Analysis 2020 Fixture - Thoughts and guesses

[luthor]

What a joke 4 games in Melbourne. We're supposed to be getting 6 a year. The AFL is run by a bunch of muppets

A real slap in the face for our loyal Melbourne based fans.

I fully empathise with your anger.

 

[Tom14]

On the whole I'm pretty happy - the double ups could have been much worse, we got four primetime games all against big Victorian opposition (if you want to stretch the definition and include Melbourne), and yeah travelling to Hobart and Canberra may not be ideal for the club but it gives me an excuse to travel to Tassie and visit friends in Canberra so I'm not complaining.

4 games in Melbourne and 1 in Geelong sucks though. The continued issue failure to support the merger agreement is awful - I think we've got 6 games in Melbourne once in the last 5-6 seasons.

 

[Dylan12]

This is a pretty phenomenal fixture for us. I think we only have three Sunday fixtures all up for the entire year, and only one of those at home. That's only three times having to deal with the extended bench.

Seems to be a heap more away games on Saturday night, a chance to go to Canberra and Hobart, and of course the two Thursday and two Friday night games at the Gabba against Richmond, Collingwood, Melbourne and Hawthorn.

It's much, much better than I'd imagined the AFL would give us. How exciting.

Yep so exciting that Melbourne fans are royally screwed. 4 whole games in Melbourne when the merger agreement provided for six. And Swann labels it a fantastic draw for the club. No doubt the club will be charging the same amount for Vic memberships.

Worst result for Melbourne fans in 24 seasons of footy. Well done Swann. I look forward to the drivel, if any, the club will spout to its Vic membership base. Lions_Insider, the club has a lot to be proud about. Don’t mind the sarcasm.

 

[Dalions]

Great little stretch of prime games here all in a row. Rounds 14-17

 

[dlanod]

Yep so exciting that Melbourne fans are royally screwed. 4 whole games in Melbourne when the merger agreement provided for six. And Swann labels it a fantastic draw for the club. No doubt the club will be charging the same amount for Vic memberships.

Worst result for Melbourne fans in 24 seasons of footy. Well done Swann. I look forward to the drivel, if any, the club will spout to its Vic membership base. Lions_Insider, the club has a lot to be proud about. Don’t mind the sarcasm.

Only four in 2013, so equal worst at least. Open for debate whether being able to see our games on FTA trumps that year's Fox-hell.

 

[Maroon Monsoon]

So home games:
Collingwood
Essendon
Hawks
North
Sydney
Melbourne
Richmond
Geelong
Gold coast
Saints
Dogs

Pretty disappointed Sydney and Melbourne will be up again and we miss out on seeing freo but it's pretty good to see the number of top teams we'll be playing at the gabba

 

[luthor]

Hello top 4

I'm not celebrating yet.

Our away fixtures in particular, include a few tricky and downright difficult assignments.

Two trips to Adelaide, one each to Geelong, Tasmania and Canbera and you would be hard pressed treating our two MCG games as gimmies.

We'll do well to finish top 4 again

 

[Harris Specter]

So home games:
Collingwood
Essendon
Hawks
North
Sydney
Melbourne
Richmond
Geelong
Gold coast
Saints
Dogs

Pretty disappointed Sydney and Melbourne will be up again and we miss out on seeing freo but it's pretty good to see the number of top teams we'll be playing at the gabba

Been a while since Essendon and St Kilda have been up at the Gabba.

 

[jackess]

I'm not celebrating yet.

Our away fixtures in particular, include a few tricky and downright difficult assignments.

Two trips to Adelaide, one each to Geelong, Tasmania and Canbera and you would be hard pressed treating our two MCG games as gimmies.

We'll do well to finish top 4 again

The Adelaide teams are rubbish and we play well in Tassie. Should enter the season with high expectations.

 

[Cooties]

I can understand the frustration of the Melbourne supporters but man it's good to be back in some prime time high profile games after 10 years of the Sunday twilight dumping ground. Excited for next year already

 

[luthor]

Yep so exciting that Melbourne fans are royally screwed. 4 whole games in Melbourne when the merger agreement provided for six. And Swann labels it a fantastic draw for the club. No doubt the club will be charging the same amount for Vic memberships.

Worst result for Melbourne fans in 24 seasons of footy. Well done Swann. I look forward to the drivel, if any, the club will spout to its Vic membership base. Lions_Insider, the club has a lot to be proud about. Don’t mind the sarcasm.

I get your angst Dyl but directing at Swann is wide of the mark I think.

Swann , as spokesperson for the club is on a hiding to nothing.

Any criticism of the AFL, no matter how mild or indirect never ends well for the club in question.

I remember us copping a draw from hell one season when Angoose didn't do as he was told by the AFL.

Politics you know.

 

[chopperduck]

Great fixture for the club, lots of FTA games and big block buster games. Unfortunately not as many games in Melb as we should have. It is awkward though, because of the teams we are playing. Geelong at home deserve the right to host at the ground, North in Tassie is good, but really is the only possible missed Melb game. Our other away games have us in SA twice, WA once and Canberra.

