Roar Guru
Joined November 2010
0
Views
0
Published
1.2k
Comments
Published
Comments
The NRL will only unlock the full benefits of expansion when it adds an 18th team so it can get an extra game per round. I did see something about have more games but this is due to extending the season – you can get more games by doing that without adding a 17th team. Overall it’s a good strategy to consolidate Brisbane by placing another team there but a more ambitious plan could have also set out a longer term for an 18th team. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether they will be pressure for an 18th team at the next renewal of the broadcast deal,
or even consolidation back to 16 teams. I don’t think 17 teams makes sense in the long run.
BREAKING: NRL to forge ahead with 17th team in 2023
Nice red herring. This has nothing with the argument.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
You could throw in a week bye pre-GF and that gives a two week lead in… logistics could be managed… I don’t buy that argument. The reason for a decades long agreement at the MCG is nothing about logistics – it’s all about a sense of entitlement (of Vic clubs), vested interests and greed. People with their noses already in the trough are going to protect what they’ve got….and who cares about fairness. Again, the AFLW shows the way – the highest ranked team can host the GF, and they did this to massive crowds at Adelaide Oval. It is doable in the men’s game but it won’t be happening.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
Yes – a three game series would address people who are concerned that venues like Hobart or Gold Coast may be to small to host. With a three game series you’d get games in smaller 20-30K stadiums (Ie hosted by Hobart and Gold Coast) but also games at larger venues for game #2. The upside is hosting by the higher ranked team are substantial – it rewards the highest ranked team (fairness), and it gives all fans the possibility of attending a GF (again, fairness). The AFLW is not shackled by the MCG deal and it will therefore be able to function in a merit based way that delivers a fair outcome to players and to fans… the AFL currently does not, and it will not. I think most would concede that inequity is now baked into the AFL system for historical reasons, and that vested interests (media, Victorian clubs) will ensure that this inequity is locked in for a couple more generations to come. It would be nice to see Adelaide or Sydney host an AFL GF – but this will take another pandemic or people at the AFL waking up and growing up (neither or likely). Over time the AFLW will show the men’s competition how it’s done … we can just be glad that the AFLW wasn’t around when that deal with the MCC was struck because no doubt they would have been roped into that as well and we’d be seeing all AFLW finals at the MCG.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
So what. The bottom line is that the AFL erred, massively, by chaining itself to a such a long term deal that disadvantages most of the clubs in the competition, and most fans in the competition. The rest is mere detail. It’s a shocking blunder that two generations of players and fans will now deal with … and we see with a blamk page that a competition like the AFLW has done far better by not making this same mistake. I do think that internally the AFL would acknowledge that this episode wasn’t their finest hour.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
Really? Well I wouldn’t worry about it. The key people at the AFL still clearly fetishise the MCG going on pre-game GF entertainment which featured it, and also last season’s transporting of MCG turf to the GABBA. We’re clearly not ready to grow up and truly embrace the national competition… we’re stuck with a system that denies most clubs hosting rights, and glad of this in-built bias with no plans to do anything about it. I do look forward to the farce of two WA, SA, Queensland or NSW teams playing off in a grand final at the G…and it will happen at some point. Personally I think a best of three final series would solve a lot of your concerns – if they earn it through higher ranking, Tassie host game #1, lower ranked team host game #2… if a third game is necessary then Tassie host game #3. Again, it’s a bit of a non-issue in reality… vested interests are motivated to keep things as they are and there will be no change.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
Probably.. and yes, Tassie and Gold Coast should be afforded GF hosting rights. Through the Covid period businesses are re-thinking their models, and seeing what Brisbane and Perth did I think should give the AFL pause – why not Adelaide also? And Sydney? And Gold Coast? And Hobart? Once unthinkable, however I think the pandemic has expanded the paradigm… or it could.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
Yes really… the point is we’re moving on from this ‘expanded VFL’ nonsense aome apologists drag out to justify retaining MCG for the GF… very soon, it’s likely that most teams in the national competition won’t be based anywhere near the MCG… and tracking back there makes little sense. Do you want to see a Freo v Eagle GF at the MCG? Or Lions v Suns? Or Swans v Eagles for that matter, which happened two years running. It makes no sense.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
100% the Home Court Advantage’ model is the way to go, or a version of it. You don’t have to go too far back to visualise how much better Swans v Eagles, or Port v Lions GF would have been had they been played in the home town rather than the MCG… The problem of course is the travesty of a deal that the AFL managed to do in shackling itself to the MCG for the next 40 odd years – and don’t certain Melbourne based commentators just love it. They just nod smugly and point to contract and say that even though it may be manifestly unfair, and illogical, we are nevertheless bound by the sacred contract. I think there is a way out of it…. If the AFL decides it’s made a blunder in agreeing to the long term MCG deal, and it has and probably acknowledges this internally, then it could always renegotiate terms of the agreement – rather than being stuck with a dud long term deal why not come up with something better and negotiate your way out of it – you will need to give things away but you can get to a fairer and more balanced finals structure, and also more profitable. For a ‘home court advantage’ I would allow the highest ranked team to host games #1 and game #3 of best of three GF series (aka NBA) – the middle game to be hosted by the lower ranked team. The winner is obviously the first to win two games – so some years there will be two finals games, sometimes three. Someone out there can work the permutations but I’m pretty sure that over the journey under this structure the MCG would end up average one GF per season, and probably more… and even if it didn’t get more finals then some sort of compensation mechanism could be be devised and agreed upon. And what’s more, GFs at the MCG (and other venues) can sell out multiple time over – the Optus Stadium final had 180K online trying to get tickets. What we will soon have is a 19 team competition with a minority of teams based In the Melbourne CBD… it makes very little sense to shackle the competition to the MCG as the host of the GF. Give the ‘interstate teams’ and Geelong the right to host a GF series based on their ranking. Be brave. There are plenty of upsides of ditching the dodgy MCG deal.
