Preview 2023 Fixture - hopes, dreams, dreads

[1970crow]

Hopefully we don't get the Ballarat, Geelong, Tasmania, Alice Springs runaround this year.

hoping for ballarat, reckon I'll go this year.

 

[1970crow]

Let me guess...Adelaide is the "closest place" to Darwin, so in AFL logic only makes sense we are there...

Sick of this club having to do the heavy lifting in terms of remote venues.

surely not much different to going to the Gold Coast to play them. And those that live for the 4 points each week would surely prefer playing them at a neutral venue.

 

[Klug]

We have 3 games only in Melbourne.

That is a disgrace.

When I moved to Melbourne in the mid 2000s, we used to get 6-7 Melbourne games a year.

It's very hard to keep your kids as Crows supporters over here, especially when they only have a couple of chances to see them live!

 

[George Kramer]

West Coast had a ton of injuries to key players and have only added quality to their squad at the draft. They also have a great coach. I suspect they were deliberately tanking. Probably not finalists but will not be a spoon contender.

GWS will benefit from a new coach. Cameron lost the players and was just bog average. They still have a good squad so if the new coach can get them in sync they will go well past us with ease

I wouldn’t be so sure of that.

West Coast have lost Kennedy and they’ve still got a bunch of key players who are old and already on the decline. They don’t seem to have much young talent coming through and the new draftees won’t add much next year.

GWS without Cameron will be interesting, but we don’t know if Kingsley can coach. They’ve also lost Hopper and Taranto, 2 big chunks of their midfield.

I think the bottom 4 next year is close to a lock, GWS, West Coast, North and Hawks with GWS the best of the lot.

 

[Samcro24]

We would've requested to kick off Magic Round or whatever it's called.

Granted!

Any other fixture requests then? No? Ok, moving on…

 

[Mr MysteryGuest]

Ballarat, Tasmania, Darwin, & Geelong

The 4 horseman of the fixture apocalypse

 

[Punchy Bassett]

So at what point next year do the stories start about poor crowds in Adelaide? AFL is cooked.

 

[Punchy Bassett]

If I hadn't already renewed I'd be seriously considering getting rid of my ticket for next year.

 

[crow2crow]

Actually a good fixture for this point of a rebuild where you wouldn't say finals are expected. If Nicks and co. have rebuilt in a manner that should hold up long term, they should get through this.

you have zero empathy

nicks cannot survive the season with this draw

 

[huludicidal]

So, with the newly adjusted 23 game (24 round) season we play the following teams twice:

Port
Collingwood
Brisbane
GWS
Gold Coast (away game in Darwin)
West Coast

Home games only against:
Richmond
Freo
Carlton
Saints
North
Sydney

Away games only against:
Hawks (Tassie)
Cats (Kardinia)
Dogs (Ballarat)
Bombers (Marvel)
Dees (MCG)

Timeslots are shit, but so they should be really.

The actual difficulty of the draw itself is about right. We’ve avoided playing both the Cats and Dees twice which is a win as they are still the benchmarks for me. Playing all 3 of Gold Coast (with no game on the Gold Coast), GWS and West Coast twice should result in a few wins as they’re not great.

Pies likely overachieved in 2022. Sando spike anyone?

Home games against North, Carlton (a horrid Adelaide Oval team), St Kilda (minus Max King) and Richmond (a horrid Adelaide Oval team) are good fixtures for us.

We beat the Dogs in Ballarat in 2022. Hawks in Tassie doesn’t look a tough assignment in 2023. Bombers at Marvel is winnable.

We are still the 2nd youngest squad and will be inconsistent.

I have us winning 9-12 games. 10 feels like the right number.

 

[Golumless]

you have zero empathy

nicks cannot survive the season with this draw

Empathy has nothing to do with it, Nicks had 3 years to prime the list and build it to last. This is a good testing ground for our coaches work, and if the fail, it's better now then later.

It's most likely that Nicks just needs to avoid a significant regression this year to survive and this team has shown in the last two years that they're capable of at least repeating a 7-9 win season. After all, a team with a list average of 23.82 years and 53.36 games (and quite likely the 2nd youngest/inexperienced) isn't that serious about winning in the short term.

 

[Redline]

We would've requested to kick off Magic Round or whatever it's called.

We kind of had to. No point having us as part of a double header and they wanted a good crowd on the Thursday night.

 

[Scorpus]

I wouldn’t be so sure of that.

West Coast have lost Kennedy and they’ve still got a bunch of key players who are old and already on the decline. They don’t seem to have much young talent coming through and the new draftees won’t add much next year.

GWS without Cameron will be interesting, but we don’t know if Kingsley can coach. They’ve also lost Hopper and Taranto, 2 big chunks of their midfield.

