Play Nice Geelong home final at GHMBA Stadium, is this an unfair advantage?

[mcgarnacle]

The point is that finals in this competition have always been played at neutral grounds. Always - dating back to 1897.

Premier league is a different sport in a different league. Even then, the FA cup is played at Wembley even though that is close to Chelsea than Manchester.

Pushing Melbourne teams out of their regular season home grounds and onto neutral venue is a separate matter. It’s an unfair disadvantage for the Victorian teams but fixed some of the other problems (namely that very few suburban grounds were suitable and the AFL and state government weren’t paying for 9 stadium upgrades, which led to teams being Carlton tenants, etc).

Honestly, if we are looking at inequities in the comp that’s where we should be looking - the regular season issues that routinely lead to Victorian teams clogging the bottom 4

finals aren’t in neutral venues now. Interstate teams host home finals. They’re hosting finals at their actual home grounds even when there are larger venues available - exhibit A: Giants. I’m 100% certain it would be same for GC. So how about some ****ing consistency and apply it across the board?

Geelong: 11 home games at KP and home finals. That’s consistent with what is going on with teams nationally. Like wise for the Docklands clubs.

Re: Melbourne clubs mortgage at bottom of ladder, 9 clubs in Melbourne is too many. St Kilda are being propped up as much as GC according to Gil

 

[AuntyBlindEye]

Thank god we aren't playing the cats first week. I could take the whinging leading up to the match.

Can't we all just be happy our teams made finals?

 

[_jrtp09_]

This topic again. Still does my head in. I'll have another go at it.

Geelong are the only non travelling Victorian club in the league that have a home ground. Every year they get 2 or 3 genuine home games more than the likes of Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon.

They get the advantage during the home and away and forfeit that advantage during finals.

If they are unhappy with this situation become a bloody MCG tenant and allow Collingwood to build a unique stadium where they can lockout fans during the year and train. Geelong can be one of 7 other teams in the MCG.

Geelong fans still sooking and wanting their cake and eating it.

You get your advantage during the year. Take even 1 win off your record and you finish 4th this year and 2017 and don't gets home final anyway

Greedy greedy gooses down at Geelong.its pathetic.

Go pies!!

Quoted for truth. Would the Cats even qualify to play Finals if not for the home ground advantage during the regular season? Looking at their away record I’d say there’s some doubt.

And I laugh at the suggestion that the MCG is Richmond’s “home ground”. Our home ground is Punt Road, it’s where we’ve trained since day dot. Same applies to the other tenants who lost their home ground advantage when they started playing their home games at the ‘G.

The Cats have turned into a bunch of whinging, revisionist handbaggers. Who love to have a sook. Bunch of pussies.

 

[frggr]

Thank god we aren't playing the cats first week. I could take the whinging leading up to the match.

Can't we all just be happy our teams made finals?

Nah, the Cats make finals most years. It's expected these days. Now they're on a crusade to bring integrity to the competition.

 

[frggr]

Quoted for truth. Would the Cats even qualify to play Finals if not for the home ground advantage during the regular season? Looking at their away record I’d say there’s some doubt.

And I laugh at the suggestion that the MCG is Richmond’s “home ground”. Our home ground is Punt Road, it’s where we’ve trained since day dot. Same applies to the other tenants who lost their home ground advantage when they started playing their home games at the ‘G.

The Cats have turned into a bunch of whinging, revisionist handbaggers. Who love to have a sook. Bunch of pussies.

Geelong's Away Record, 2019:

7 wins (7 points Collingwood, 4 goals Adelaide, 4 goals Hawthorn, 4 goals North, 27 points Gold Coast, 11 goals Richmond, 27 points Sydney)
4 losses (1 point Lions, 5 goals Freo, 16 points Dogs, 11 points Power)

 

[DickieKnee]

Even more would miss out of they played at the Gabba or SCG.

Yer but expansion.

 

[_jrtp09_]

Geelong's Away Record, 2019:

7 wins (7 points Collingwood, 4 goals Adelaide, 4 goals Hawthorn, 4 goals North, 27 points Gold Coast, 11 goals Richmond, 27 points Sydney)
4 losses (1 point Lions, 5 goals Freo, 16 points Dogs, 11 points Power)

Four of the 7 wins were against bottom 8 teams.

Pussies.

 

[Isntrue]

How is gellong allowed the unfair advantage of playing on the g the ground where the gf is played this club is absolutely spoon feed

 

[hawks787]

Geelong will get what they earned which is 2 finals in Victoria and the double chance.
I fail to understand all the discussion, they can't win coming off a bye anyway.
Rinse, repeat, copy and paste this thread for next year.

 

[ChappyUK]

Geelong will get what they earned which is 2 finals in Victoria and the double chance.
I fail to understand all the discussion, they can't win coming off a bye anyway.
Rinse, repeat, copy and paste this thread for next year.

 

[frggr]

Four of the 7 wins were against bottom 8 teams.

Pussies.

You should look into Richmond's true away record, then

4 true away wins, all against bottom 10 sides.

Giants - lost by 50
Power - won by 7*
Dogs - lost by 47
Freo - won by 25*
Roos - lost by 37*
Crows - lost by 33*
Saints - won by 33*
Suns - won by 92*


*Bottom 10

 

[hawks787]

Not sure what it has to do with hawthorn.

 

[MVille Swan]

It's official folks. There is no advantage to the MCG tenant teams when they play finals at the MCG.
None whatsoever. But strangely West Coast are advantaged by playing finals at Optus, and Geelong
would be advantaged by playing finals in Geelong.