The AFL should take the grand final on the road every year
A few AFL games this year held in SA were capped very low capacity (around 10,000 in a 45,00 stadium) – with fans spaced evenly throughout the stadium they made quite a bit of noise and created a half decent atmosphere. I think if the NRL are offered 25-50% capacity they should take it.. it’d still be an OK atmosphere and you avoid all the uncertainties of a postponement or relocation. Hindsight is always 20/20 but it would seem that a Perth NRL GF would have been the best play…if they had a time machine and could go back that’d be the door to choose…even now it’s probably worth thinking about Perth if there is a shutdown and no crowd can attend at Suncorp. Perth could host and you’d only be looking at a two week delay.
Postponement still an option for NRL grand final
Where are all those people who were back slapping PVL for his supposed brilliance in dealing with C19? Are they now going to be blaming the NRL for not being more conservative in their planning and booking an Grand Final in a safer place (eg WA) or deferring it? Then, as now, the NRL (and all sports) are subject to forces way beyond their control when it comes to C19.
Covid chaos: How NRL will choose the 13,000 ticket holders who will miss Grand Final
It needn’t be just the VFL surely… can’t it aspire to more? Add a Tassie team, and add Geelong as a non-MCG team, and all of a sudden you’ve got a minority of teams who’d favour an MCG grand final if they had the choice. And that’s likely in play in the next decade. I think all GFs will remain at the GF by the way … but this doesn’t make this the best option in a national competition. Covid gave a glimpse of a better way.
'I don't think anything should be taken for granted': AFL keeping options open for future grand final start times
Perth did a pretty decent job, as did Brisbane the year before…and after that brief taste of ‘what could be’ we now head back to the the MCG for our GFs over the next 40 odd years. Much was made this season of the poor Dees fans who waited so long to see their side in a GF but who could not attend due to relocation of the GF…a once in a generation event, frustrated by a 1-100 year pandemic. Of course for non-Victorians this sort of outcome is baked into the system and is just accepted …what of the fans of Crows, Swans, Lions, Giants, Eagles, Port, Freo whose teams have played in GF and had no realistic chance of attending? Where are the tears for them? For many genuine and long suffering fans of these teams attending a MCG is beyond their means due to extra travel/accomodation costs, and the AFL in their wisdom has effectively locked a large proportion of non-Victorian fans out of ever attending a GF. Many who attended the GF at Optus on the weekend would never have otherwise been able to attend. I realise this post is about the timing of the GF but the bigger issue for me is that Covid has highlighted the blunder made in the long term shacking of the GF to the MCG. I think Chris Scott called this decision a “travesty” and he was spot on. The AFL in its wisdom has locked in long term unfairness for non-Victorian fans in terms of access to the GF, and it has also tilted the table on-field in favour of Victorian teams.
'I don't think anything should be taken for granted': AFL keeping options open for future grand final start times
The code war angle gets a good run in Sydney newspapers, as well as forums like this. Just in the last week we had an article about a purported ‘secret covert war’ the AFL has waged against RL in Queensland…. I’m not sure what’s so secret about plonking two mens teams and two womens teams in Queensland, and putting money into stadiums and training facilities – a very strange definition of ‘secret’. Is the NRL waging a secret covert war by having the Storm based in Melbourne? The standard of what passes for sports journalism is this country is in terminal decline.
