Thoughts on 2012 AFL Fixture??

[Hondo]

The the reason the AFL do the blockbuster draw (as the SANFL used to in it's heyday) is that more people watch and attend and while that also means $$ it's also entertainment for the fans.

These ideas about split groups based on last year's form or geographic location of home grounds still don't achieve fairness as you still have some teams playing twice and some once. It's just that we feel better because we don't have the blockbuster policy.

@Mr 66 - you could set 2 groups based on that criteria and then find form changes from last year and suddenly you have an unfair advantage you hadn't anticipated and you are no better off than under the current policy. The ladder placings are never the same from one year to the next.

I think you've got to have 2 showdowns, 2 derbies, 2 GC v Lions games. As I said before, no team IMO will win a premiership because of advantages in the minor round draw. Also, if you compare it to US sports at least every AFL team plays each other at least once every season! I hate the tiny little groups they break their competitions into.

Clearly, I don't see the draw as the big deal others do. Sounds like I am in the minority.

[whufc]

So the draw is about making money over the eveness and fairness of the competition, that defintaly sounds like the AFL.

[X Runna]

You don't need perfect home & away to settle a top 8 and even if it might have been 2 teams in and 2 out under a utopian perfect draw the top 4 would be identical and they would be the 4 teams left in the last 2 weeks of finals. You'd be playing these extra games for no real benefit. It's 22 rounds to get us to finals and then 8 teams go from there. If you aren't good enough to be there you'll be found out pretty quick.

EPL is completely different as it doesn't have finals so everything depends on the home & away schedule so then there's more imperitive to make it "fair". Many Aussie rules fans could argue it's ridiculous not to test players/teams under finals pressure to work out the premier team.

I agree with the top part of the sentence but wouldnt the EPL test a players mentallity and pressure handling skills every single game as every slip up can be the difference between winning the league, making europe and being relegated especially in a sport where the best team on the day doesnt always win.

Plus they have the FA Cup for 'finals type' games.

In the AFL though the draw can be the difference between a side making the top 4 (take carlton as an example if they had played richmond and west coast twice and collingwood and geelong once thats more than likely two extra wins which almost gets them top 4. It can also be the difference between a side making the finals and not making the finals therefore not having a chance in a finals system.

Personally i would rather see the AFL move to a 2 division league with

Carlton
Essendon
Collingwood
Hawthorn
Melbourne
Richmond
W.Bulldogs
St.Kilda
Geelong

Adelaide
Port Adelaide
West Coast
Fremantle
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Sydney
Western Sydney
Kangaroos (they seem to play a few home games 'away' from home)

Play each team in your division once home and away which would be 16 games, then the top 4 from each division make the 8 team finals.

They could then use the spare 4 weeks in the season to play an FA Cup style comp where all teams enter a random draw knockout style, this would still give teams languishing at the bottom something to play for and give the supporters more incentive to attend.

That would be a 20 week season plus finals.

And your right a 16 game SANFL season would be to short maybe that where the state league national comp could come in

This idea certainly has merit, but I think can be made simpler & more honest in the nature of the game.

Alphabetically done to START with
Over a 2 year period, every club plays each other 3 times, or even better - program the seasons way ahead and make it that over a 4 year period, everybody plays each other 6 times - 3 at home and 3 away. This may take some work initially BUT - the draw could just keep going in it's cycle until either a club folds or the AFL expands.

[stun72]

As a Hawthorn supporter I hope history can repeat itself from the first year (1991) Hawthorn played the Crows in Round 1.
That is for the last game of the year - not the first one.

[lebron]

The AFL is not for profit, but it is still all about money and control. I do not think you will ever get a 'fair' system. The year Judd left WCE, I would love to have played them twice, but with him in the team, only once thankyou. With drafts, trades and injuries, every team is different every year. The blockbusters are great, I love sitting down to watch Coll v Ess or Adel v Port. We need 2 of them every year. 22 games a year is plenty, and the finals the way it is, if you finish 8th you can still make the GF if good enough. You play every team once, out of those 15, 16 or 17 games, depending what year you should win 8 if you are good enough, then you only need 3 or 4 from the remaining 7 or so games. Just because you play Richmond twice doesn't mean you automatically make finals. I guess overall I just don't have as big a gripe with the system because I enjoy AFL and I think over the last 15 years, the AFL has been pretty 'fair'.

[MatteeG]

The AFL is not for profit, .

You lost me there lebron.

The problem with 'blockbuster' games isthat they are proclaiming them as big matches well before they occur.

What is so big about say a Carlton Essendon game when Essendon are sitting 14th and Carlton say 8th? An even draw (as you mentioned nigh on impossible with the current setup) will result in 'Blockbuster' games as the ladder will determine the big games (eg if say Port and Bulldogs are both undefeated after round 8, and meet in round 9), that would be a match worth watching.

The only way the draw can be even close to fair is having each team play each other 3 times in 2 years (current system). This would mean a 27 round comp with 18 teams (GWS).

But as someone said previously, it aint a draw its a 'fix'ture....

[Hondo]

The only way the draw can be even close to fair is having each team play each other 3 times in 2 years (current system). This would mean a 27 round comp with 18 teams (GWS).

That doesn't necessarially make it fair. It might be fair if each team stayed at the same level over the 2 year period or if the cycle means you play as many strong teams as weak ones in a given year. But that wouldn't happen. You might cop all the strong teams twice in year 1 of the cycle and then next year cop strong teams again if the weak teams improve. This while another team just happens to have a dream run of double ups against weak teams just because that's how the 2 year cylce went. Add in the factor of the interstate travel and what seems like a fair draw quickly becomes a minefield potentially where your fortunes are still completely dependent on the luck of the draw.

I believe apart from the Blockbuster games that they do try to align your schedule with teams that finished similar to you last season. That's got better hope of fairness than a rolling 2 year auto-schedule IMO.