Premiership Drought

[therisingblues]

You know which two clubs probably have the biggest home-ground advantage in the competition now? Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
They have a new stadium which is crammed every single week with a partisan, sometimes feral, crowd that is almost confronting to play in front of (or support an opposing team in).
The facility itself is perfect for building up a fear factor for opposing teams - supporters are close to the action and the ground is popular enough to be full every week.
And the two local clubs trade off on that well.
Compare that to the Dogs, Saints or Kangas playing to a half-full Docklands, where the crowd is often made up of as many away supporters as home, or to Melbourne's home games in Darwin and I know who has the biggest home-ground advantage in that respect.

It's funny, I brought this issue up on another thread and the opinion was almost unanimous that if you're good enough you can win anywhere. Even if the ground is filled to capacity and cheering for the home team.
I guess there really is such a thing at a home ground advantage after all, it just depends on what thread people are on when they're talking about it.

Finals are a different matter was the general consensus on what you brought up on that other thread. Especially a GF as both sides get the same amount of tickets to sell to it.

And the rest of the tickets go to MCG members, etc. Locals in other words. Then there are the scalpers. If you live in the same city you can get down to the "G" on the morning of the grand final and if you're lucky you might pick up some over priced tickets. I don't think there'd be many who travelled from Perth without a ticket to the big dance in the hope they'd get one from a scalper outside the ground. If you have a team from interstate playing a local side then most neutrals would be locals supporting the local side. The entrenched dedication of so many tickets to bodies of supporters who don't necessarily support either side playing in the grand final, facilitates this over representation of locals and robs real fans who deserve to be there.
I also don't accept that home ground is not an advantage in finals. My memory of that other thread is that most people thought travelling to Perth to play a final is too arduous. As for the question on a home ground advantage for grand finals, no one answered that question.

[cracka]

You know which two clubs probably have the biggest home-ground advantage in the competition now? Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
They have a new stadium which is crammed every single week with a partisan, sometimes feral, crowd that is almost confronting to play in front of (or support an opposing team in).
The facility itself is perfect for building up a fear factor for opposing teams - supporters are close to the action and the ground is popular enough to be full every week.
And the two local clubs trade off on that well.
Compare that to the Dogs, Saints or Kangas playing to a half-full Docklands, where the crowd is often made up of as many away supporters as home, or to Melbourne's home games in Darwin and I know who has the biggest home-ground advantage in that respect.

It's funny, I brought this issue up on another thread and the opinion was almost unanimous that if you're good enough you can win anywhere. Even if the ground is filled to capacity and cheering for the home team.
I guess there really is such a thing at a home ground advantage after all, it just depends on what thread people are on when they're talking about it.

Finals are a different matter was the general consensus on what you brought up on that other thread. Especially a GF as both sides get the same amount of tickets to sell to it.

And the rest of the tickets go to MCG members, etc. Locals in other words. Then there are the scalpers. If you live in the same city you can get down to the "G" on the morning of the grand final and if you're lucky you might pick up some over priced tickets. I don't think there'd be many who travelled from Perth without a ticket to the big dance in the hope they'd get one from a scalper outside the ground. If you have a team from interstate playing a local side then most neutrals would be locals supporting the local side. The entrenched dedication of so many tickets to bodies of supporters who don't necessarily support either side playing in the grand final, facilitates this over representation of locals and robs real fans who deserve to be there.
I also don't accept that home ground is not an advantage in finals. My memory of that other thread is that most people thought travelling to Perth to play a final is too arduous. As for the question on a home ground advantage for grand finals, no one answered that question.

I also don't accept that home ground is not an advantage in finals. My memory of that other thread is that most people thought travelling to Perth to play a final is too arduous. Didn't hurt Hawthorn in the prelim against Fremantle. The qualifying final that Hawthorn lost to West Coast, I think Hawthorn just had an off night, then all the dumbass experts (cough) starting writing them off.
As for the question on a home ground advantage for grand finals, no one answered that question. I thought I did

[therisingblues]

Yes, you did, I remember now, and I thanked you for it as you were the only one.
Hardly a general consensus though.
I don't understand how people acknowledge Hawthorn's effort in traveling to Perth twice, yet there's no home ground advantage. Either they were too good in overcoming that advantage (which i believe was the case with the dockers game) or there was no home ground advantage at all in which case traveling to Perth would be no harder than playing at the MCG, and not the achievement some play it up to be. People can't have it both ways though. I know this line doesn't apply to what you have said, but there's a marked difference in opinion between this thread and the other.