Defusing the Australian code war
Yeah I’ve had this conversation before with people from England…we don’t all have to be a monoculture and all adopt the same way of doing things. Australian crowds in Australian football codes are not English, and don’t aspire to be. An AFL game has plenty of atmosphere with highs, lows .. noise and quieter patches. In fact, when I’ve been to football games in England I found the singing distracting after a while because it wasn’t quite in sync with what was going on in the actual game in the pitch – not in the same way you get player to crowd feedback in an AFL game. Each to their own. For me, singing the club theme song at beginning and end of an AFL game is enough… otherwise leave the singing and cheer (or boo) as the play unfolds.
'This isn’t a COVID thing': Atmosphere is the missing component of the NRL
I know it’s a rhetorical question but we all have a pretty good idea about how this goes off the rails. For his own sake I hope he just plays and enjoys it…and doesn’t get sucked into being a Twitter warrior by the sycophants and backslappers who no doubt surround him. Just play.
Israel Folau is back: What could possibly go wrong?
Well Hunt is attempting a comeback to the NRL, as I’m sure you know… at 34..another data point on the question of which is the most physically demanding game between AFL and NRL..even if he doesn’t make it, the fact that an NRL club is actually prepared to look at a 34 year old who’s been out of the game for so long does actually say something about the physical demands of the game..if you asked Hunt to saddle up for an AFL pre-season I’d expect him to say it’s beyond him but he seems to think he can have a crack at the NRL… he was well and truly cooked at the end of his AFL career and that was a few years ago, and now after years playing rugby he can step down to the NRL
Which football code has the fittest players in terms of strength, speed and aerobic fitness?
He played for a few seasons… he had a chance to adjust as best he could. In his view, AFL was far more demanding physically. Yes, that’s just a sample of one but it’s not nothing… he went through seasons in both codes so his experience is worth listening to. I’m not sure I agree with this aerobic anaerobic distinction you’re trying to make… both codes require plenty.. but in Hunts experience one requires more.
Which football code has the fittest players in terms of strength, speed and aerobic fitness?
We actually have some experience to work on here in comparing AFL to NRL because of the Folau and Hunt experiment. Admittedly it’s a very small sample size but it’s something at least. These guys played both games at the highest level. In terms of recovery and soreness after a game, Hunt said in an interview that an AFL game took far more out of him than an NRL game, he pulled up sorer and the recovery time was longer. So AFL is the more demanding game physically, according to Hunt who should know. I haven’t seen Folau’s thoughts on this – unfortunately in his case he rarely got near the ball during an AFL game but it’d still be interesting to hear his thoughts.
Which football code has the fittest players in terms of strength, speed and aerobic fitness?
The old ‘anti-wokeness’ call… as annoying as wokenesa might be, the anti-wokeness brigade is even more tiresome. Bottom line is Folau can believe whatever but he kinda can be expected to behave like one of us whether he likes it or not….like you know, honouring contracts… or not disrespecting his fellow man by publishing nonsense about hell. it’s not really that complicated. And it’s far from wokeness… it just basic garden variety decency.
QRL set terms for Israel Folau's league return
Perth I think isn’t going to happen. I actually worked with some of the original Western Reds back in the day (which tells you how old I am)… I think they’ll take QLD out of play for the AFL by flooding the field .. that’s the play I think.
Revolution or V’Landys: The only chances to get good leadership for the NRL
That’s not what PVL seems to be going for… I think QLD strategy – if he pulls it off -can give NRL dominance in QLD. The risk is that you end up with five weak QLD teams that nobody follows… also having such a concentration of teams in QLD/NSW means the NRL will be effectively letting go of ambitions to be a national competition. The upside could be having thriving QLD teams and weekly games at Suncorp stadium. I do think Adel. Perth and NZ2 are just talk – will never happen.
Revolution or V’Landys: The only chances to get good leadership for the NRL
PVL’s ‘fish where the fish are’ strategy is pretty basic but it’s also something that seems doable. Expanding to Perth, Adel or second NZ team seems pie in the sky. If the NRL ends up with a coupe of extra viable Queensland teams then it’s done well.
Revolution or V’Landys: The only chances to get good leadership for the NRL
I think most people agree in principle with the need to address concussions from head high tackles. It does seem a little odd to be trying to do this mid-season… whatever law suits are coming in the future are still coming… the damage is done… making this change mid-season verses at the end of the season doesn’t really improve the situation. Overall this is inevitable…if there’s a future version of the game with far less head contact then that’s what’s going to happen. Some sports (like boxing) head contact is an integral part of it, whereas in the football codes it should be minimised and dialled down.
Wanna stay on the field? Don’t hit a player in the head
What was that famous line from Mike Tyson about plans? ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’. Something like that. So a detailed 100 day plan is great but it’s all about rubber hitting the road, and how you respond if things don’t go to plan. Two NRL teams in Brisbane does seem like a no brainer, and probably about 20 years overdue.
NRL expansion history shows Redcliffe face hard path to success