Forest St End
Club Legend
- Feb 3, 2022
- 1,246
- 1,467
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
I agree with your thoughts AlburyE in the past the QEO was unquestionably the place for finals footy.
It was the big stage for the big league where the big boys shined. As that gravitas has diminished over the years due to things like the pathway system, it has exposed some issues.
The biggest problem is the QEO has the soul of a vampire and the atmosphere of the moon. If you don’t get a good crowd in there, then it’s dead.
Over the years as the diversity of teams in finals has diminished we’ve lost those partisan crowds, especially the country clubs who are the best followings.
When you get Sandhurst playing Strath or Square you end up with a phone booth full of people invested in the game and a large crowd of bystanders just there to have a look. It just doesn’t make for a real footy crowd, it’s like preliminary final AFL crowd vs Grand Final crowd.
I think you definitely improve the atmosphere by heading to some of the other grounds because the game is closer and the crowd is more packed in but as you say there’s drawbacks with those venues.
Maybe it is worth a go but the other thing is the hub has pushed clubs out of the revenue over the years so unless it goes back to clubs making money why would anyone want to put the work in to host?
What we really need is to get back to having more clubs represented in finals more often.
It was the big stage for the big league where the big boys shined. As that gravitas has diminished over the years due to things like the pathway system, it has exposed some issues.
The biggest problem is the QEO has the soul of a vampire and the atmosphere of the moon. If you don’t get a good crowd in there, then it’s dead.
Over the years as the diversity of teams in finals has diminished we’ve lost those partisan crowds, especially the country clubs who are the best followings.
When you get Sandhurst playing Strath or Square you end up with a phone booth full of people invested in the game and a large crowd of bystanders just there to have a look. It just doesn’t make for a real footy crowd, it’s like preliminary final AFL crowd vs Grand Final crowd.
I think you definitely improve the atmosphere by heading to some of the other grounds because the game is closer and the crowd is more packed in but as you say there’s drawbacks with those venues.
Maybe it is worth a go but the other thing is the hub has pushed clubs out of the revenue over the years so unless it goes back to clubs making money why would anyone want to put the work in to host?
What we really need is to get back to having more clubs represented in finals more often.