Geelong have painted themselves into a corner and there’s only one way out: win!
The Cats have persistently requested and just about demanded all or at the very least most of their home games be played out of GMHBA Stadium in Geelong.
Whether it be home-and-away season games or finals footy, the Geelong hierarchy have been incredibly vocal about their wishes.
Ranging from fans to coach Chris Scott and all the way to CEO Brian Cook, the noise from down the highway has been deafening but has fallen on deaf ears at AFL house.
That is until this year. The AFL have granted the Cats their wish in light of the current pandemic. With fans being kept out of stadiums, the AFL’s reasoning for hosting Geelong’s more high-profile home games has gone out the window. No longer is the fear of people missing out valid.
The Cats have been granted three games at GMHBA Stadium in their first five games. Round 2 is the major win from the next four rounds revealed by the AFL so far.
For the first time in 14 years Geelong will host Hawthorn in Geelong, a game usually hosted at the MCG.
(Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
They then host Carlton and Gold Coast, two fixtures that may well have been played in Geelong anyway. However Carlton weren’t scheduled to travel down the highway this year so there’s another tick in the box.
However, the fact the Hawks are travelling to their opponents’ home deck sets a precedent for big Melbourne teams such as Richmond, Collingwood and Essendon to face the same fate.
Let’s say Geelong get two of either Richmond, Essendon or Collingwood to play at GMHBA, the pressure will well and truly be on the Cats. They will need to win almost all of their home games to avoid both public ridicule and perhaps even worse, a smug AFL.
If Geelong lose any or some or – God forbid – most of these home games, the league will be more than happy to cite the Cats’ possible failures at home as a reason to keep some of their bigger home games at the MCG and Marvel Stadium.
All going well, if they can turn GMHBA into even more of a fortress, they quickly become premiership contenders. But can they do so without the parochial home support?
But if things go wrong, the Cats quickly become the laughing stock of the competition and could face an even worse slide than many experts have anticipated.
Away games will become even more critical and will just add pressure, for which the Cats can only blame themselves.
So over to you now, Geelong, because the Cats have it all to lose and the blame will fall fairly and squarely on their own shoulders.
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
Are you for real? You base your likes and dislikes on the utterances of a coach rather than the playing style/players/success of the team. Scott has been vocal on home games but most times his general comments are quite measured. I don't remember when he ever referred to umpires or anyone else over a loss and often gives credit to the other team. He doesn't tend to bake a player over a loss as some coaches do. I can think of a lot more outspoken coaches than Scott. I wonder how many other coaches sacrificed their salary this season?
RT
Roar Rookie
I am not mixing up anything. I am simply saying that comparing moving an Eagles game from Perth to Melbourne to get a bigger crowd is not fundamentally the same (the term used by Matty) as Geelong hosting a match in Melbourne for the same reason. The point of playing the game in Perth is so that players don't have to travel. You may believe for other reasons Geelong should not host games at the MCG, which is fine, but surely you can see the difference between Geelong and West Coast.
RT
Roar Rookie
As I said before, I am not complaining about anything. It is possible to join a discussion without complaining or complimenting for that matter. The fact that you suggest that these figures mean Richmond must get a better run in finals just goes to show that you don't even understand the information you are using. Richmond will have more frees for and more frees against over 25 games than some other clubs over 22 games simply because they have played 3 more games, but that doesn't mean the averages are any different. The discussion was always about differentials anyway, you only introduced "frees for" because you either you didn't read the thread properly or you were trying to be smart by being selective in statistics, like you thought you were going to trap me or something. In terms of the breakdown in frees of course I know what is published. I said it would be interesting to see the breakdown of the type of frees, because it could help explain differences between teams in terms of frees they receive or give away. Regardless of what is published, there have been discussions on this site before about Champion Data and the fact that there are a lot of stats they collect that are not shared with the public or media but are shared with clubs. Something about propriety information I think. Perhaps clubs can pay them for more stats. I would bet that some or all clubs have this information on frees, whether Champion Data collect it or they do it themselves. I can't imagine Richmond would have had gone 2 years of being bottom in free kick differential (17/18) without trying to understand why.
