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Opinion

The mystery of AFL finals fixturing

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4th October, 2020
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Richmond have been granted the right to host their semi-final against St Kilda at the ground of their choice.

Damien Hardwick, despite saying Richmond are happy to play anywhere, added that “the reality is it (Metricon Stadium) is 400 metres from where we stay”. As such, Richmond will avoid an hour-long road trip to Brisbane.

This all seems rather unfamiliar. After all, the Gabba has a much larger capacity than Metricon Stadium, and the Tigers’ strong Queensland supporter base would surely turn up in greater numbers in Brisbane than on the Gold Coast.

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So the question is: what happened to the AFL’s ‘crowd maximisation policy’? The policy that dictates Geelong may not play all their home games in Geelong, often in order to squeeze up to 15,000 extra fans into home-and-away games in Melbourne, also about an hour road trip away? The policy that says Hawthorn are too big to play an away game in Geelong one week but small enough to play a home game in Launceston the next at a ground with a smaller capacity than almost every crowd the Hawks get in Melbourne?

Do the AFL care about the number of fans who will miss out on tickets next week? Obviously not, despite their usual justification for forcing non-MCG Victorian clubs to play home finals at the MCG. They love to claim they want as many people to see finals in person as possible. Well, now we know that’s not all there is to it.

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Exactly what justification will the AFL give next year if St Kilda earn the right to a home final against Richmond and they request it be played at Marvel Stadium? Because it will be at the MCG. What if St Kilda point out what happened this year? The AFL would of course point to the bigger crowd they would get at the MCG.

Most ridiculous of all is the fact the AFL have been on record saying they want the finals at the biggest possible venue. Why bother saying that when this now suggests they do not care? If they did, the grand final wouldn’t be in Brisbane.

It’s not a good look when the AFL appears to acquiesce to a powerful club like Richmond saying they’d like to play their home final at a different ground to the one the league ought to prefer. Clearly Geelong have lacked the significance to have such requests even be considered in the past.

Next time the AFL schedule a final at the MCG when the home team have requested it to be elsewhere, hopefully they are just a little more honest: “We listened to the request, gave it no consideration and scheduled it at the MCG not for crowd size – we don’t care about that – but because of our partnership with the MCG”.

Over to you, Gil.

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