SA Footy

Just something i have thought about since another thread popped up.

Would the AFL draw be one of the most uneven sporting competitions in major sporting leagues around the world.

The AFL is almost solely to maximise crowd attendances. For a team like Collingwood getting to play Essendon and Carlton twice every year can either be a massive advantage or disavantage.

Add to this some teams can almost play 3/4 of there season at their HOME ground.

Nearly all football competitions throughout Europe are played on a home and away basis whether you play each team twice or four times depending on the number of teams in the comp.

All major national cricket competition in Aus and Eng also run on the home and away format except for T20 but once again that is there soley to get people through the doors.

Is the AFL draw a blight on the competiton with some teams having easier draws than others and so forth?

Just a question- Is the AFL a fair competition.

Thats why they call it a fixture.

the other issue is that the AFL season runs for 5 months (April-Sept) as opposed to e.g EPL which goes for 10 months (Aug-May)

the comp will never have a fair fixture until we have a full H&A season, unfortunately due to the nature of our game a 36 match season (by the time GWS and GC come in) is never gonna happen and a 17 game season with H&A fixtures spread over 2 seasons won't be enough to keep us happy...

I reckon grow the comp to 20-24 sides and run 2 divisions. then you can have a full H&A season and the best play the best week in week out, it would also stop tanking and all the likes...

however this will never happen, in a perfect world maybe...

nuggety goodness wrote:the other issue is that the AFL season runs for 5 months (April-Sept) as opposed to e.g EPL which goes for 10 months (Aug-May)

the comp will never have a fair fixture until we have a full H&A season, unfortunately due to the nature of our game a 36 match season (by the time GWS and GC come in) is never gonna happen and a 17 game season with H&A fixtures spread over 2 seasons won't be enough to keep us happy...

I reckon grow the comp to 20-24 sides and run 2 divisions. then you can have a full H&A season and the best play the best week in week out, it would also stop tanking and all the likes...

however this will never happen, in a perfect world maybe...

March,April,May,June,July,August,September. I'm not super with numbers ( well, I am ) but that seems like 7 months to me.

Booney wrote:

nuggety goodness wrote:the other issue is that the AFL season runs for 5 months (April-Sept) as opposed to e.g EPL which goes for 10 months (Aug-May)

the comp will never have a fair fixture until we have a full H&A season, unfortunately due to the nature of our game a 36 match season (by the time GWS and GC come in) is never gonna happen and a 17 game season with H&A fixtures spread over 2 seasons won't be enough to keep us happy...

I reckon grow the comp to 20-24 sides and run 2 divisions. then you can have a full H&A season and the best play the best week in week out, it would also stop tanking and all the likes...

however this will never happen, in a perfect world maybe...

March,April,May,June,July,August,September. I'm not super with numbers ( well, I am ) but that seems like 7 months to me.

5 months is how long until the Bulldogs start running out of puff.

regards,

REB

As its from late March to late August I'd say 5 months is closer than 7 but it is about 6 days out.

Booney wrote:

nuggety goodness wrote:the other issue is that the AFL season runs for 5 months (April-Sept) as opposed to e.g EPL which goes for 10 months (Aug-May)

the comp will never have a fair fixture until we have a full H&A season, unfortunately due to the nature of our game a 36 match season (by the time GWS and GC come in) is never gonna happen and a 17 game season with H&A fixtures spread over 2 seasons won't be enough to keep us happy...

I reckon grow the comp to 20-24 sides and run 2 divisions. then you can have a full H&A season and the best play the best week in week out, it would also stop tanking and all the likes...

however this will never happen, in a perfect world maybe...

March,April,May,June,July,August,September. I'm not super with numbers ( well, I am ) but that seems like 7 months to me.

my bad, slip of the finger... was meant to be 6 months... as March has 1 game maybe... hardly worth counting...

it's the essence of the point that should be emphasised, not the gramatical error

But if that's how you wanna play the game...

Who else thought that not being able to draw 50,000 to either semi final was disappointing?

nuggety goodness wrote:

Booney wrote:

nuggety goodness wrote:the other issue is that the AFL season runs for 5 months (April-Sept) as opposed to e.g EPL which goes for 10 months (Aug-May)

the comp will never have a fair fixture until we have a full H&A season, unfortunately due to the nature of our game a 36 match season (by the time GWS and GC come in) is never gonna happen and a 17 game season with H&A fixtures spread over 2 seasons won't be enough to keep us happy...

I reckon grow the comp to 20-24 sides and run 2 divisions. then you can have a full H&A season and the best play the best week in week out, it would also stop tanking and all the likes...

however this will never happen, in a perfect world maybe...

March,April,May,June,July,August,September. I'm not super with numbers ( well, I am ) but that seems like 7 months to me.

my bad, slip of the finger... was meant to be 6 months... as March has 1 game maybe... hardly worth counting...

it's the essence of the point that should be emphasised, not the gramatical error

But if that's how you wanna play the game...

Well, if March has a game in it, you count it.

So we'll settle on 6 months then, but, the EPL has no finals series, the AFL always will so any time you allocate for the minor round must include at least 4 additional weeks for the finals.

Benchwarmer wrote:Who else thought that not being able to draw 50,000 to either semi final was disappointing?

