Fixture Fixture 2025 discussion

[jwint43]

Scott Pendlebury

10

Scott Pendlebury

Age

36

Ht

191cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

26.5

5star

K

13.2

5star

HB

13.3

5star

M

4.1

4star

T

4.9

5star

CL

4.9

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

12.9

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

2.3

3star

CL

3.6

4star

D

12.4

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

4.8

4star

M

5.8

5star

T

2.6

4star

has never played at the following venues - Kardinia Park, Alice Springs, Cairns, Canberra, Ballarat and Darwin.

I have to laugh at the concept of a "draw" where the same teams get the same massive marquee blockbusters regardless of on field performance, and the best the Saints or Dogs can hope for is more Friday night games.

The AFL don't even try and hide it by making Collingwood play one game in Geelong every 5 years or something. They haven't played there since 1999. For a tax free, not for profit organisation, they seem to be blatantly about one thing - $.

I'm at the point where I am close to checked out because of how blatant the AFL is rigged.

 

[jwikked]

Scott Pendlebury has never played at the following venues - Kardinia Park, Alice Springs, Cairns, Canberra, Ballarat and Darwin.

I have to laugh at the concept of a "draw" where the same teams get the same massive marquee blockbusters regardless of on field performance, and the best the Saints or Dogs can hope for is more Friday night games.

The AFL don't even try and hide it by making Collingwood play one game in Geelong every 5 years or something. They haven't played there since 1999. For a tax free, not for profit organisation, they seem to be blatantly about one thing - $.

I'm at the point where I am close to checked out because of how blatant the AFL is rigged.

Why would Collingwood play at small boutique grounds when their fans actually go to the football and all teams want to maximise that? Not one single team would want to play Collingwood at Ballarat. It makes no sense financially.

If people want St Kilda to stop playing these small venues, more people need to start going to the football. If Marvel gets sold out every week, we'll get more MCG games. Until that happens, the clubs with less fans will get the smaller stadiums.

 

[bergholt]

Because sholitloads of Blues fans go to home games in Victoria?

Yeah but same with Collingwood and Essendon and they’ve played Adelaide Oval much more.

 

[L_W_P]

Why would Collingwood play at small boutique grounds when their fans actually go to the football and all teams want to maximise that? Not one single team would want to play Collingwood at Ballarat. It makes no sense financially.

If people want St Kilda to stop playing these small venues, more people need to start going to the football. If Marvel gets sold out every week, we'll get more MCG games. Until that happens, the clubs with less fans will get the smaller stadiums.

Because the concept of a fair & equal competition still means something to some people.

When it's time for little old Luton Town to host Man City, the EPL don't sit back and say "Well we'd get more people in if we moved this game..."

City get on the bus and head out to the boutique stadium.

If the Dogs play 2 games a year in Ballarat then Collingwood should be out there once every 9-10 years. Same as every other team.

If the Cats are getting 9 games in Geelong then half the comp can play there each year.

There's no excuse outside of maximizing profit which, for a non profit organization, is a strange metric to build on...

 

[L_W_P]

That will happen because of gather round

But it's easily avoided: Just don't have any of the Gather round games as double ups.

Keep them as a true neutral game. That way there's no fixture advantages one way or the other.

 

[_Maximus_12]

Worth $50 on us to make top 4 in 2026 because the afl are going to have to give us the easiest fixture of all time with this balls up in 2025

 

[The Punter]

Because the concept of a fair & equal competition still means something to some people.

When it's time for little old Luton Town to host Man City, the EPL don't sit back and say "Well we'd get more people in if we moved this game..."

City get on the bus and head out to the boutique stadium.

If the Dogs play 2 games a year in Ballarat then Collingwood should be out there once every 9-10 years. Same as every other team.

If the Cats are getting 9 games in Geelong then half the comp can play there each year.

There's no excuse outside of maximizing profit which, for a non profit organization, is a strange metric to build on...

That's because attendance makes up a greater proportion of revenue in the AFL than the EPL. Premier League tickets are relatively cheap for most games. The money comes from TV revenue, which is why, when Luton Town got promoted, the money they spent to upgrade the stadium wasn't to fit more people in, but to improve the broadcast.

 

[Joffaboy]

Can we please f*** off this idiotic gather round absolute travesty bullshit?