AJ73
Roar Rookie
You continue to mix up Geelong for a suburb of Melbourne. Either the competition is fair and equitable - every team hosts the same number of games at their home ground, and they get to host finals up to and including the Prelim final. Or you create a competition, that is all about the money, therefore, it loses credibility as there rules for some and rules for others.
AJ73
Roar Rookie
SO Richmond makes no mistakes? Don't give away frees to other teams, the umpires just pick them out? Who says the frees kicks need to be the same for each team? You would happily accept the free kicks you are complaining about as long as it suited Richmond.
AJ73
Roar Rookie
So they got a better run in the finals then? What are you complaining about then RichieTiger? Are you going to agree you got a better run in the finals then? You also fail to realise (most likely) that the free kicks are not broken down to how, when, and where they were given.
Nick
Roar Guru
It was a joke for goodness sake. Lighten up mate.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
I didn’t say I was being funny, I said facetious. Look it up and you’ll get what it means. As I said, read more carefully.
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
100% agree with you, if it's a Vic-Vic final, then MCG every day of the week. But if it's a Vic-NonVic final, then take it to GMHBA or Docklands, wherever that team plays its home games.
Kevin
Roar Rookie
Oh believe me, I think Geelong should play all home finals at GMHBA Stadium, as well as North Melbourne, Saint Kilda and Western Bulldogs being able to play home finals at Docklands. But what Im saying is that while theres an argument to play those games at the MCG if theres two Victorian teams playing, there is no real argument if its a Vic vs Non-Vic game.
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
The problem is Kevin, the argument used for that is: Why should we only be able to play Non-Vic teams in Geelong? And so on...
Realist
Guest
The free kick differential (last by a long long way) against the Tigers in 2018 was an absolute joke....the most blatant case of umpire bias I have seen in all my football watching days. We were clearly the best Team during the home and away season so how do you end up with such a massive differential. My theory is that the umpires tend to just umpire Richmond, not the other team. In 2018 I think there was real tendency to also umpire to the scoreboard, for them to subconsciously try and keep other Teams in the game. The situation improved last year probably due to the umpire g department feeling embarrassed about the 2018 numbers.
RT
Roar Rookie
Yeah and I am sure you realise it anyway because you are being deliberately disingenuous but your figures are skewed because you are including finals. Richmond only had more frees than a host of teams because they played 25 games to 22. At end of home and away Richmond were actually 13th in frees for. I also was not complaining about anything, just joining in when Peter mentioned a reason why Richmond had a bad free kick record to say it didn't explain it. If you want to out debate me you need to do better than that.
AJ73
Roar Rookie
Sorry 5th 2019 - Richmond 461 (5th) free kicks for, 490 against (3rd) 2018 - Richmond 421 (17th) for, 543 against (18th) 2017 - Richmond 469 (4th) for, 528 against (18th) Last only in frees given away. You play hard, you get free kicks and you give them away. Free kicks totals are not broken down into out-of-bounds, throws, etc. It also never indicates the what stage of the game they are given which also has an impact. You will continue to complain anyway, but I'd almost guarantee that you won't complain if they frees you complain other teams get went the Tigers way or protest to the umpire that they got it wrong and should go the other way or be a ball up.
Shane
Guest
You can smell the fear in this piece. The author creates a special place for Geelong home games, and then makes to criticise them for it. We want our home games at home, win,lose or draw. It's that simple. All this other gumpf is just opposition fans' petticoats flapping in the breeze.
Nick
Roar Guru
Be more funny, please.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Explained above mr literal and I never wrote a flag, I wrote a GF. Read more carefully please.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
It was a joke people for goodness sake. I was being facetious saying that’s how long since we had been to the Cattery, blimey you lot are literal.
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
Ferocity?
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
Jake Benoiton. Good work promoting Fridays game. Great work by the cats to get the home games. It does raise the ‘stakes but if the Hawks are buying into all this home ground theory stuff they have already lost. I suspect not and they will be using above argument to bring out the scaredy cats. I wish I wasn’t so interested in the mind games. They seem like some kind of sick attempt to control things.