Damien Hardwick wants more MCG home games

This has probably been blown up a little bit. Dimma has a right to voice his opinion, just like Gil Mclachlan has a right to laugh about it while sipping cognac on his office chair made of money. WIll it change anything? probably not, Richmond will still get a favourable draw because they pull big crowds but with maybe one game they don't like, like a trip to Marvel or a trip to GMHBA and then they'll complain again and the AFL will laugh into their Cognac again while having money fights etc etc.

Simple solution. Give the Tigers 11 home games at the G and then any games against fellow MCG tenants can be played at their 'alternative' home ground. Play the Cats in Geelong, Hawthorn in Tassie, Essendon at Marvel and Melbourne in Alice Springs. Considering the Tigers love to publicise how well they play the G it would be in the interest of the other teams to take them away from it. Would also help the AFL promote the game away from the Melbourne heartland and force the Tigers to do some of the heavy lifting for a change. Might stop the whinging for a bit too.

Well you haven't on this article. Nothing of substance to counter to my points, just a nonsense "home city" argument. I am not automatically dismissing anything, rather I have put up a reasonable argument for my opinion that you can't or won't counter with anything logical.

So have I. You’ve just had your parochial mind made up ages ago and automatically dismiss anything that doesn’t fit that excessively narrow view.

The difference us, I've justified my opinion on why I think Geelong have a better deal than Richmond. Anyway, I hate Marvell but it won't stop me going to the footy.

I could use the same argument for your side then ...

I don’t begrudge them the advantage and I wouldn't if it was 11 home games either. However, I don't accept their complaints because they are on a good wicket and certainly they should not get finals there.

Yeah but playing 5 games at the same stadium every year means they should be familiar enough with it that the match is close to neutral, as opposed to an away team playing in Geelong once every 1 to 2 years.

Mere deflection on your part. Address the substance if you wish to be taken at all seriously.

Geelong’s two ‘home’ games at the MCG were against Richmond and Hawthorn!! That’s a disadvantage

The Geelong "arrangement" is the biggest rort in the AFL. For example, in 2019, the last “normal” H&A Season, the Cats played 9 games at Kardinia Park, 2 home games at the MCG and 3 away games at the MCG. The advantage the Cats have in playing their home games on their home ground is greater than that of any of the MCG tenants playing their home games at the MCG due to the fact that they have no co-tenants. All their 9 games at GMHBA were undiluted where as say Richmond for example, played 10 home games and 3 away games (only 13 in total) at the MCG and only had 7 undiluted “home” games due to having to play co-tenants of which there are now 5 others.

Come off it Cat, your "home city" statement is equating Geelong players travelling to Melbourne (some probably already live here) with Perth teams travelling to Melbourne. That's ridiculous; a 1 hour drive is nothing. The 10 game comment is because it is 10 home against an interstate team, 1 against a team from the same state. It is not hard to see that Geelong have a better deal than non-Vic clubs with all their travel. It is also not hard to see that Geelong's better home game advantage outweighs the extra 30 minutes it takes their players to get to an away game (at a stadium they play at a lot to not be a big disadvantage) than their opponents living in Bayside (as so many do).

Where do you come up with 10? Every teams plays 11 home and 11 away. Richmond gets to play 14 games at their home ground. Plus 2 games in their home city. That leaves only 6 games outside your home city. Geelong in comparison plays 13 outside their home city. Non-Vic sides play 10 outside their home city. While it is true Richmond get less of an advantage playing fellow Melbourne sides they also get a lot less disadvantage when they are ‘away’ at their own ground.

I blame sausage fingers on an iPhone

Melbourne are a MCG tenant. I’m pretty sure every interstate club would prefer to play them at the MCG than in the NT. And then there’s Melbourne teams who rarely drive down the freeway to play Geelong at Kadina Park. Again, the burden of travel is on the interstate teams.

I imagine that’s why Brendon Gale doubled down on the issue over the weekend?

Tone deaf to who? Seriously, he was asked why people might not have turned up. He said the supporters didn't like it. It's true. No one mentioned the horrors non-Vic teams face. Surely YOU can comprehend that.

Pretty simple. I would classify games as follows: - strong home ground advantage (e.g. Geelong 9 times a year, non-Vic 10 times, MCG/ Docklands tenants about 5 times) - strong disadvantage (Vic clubs about 5 times i.e. when travelling interstate or to Geelong, non-Vic 10 times) - neutral/ relatively neutral (Vic clubs playing in Melbourne, non-Vic against fellow tenant) Those figures tell me that Geelong have it better than anyone. Advantaged over non-Vic due to less travel and therefore less strong disadvantage. Advantaged over other Vic who have a lot more neutral games in place of the home ground advantage Geelong get. If you want to add finals into the mix, I don't buy it that Geelong should host finals in Geelong and even if you argued for that, I'd say by the time you get to finals Geelong have had enough H&A advantage that they shouldn't complain. All Vic finals should be in as big a venue as possible and visiting non-Vic teams should get to play finals at the MCG in preperation for a possible Grand Final appearance.

No angry. Bemused. As I mentioned in the post, interstate teams would prefer to play more games at the MCG against tenant clubs there. Most are lucky to get 2 maybe 3 games at the MCG during the H&A rounds. Sure he said nothing in the interview re other or interstate clubs, irrespective, his response came across as tone deaf. Surely you can comprehend that?

What relevance does Cairns have? But I will humour you. Re the burden, you might want to get your facts straight. Richmond hosted Gold Coast all 3 times there, hardly disadvantaging "interstate" clubs, quite the opposite in fact. 2 out of 3 wins to Gold Coast who were the worst team (or second worst) over those 3 years. You mention non-Vic clubs playing in places like Cairns as missing the opportunity for a game at the MCG - so I guess you are saying GWS should have played Richmond there? Memories! Apart from the missed opportunity of a game at the MCG (or Docklands), how is it a disadvantage for West Coast to play Melbourne in NT or Port for that matter (who seem regulars there and hence have a bit of a home ground advantage)? It seems that evens up the travel and Melbourne lose their home ground advantage. Big advantage to their opponents, which should out-weigh that Docklands advantage. Yes I know, not many Vic clubs get sent to Tassie to play Hawthorn or North, but that is the commercial reality. They can make big bucks playing Richmond or Collingwood at the MCG, so they don't want to play them in Tassie. Come up with a solution instead of a whinge - you are sounding like Hardwick (except he had a solution!)