So sick of having to play in a Hick town on a ground not even VFL standard.

I absolutely have nothing but contempt for Kane and Dillon.

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[L_W_P]

That's because attendance makes up a greater proportion of revenue in the AFL than the EPL. Premier League tickets are relatively cheap for most games. The money comes from TV revenue, which is why, when Luton Town got promoted, the money they spent to upgrade the stadium wasn't to fit more people in, but to improve the broadcast.

But the "Attendance > All" logic falls down when you see GWS playing at half a stadium, the Dogs going to Ballarat, Games in Tassie, Darwin, Alice Springs, Norwood & Geelong etc

There's also the cyclical nature of the fixture.

"We don't put certain teams on Friday night because less people will watch, meaning less people will be interested in that team, meaning we don't want them on Friday night..."

The Giants not getting a Thursday or Friday night game but be an awesome sell to their sponsors.

There's scope in the fixture for every team to play a home game on Thursday & Friday night during the year.

There's scope for Collingwood to play in Geelong more than once in 3 decades.

There's scope to ensure things like Gather Round are actually fair and balanced rather than just a gimmick.

But the AFL won't do any of it because they are all about revenue & bonuses, not equality.

If another blockbuster fixture gets planned for you can be certain it will be a combo of Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn, Essendon & Melbourne and it'll be at the MCG.

Because that will draw a crowd and make it a success.

Moving Dreamtime to Friday night is a perfect example of this.

That slot could have been used for a 2nd blockbuster game. I've been advocating a Nicky Winmar tribute between St Kilda & Fremantle.

It was clear air for two more teams to get a leg up.

Instead the AFL shift the big clubs to that spot because it'll improve ratings just that little bit more.

Frustrating AF being stuck on life support and never actually being given a chance to get healthy off field.

The AFL ****ing LOVE keeping the small clubs on the tit. Keeps them compliant.

 

[The Punter]

But the "Attendance > All" logic falls down when you see GWS playing at half a stadium, the Dogs going to Ballarat, Games in Tassie, Darwin, Alice Springs, Norwood & Geelong etc

There's also the cyclical nature of the fixture.

"We don't put certain teams on Friday night because less people will watch, meaning less people will be interested in that team, meaning we don't want them on Friday night..."

The Giants not getting a Thursday or Friday night game but be an awesome sell to their sponsors.

There's scope in the fixture for every team to play a home game on Thursday & Friday night during the year.

There's scope for Collingwood to play in Geelong more than once in 3 decades.

There's scope to ensure things like Gather Round are actually fair and balanced rather than just a gimmick.

But the AFL won't do any of it because they are all about revenue & bonuses, not equality.

If another blockbuster fixture gets planned for you can be certain it will be a combo of Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn, Essendon & Melbourne and it'll be at the MCG.

Because that will draw a crowd and make it a success.

Moving Dreamtime to Friday night is a perfect example of this.

That slot could have been used for a 2nd blockbuster game. I've been advocating a Nicky Winmar tribute between St Kilda & Fremantle.

It was clear air for two more teams to get a leg up.

Instead the AFL shift the big clubs to that spot because it'll improve ratings just that little bit more.

Frustrating AF being stuck on life support and never actually being given a chance to get healthy off field.

The AFL ****ing LOVE keeping the small clubs on the tit. Keeps them compliant.

Two things we can do as a club:

1. What Bassatt is doing calling the league out
2. Fans need to turn up to games regardless of opponent or timeslot

 

[Sainttony]

Two things we can do as a club:

1. What Bassatt is doing calling the league out
2. Fans need to turn up to games regardless of opponent or timeslot

The only way to get a fairer draw is just that get more people to our games and have them watch on TV. More the latter really as that is where more of the AFL revenue comes from. It is difficult to break through the barriers put up by the fixture, i.e sunday timeslots, travel etc, and it takes years to develop to the point where you are considered a 'big club'. Hawthorn took 20 years from 70s to 90s. How did they do it by being ridiculously successful during that period and attracting a whole generation of followers (including Josh Battle).

Also in this period, Hawthorn were ruthless in their lobbying to the AFL (VFL) and this is why they got better recruiting zones (the peninsula FFS), AFL park for $1, and access to some of the best players.

So The Punter is correct we have to keep calling out poor decisions by the AFL, lobby like crazy to get better deals and turn up to the games or watch on TV, buy memberships.