I think the bottom 4 next year is close to a lock, GWS, West Coast, North and Hawks with GWS the best of the lot.

If I'm benchmarking West Coast and GWS against us I think both should finish above us based on their fully fit squad

Excluding 30 year olds West Coast still have Sheed (1 game 2022), Yeo (5 games 2022), Allen (0 games 2022), Kelly, Barrass, Ryan. They just added an elite looking midfielder in the top 10 of the draft (which we haven't managed), last year's first hasn't played yet - and then complementing that are some senior guys who may or may not be done (Darling, Gaff, Shuey, Naitanui, McGovern) and reasonable role players (Duggan, Hunt, Witherden, Cripps)

Provided all these guys can get on the park they have a reasonable side. Not a finalist side, but I think there's enough there to finish outside the bottom 4. With that said guys like Yeo have barely gotten on the park in recent years.

GWS have Greene, Kelly, Coniglio, Whitfield, Himmelberg, Perryman, Taylor, Ash, Green, Haynes, Hogan - plus a bunch of elite talent coming through like Callaghan, Cadman and all their other ridiculous numbers of top picks.

The core of the GWS side if they get on the park and are coached to a reasonable level is better than our core. A midfield of Coniglio, Kelly and Green alone is better than our starting 3 mids easily.

I think the bottom 4 will be North, Hawthorn, Essendon and a big slider like a St Kilda type

 

[radiojake]

2 MCG and 1 Docklands

Geelong and Ballarat have never been included in Vic Membership - I really don't see the point of there being a Vic Membership these days

 

[Southerntakeover]

Nicks should be sacked before the break, can't see an obvious win before like week 13.

 

[Southerntakeover]

And obviously I'm not suggesting we will lose them all, but I can't see a good argument that we should be favourites in a lot.

If GWS's midfield does what it has to us the last two times on opening week, could get ugly.

 

[jenny61_99]

That is a disgrace.

When I moved to Melbourne in the mid 2000s, we used to get 6-7 Melbourne games a year.

It's very hard to keep your kids as Crows supporters over here, especially when they only have a couple of chances to see them live!

We get one game if we’re lucky in Brisbane. Mines still a hard core crows fan!

 

[jenny61_99]

2 MCG and 1 Docklands

Geelong and Ballarat have never been included in Vic Membership - I really don't see the point of there being a Vic Membership these days

I bought my kid a vic membership… he uses it to go to other games as well.

 

[FR0GGY]

That is a disgrace.

When I moved to Melbourne in the mid 2000s, we used to get 6-7 Melbourne games a year.

It's very hard to keep your kids as Crows supporters over here, especially when they only have a couple of chances to see them live!

There’s 2 non Vic teams added since then, that’s 2-4 games that can be taken away.

 

[pjcrows]

There’s 2 non Vic teams added since then, that’s 2-4 games that can be taken away.

The issue is we play Bulldogs in Ballarat and Hawthorn in Tasmania. Throw in St Kilda in Cairns, North in Tasmania and Melbourne in NT over recent years.

 

[radiojake]

There’s 2 non Vic teams added since then, that’s 2-4 games that can be taken away.

i think it's more the bullshit Tasmania / Alice Springs / Ballarat stuff

though finally playing Melbourne in Melbourne for only 2nd time in 9 years (not counting the covid clash )

 

[LittleCrowBoy]

Good to see Richmond have plenty of time to prepare for their round 2 game against Adelaide at AO.
They play Thursday....we play away on the Sunday.
Couldnt push the round 1 games further appart if you tried.
VFL

 

[FR0GGY]

The issue is we play Bulldogs in Ballarat and Hawthorn in Tasmania. Throw in St Kilda in Cairns, North in Tasmania and Melbourne in NT over recent years.

i think it's more the bullshit Tasmania / Alice Springs / Ballarat stuff

though finally playing Melbourne in Melbourne for only 2nd time in 9 years (not counting the covid clash )

There’s also that

 

[1970crow]

The issue is we play Bulldogs in Ballarat and Hawthorn in Tasmania. Throw in St Kilda in Cairns, North in Tasmania and Melbourne in NT over recent years.

i don't think there's much to complain about when our opponent sells a home game to play at a non-traditional venue. But we shouldn't be playing at second homes like Tassie and Ballarat. Those games should be for other VIC sides.

 

[Tex Danger]

We would've requested to kick off Magic Round or whatever it's called.

Stupid if so

It’s just another round and it 100% made sense to have us and port do the thurs and Fri (though they didn’t do that)

All other AO games should have been non SA team double headers where your ticket gives access to both (none of them will be half full so why not try get a near full stadium out of both games combined SANFL finals style)