
Jacket and tie snobbery, definitely.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Hey watch the slanging the Gee team. No way our ground matches the tigers Hawks and pies. By the way, are you the oldest guest on the roar. And I am not being a agist.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
Actually JB, I am a provisional member. I waited 20 years from when I applied. I put my name down with my first born. Almost all mcc members are predominately footy supporters. A real cross section of society. I may not be rich, but I try to be snobby. Corporate bodies are not connected with mcc but the afl do sell boxes which the corporates hire. I don’t get a finals ticket yet and I pay a hefty membership fee.
tigerdell
Guest
Ange just to clarify the sound of each team was played after the team's goals. GWS scored 3 so it was played 3 times. It's not a conspiracy
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
The GF is Gifted to MCG members mainly rich snobby cricket followers and corporate bodies. Only 30,000 tickets were allocated to Freo members in there GF thousands of members and supporters missed. It cost me and my family $30 each and every year to guarantee a chance to buy a ticket if they ever get to make another one.
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
Koch makes Eddie's rants on triple m extremely tolerable.
RT
Roar Rookie
What MCG corporates? There is no such thing.
RT
Roar Rookie
It was a roar, not the song that was supposedly played and I don't think it contributed to the 89 point victory. David Koch and you were the only people who noticed. Can you tell me if it was after every goal or just a few because I didn't notice once? This is the same David Koch who expects Port to be able to play INXS before their away games in China and even kicked up a fuss when Gold Coast dared wear red in the first China match which Gold Coast was the home team for. Hypocrisy.
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
They are a defensive and temperamental bunch, always have been and always will be, not enough good weather I reckon.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Good post B.One its amazing the amount of things that we can change for the better. But all the Vics can come up with is " you cant do anything, if you don't like it leave'' mentality. Big problem for them to think outside the square.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Welcome anyone that supports a True and Fairer AFL.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Great call Angela, a true AFL would be great with a fairer travel load. GF at the MCG is fair enough but if it contains two non Vic side move it. Stuff the MCG corporate's.