Having said all of that , the main thing is to be successful on field as that brings more attention than anything else.

 

[mighty_sainters]

I actually didn’t think the fixture was horrible at first glance.

If you can start the season 2 wins from 3, anything is possible. It’s not worth being this caught up about it 5 months prior to the first game.

 

[beside the seaside]

Just looking at the fixture again and there's a way that we can make it work well for us....

We need to start winning consistently at Marvel. We have some tricky games there early on, Cats, Lions, Dogs. If we can start winning those games then we'll be a finals side.

 

[snails13]

Dogs twice, Geelong twice, Freo twice, Giants twice. Tough going.

Yes it is.
Carlton who played finals get gifted four wins with 2 v NM and 2 v WC.
F..... Joke

 

[Saintbloke]

Can we please f*** off this idiotic gather round absolute travesty bullshit?

So sick of having to play in a Hick town on a ground not even VFL standard.

I absolutely have nothing but contempt for Kane and Dillon.

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

A good team will do well anywhere, and if we need to use grounds as an excuse for not winning, then we have a lot of work to do

 

[L_W_P]

For all my frustration it could be worse.

We could be the "new" Gold Coast Suns

 

[snails13]

This rigged AFL competition needs to get to a 22 team competition as soon as possible.
Play each other once with 21 rounds.

 

[The Punter]

This rigged AFL competition needs to get to a 22 team competition as soon as possible.
Play each other once with 21 rounds.

From a fairness point of view, 20 teams would be fine.

You have one designated "rival" who you play twice. Then every nine years, you play one other pair of rivals twice, one home and one away. That evens up the travel too.

But Gather Round stuffs that up. I think some work towards avoiding long periods without playing a team in a certain situation would be an improvement.

St Kilda's last home (Melbourne) game against each club (teams we host in 2025 in bold):

2024: Brisbane, Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, Sydney, West Coast, Western Bulldogs
2023: Carlton, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond
2022:
2021:
2020:
2019: Adelaide
2018: Greater Western Sydney

Two stark outliers there.

 

[L_W_P]

20 teams
19 games
9 home
9 away
1 Gather Round

You wanna sell a home game to Cairns/Tassie/WA/Ballarat? Go for it. Means one less game at home.

Gather Round is all neutral games and rotates each year to balance out. The Friday night game of Gather Round is the Showdown/Derby/Q Clash/Syd Derby (whoever the host city is) to keep those teams from having an extra home game during the year.

Can still play it over 23-24 rounds to give teams a break in the middle of the year. I'd also change it so that teams coming off the bye play each other, rather than the weird situation we keep having with teams playing off 6 day breaks vs others who had a bye.

Plenty can be done when the league expands but they wont.

It'll still be the big Vic clubs dominating FTA coverage, a token trip to GC/Tas, and the smaller Vic Clubs putting up with whatever scraps are left over.

 

[The Punter]

Just on fewer games: that means my membership better cost less. I'm not paying the same amount for less football.

 

[snails13]

From a fairness point of view, 20 teams would be fine.

You have one designated "rival" who you place twice. Then every nine years, you play one other pair of rivals twice, one home and one away. That evens up the travel too.

But Gather Round stuffs that up. I think some work towards avoiding long periods without playing a team in a certain situation would be an improvement.

St Kilda's last home (Melbourne) game against each club (teams we host in 2025 in bold):

2024: Brisbane, Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, Sydney, West Coast, Western Bulldogs
2023: Carlton, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond
2019: Adelaide
2018: Greater Western Sydney

Two stark outliers there.

Don't disagree with that scenario.
AFL can't have 5 extra games with the bigger teams always benefitting

 

[Banger9798]

Yes it is.
Carlton who played finals get gifted four wins with 2 v NM and 2 v WC.
F..... Joke

That's just dodgy as f...

 

[pebblesofsand]

I actually didn’t think the fixture was horrible at first glance.

If you can start the season 2 wins from 3, anything is possible. It’s not worth being this caught up about it 5 months prior to the first game.

Sometimes the best time to meet the better teams is early in the season. They tend to have taken a longer view wrt training loads etc and can be a little more vulnerable.

6 to 12 ranked are very keen to start the season well so are usually a bit more advanced fitness wise.