The fixture is never perfect because it is based off an imperfect model where teams and certain games are given priority.

 

[Maroon Monsoon]

The Adelaide teams are rubbish and we play well in Tassie. Should enter the season with high expectations.

Worried about the late season Canberra game though. If it snows on boys used to Queensland weather we could have a number of frostbite related amputations on our hands, and that would really put a damper on the season

 

[FFB1]

Ah well at least the VIC memberships will be cheaper..

A lovely 9 week break between rounds 7 (in Geelong, mind) and round 16 for us to see the boys in Melbourne.

 

[Harris Specter]

Looking forward to seeing Essendon implode on the national stage

 

[Maroon Monsoon]

Good end to the season for us, we don't leave seq for the last 3 weeks. Should mean we're fresh come finals time

 

[KissKiss]

Interesting our Vic based membership prices for next year.

Looking like I will only be able to get to three games next year. Will probably question whether I drop my membership down

Aside from my selfish circumstances, its not a bad draw. Good commercial opportunities, Double ups are decent. Only a couple of Sunday games late in the season.

Two trips to Adelaide is not great though (better than two to Perth) along with Hobart and Geelong

 

[youtwo]

Terrible draw for Victorian fans.

 

[Redfox12]

16. Brions (tougher fixture will catch them out, over achievers)


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[jackess]

The entitlement of Vic fans never gets old

 

[dlanod]

Double ups with
Gold coast
Hawthorn
North
Collingwood
Geelong

Can't really complain with that I recon.

So two of four Melbourne games are our double ups, which means only playing two Melbourne-based clubs as an away game. We forego the Hawks sell-off and get the Roos instead.

I guess that's what it boils down to - the club wants big clubs at the Gabba, which makes sense because they're the ones that pull the crowds. The big clubs are basically invariably Victorian, given West Coast fans don't travel that much.

As a result every time we get a big club up at Brisbane without doubling up against them is effectively taking a game away from Victorian supporters, e.g. Richmond, Bombers. I get that's not worth it from a personal perspective for most Victorian supporters but at least consider what the club would be trading off.

And yes, I'm aware we're also getting Melbourne and the Saints in Brisbane, just as I am also sure the club nominated six games in Melbourne to the AFL and were promptly ignored as per every other year (though somehow GWS got seven. Go figure).

 

[Dylan12]

I get your angst Dyl but directing at Swann is wide of the mark I think.

Swann , as spokesperson for the club is on a hiding to nothing.

Any criticism of the AFL, no matter how mild or indirect never ends well for the club in question.

I remember us copping a draw from hell one season when Angoose didn't do as he was told by the AFL.

Politics you know.

That's BS. Lets look at how many Victorian games the other non-Victorian teams play in Victoria, remembering none of them have merger agreements stipulating that they should play 6 games in Victoria and Melbourne preferably:

8 - GWS (includes one in Geelong)
6 - Sydney (all Melbourne)
6 - West Coast (includes one in Geelong)
5 - Adelaide (includes one in Geelong)
5 - Port Adelaide (includes one in Ballarat)
5 - Brisbane (includes one in Geelong)
5 - Gold Coast (includes one in Geelong and one in Ballarat)
4 - Fremantle

We have NEVER had 8 games in Victoria, yet GWS, without any affiliation to Melbourne get 8. Hell, Sydney get 6 games in Melbourne alone.

I'm sorry, but 4 games in Melbourne is just NOT good enough and the club MUST issue a statement on this farce.

As for Swann, he regularly pisses on anything to do with the Lions Melbourne connection and the fact he said nothing, again, speaks volumes, particularly when he had the opportunity to do so. Yep, so fantastic Swann / Lions_Insider.

 

[BRAB]

Must get tiring every year melting about the exact same thing.

 

[Ironmonger]

I would have liked one or two more games at the MCG, to be honest. We really need big time exposure, and having four of our eleven away games at smaller venues in Blundstone, Manuka, Kardinia Park and Carrara isn't great.

Our double ups could be anything, really. Collingwood we expect to be strong again. Gold Coast are likely wooden spooners. But North could be anywhere from 8th to 17th, it wouldn't shock me if Hawthorn returned to the top four, nor if Geelong tumbled well out of it.

Great to get that Easter Thursday game again, although I really don't like that we travel back from Adelaide on a five day break for it. At least this time Collingwood also have the five day break to deal with.

In some of our recent years we've had indifferent pre-seasons and started the year slowly. Hopefully 2019 was the permanent break to that trend, because the first few rounds of our fixture are so important. Hawthorn might have been our bunnies the last two years, but Clarkson is a smart guy and has plenty of time to prepare for us. North at home was a challenge for us last year, and Adelaide away, Collingwood at home, and the Dogs away are all close to 50-50s. We could be 4-1 or 1-4 by late April.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Might be nice to blame the people actually creating the draw for a change.