Two duddy games. Freo with Sandilands on one leg and two average sides in the Bullies and the Swans fighting it out to get owned by the Saints next week. Bring back the final five and better finals and you'll bring back the crowds.

regards,

REB

whufc wrote:Just something i have thought about since another thread popped up.

Would the AFL draw be one of the most uneven sporting competitions in major sporting leagues around the world.

The AFL is almost solely to maximise crowd attendances. For a team like Collingwood getting to play Essendon and Carlton twice every year can either be a massive advantage or disavantage.

Add to this some teams can almost play 3/4 of there season at their HOME ground.

Nearly all football competitions throughout Europe are played on a home and away basis whether you play each team twice or four times depending on the number of teams in the comp.

All major national cricket competition in Aus and Eng also run on the home and away format except for T20 but once again that is there soley to get people through the doors.

Is the AFL draw a blight on the competiton with some teams having easier draws than others and so forth?

Just a question- Is the AFL a fair competition.

Yes they do play them at home but it is hard to consider it a real home game. For example when a Melbourne club comes to Adelaide it it a true home game because the other team is playing on an unfamiliar oval, has to travel and the home team has the majority of the crowd. But when a Melbourne team plays another Melbourne team at their home ground is it a real home game. Both tams are familiar with the ground, neither team has to travel and the crowd is about 50/50. I know the draw is not fair but until they play enough games for each team to play eachother twice it will always be, but the argument about home games is flawed because the Interstate home games are more like home games compared to Melbourne teams.

BB08, that's far too rational for the SA parochialists

At the end of the day Geelong play more games away from their city than any othe team in the AFL and they're not doing too bad recently.

BluesBrother08 wrote:

whufc wrote:Just something i have thought about since another thread popped up.

Would the AFL draw be one of the most uneven sporting competitions in major sporting leagues around the world.

The AFL is almost solely to maximise crowd attendances. For a team like Collingwood getting to play Essendon and Carlton twice every year can either be a massive advantage or disavantage.

Add to this some teams can almost play 3/4 of there season at their HOME ground.

Nearly all football competitions throughout Europe are played on a home and away basis whether you play each team twice or four times depending on the number of teams in the comp.

All major national cricket competition in Aus and Eng also run on the home and away format except for T20 but once again that is there soley to get people through the doors.

Is the AFL draw a blight on the competiton with some teams having easier draws than others and so forth?

Just a question- Is the AFL a fair competition.

Yes they do play them at home but it is hard to consider it a real home game. For example when a Melbourne club comes to Adelaide it it a true home game because the other team is playing on an unfamiliar oval, has to travel and the home team has the majority of the crowd. But when a Melbourne team plays another Melbourne team at their home ground is it a real home game. Both tams are familiar with the ground, neither team has to travel and the crowd is about 50/50. I know the draw is not fair but until they play enough games for each team to play eachother twice it will always be, but the argument about home games is flawed because the Interstate home games are more like home games compared to Melbourne teams.

That's right. And I believe to even it up more, all games featuring two Victorian teams should be played interstate.

BluesBrother08 wrote:

whufc wrote:Add to this some teams can almost play 3/4 of there season at their HOME ground.

Yes they do play them at home but it is hard to consider it a real home game. For example when a Melbourne club comes to Adelaide it it a true home game because the other team is playing on an unfamiliar oval, has to travel and the home team has the majority of the crowd. But when a Melbourne team plays another Melbourne team at their home ground is it a real home game. Both tams are familiar with the ground, neither team has to travel and the crowd is about 50/50. I know the draw is not fair but until they play enough games for each team to play eachother twice it will always be, but the argument about home games is flawed because the Interstate home games are more like home games compared to Melbourne teams.

While their home games might not give them the same advantage, their "away" games are few and far between. These days home ground advantage (IMO) is loosing its benefit in terms of knowing the grounds, winds etc, and is more about not travelling. Playing the next round off of a reduced week due to time lost on planes etc.

It's definitely not fair and has virtually no integrity.
Every team in the league is playing a different set of games. How they pass it off as being acceptable is amazing.

It would be much better if every team played each other just once. It wouldn't be perfect as you wouldn't get a home and an away game for every team but it'd make for a much more level playing field than we currently have.

In English soccer the draw is done completely at random without any interference. There's no doctoring of the draw to set blockbuster games for certain dates.

Wedgie wrote:At the end of the day Geelong play more games away from their city than any othe team in the AFL and they're not doing too bad recently.

You're right and they don't even get the luxury of a home final.

westozfalcon wrote:It's definitely not fair and has virtually no integrity.
Every team in the league is playing a different set of games. How they pass it off as being acceptable is amazing.

*applause*

It's mainly about the $$$$$$$$$$

Nothing fair about a draw that guarantees that some teams will always meet twice (port/adel, wce/frem, coll/carl etc)

Geelong does not play the likes of Coll and Ess at Kardinia Park anymore, the same small handful of clubs get fixtured to play in Tassie etc. A lot of little inconsistencies like these.

saintal wrote:It's mainly about the $$$$$$$$$$

Correction. It's ALL about $$$$$$$$$$$. That's all the AFL is interested in. It ceased being a legitimate sporting competition years ago.