 

[btdg]

Quoted for truth. Would the Cats even qualify to play Finals if not for the home ground advantage during the regular season? Looking at their away record I’d say there’s some doubt.

And I laugh at the suggestion that the MCG is Richmond’s “home ground”. Our home ground is Punt Road, it’s where we’ve trained since day dot. Same applies to the other tenants who lost their home ground advantage when they started playing their home games at the ‘G.

The Cats have turned into a bunch of whinging, revisionist handbaggers. Who love to have a sook. Bunch of pussies.

Geelong in 2019:

Home Games: 8-1
Neutral Venue games (MCG and Docklands): 5-2
Away Games: 3-3

As a Comparison, Richmond in 2019:
Home Games (games in Melbourne vs Interstate): 5-0
Neutral Venue Games (MCG/Docklands vs Melbourne teams): 8-4
Away games: 3-2

My takeaway from this is that both Richmond and Geelong were pretty similar. They won basically all their games with home ground advantage, won about 2/3 of neutral venue games, and about half their away games.

Geelong have a big advantage in terms of the number of home games they play. The excess of home compared to away (ie; 9 home and 6 away) for Geelong equated to 1.5 wins bonus. They still would have been a finals team without it, but this year that would have dropped them to 5th. Instead, they finished first

Richmond also have an a slight advantage in that they travel less than most teams. This year they also had fewer 'home' games - instead having a large number of neutral games. At least playing the same number of home and away is 'fair'.

 

[ChappyUK]

Not sure what it has to do with hawthorn.

View attachment 734928

The game against Hawthorn was after a bye so we obviously can win after a bye.

 

[winty]

They make a killing because they have a very very very generous tax payer funded stadium and stadium deal, without which they would be broke. If other clubs had such a subsidised deal they wouldn't have to sell home games or invest in pokies.

Says the supporter whose team paid the princely sum of $1 for Waverley....

 

[mcgarnacle]

Quoted for truth. Would the Cats even qualify to play Finals if not for the home ground advantage during the regular season? Looking at their away record I’d say there’s some doubt.

And I laugh at the suggestion that the MCG is Richmond’s “home ground”. Our home ground is Punt Road, it’s where we’ve trained since day dot. Same applies to the other tenants who lost their home ground advantage when they started playing their home games at the ‘G.

The Cats have turned into a bunch of whinging, revisionist handbaggers. Who love to have a sook. Bunch of pussies.

Where do Richmond play home games?

 

[hawks787]

The game against Hawthorn was after a bye so we obviously can win after a bye.

Are you going to include the other results or just what suits?
Record after the bye
Finals record
Hardly inspires confidence.

 

[mcgarnacle]

The AFL introduced home state finals because it wasn't fair for them to fly to Melbourne every week in September. The low iq twitter/facebook plebs of the footy world who yell baaalllll every 10 seconds and think dropping the ball is a free erroneously assumed this meant you get home ground finals, you don't . Eagles get lucky because their home ground happens to be the AFL's finals venue in that state. Collingwood likewise get lucky.

Shit!! Does this mean the Swans will be playing their home state finals at the Showgrounds? It seems to be the home finals venue in NSW

 

[winty]

Are you going to include the other results or just what suits?
Record after the bye
Finals record
Hardly inspires confidence.

You said we can't win after the bye. He just provided proof we can.

 

[dlanod]

This debate feels a bit crazy to me.

For the lifetime of the AFL finals were played at neutral venues - predominantly the MCG and VFL park. Geelong have literally only played 1 final at Kardinia Park in their 124 years in the competition and that was in 2013. Similarly,Carlton only ever played 3 finals at Princes Park - during WWIi when the MCG was out of commission. Collingwood never played a final at Victoria Park

For the lifetime of the competition the principle wasn’t ‘home advantage’ it was neutrality.

This is intriguing. I henceforth propose:

• Finals between WA and Vic teams be played in Adelaide;
• Finals between Qld and Vic teams be played in Sydney;
• Finals between NSW and Vic teams be played in Wagga;
• Finals between SA and Vic teams be played in *checks map* Nhill?

and so on.

 

[Elton Johns Wig]

He answered a question. That is all he has said about it

No, he has banged on about it for ages. It is an agenda for Geelong (not unfairly so) that is pushed, question or not.

Now, I have no issue with Geelong playing home finals. There will be a definite HGA, which is fine, and deserved. But it won't be as big an advantage as they think. Now I'll explain why.

Geelong have the absolute best of both worlds in the regular season.

They travel only as much as other Vic clubs, which is fine.

However, they get the unique "full home ground" interstate style support, mainly due to venue size. Opposing Vic club supporters can basically not get in, it's a 95%+ home ground crowd. The noise of affirmation is definitely a thing, as much for players as for umpires.

This actually gives them a leg up year on year in the race to qualify for finals. An advantage NO OTHER CLUB in the AFL has. None. Nada. Zip.

When they get their 9 games a year, it will be an even bigger advantage. Imagine only travelling 5 times yet getting full HGA?



But here's the thing, whilst the interstate clubs continue to have full crowd bias (unavailable to Vic Metro clubs more often than not), Geelong would lose this in finals (v Vic Clubs), as the ticketing would be 50/50. So, still the unique HGA of the worse shaped ground in the AFL, but lose the baying crowd. It might hurt them more than having extra supporters at a bigger ground, who knows.


So what I do have an issue with, is not if, but when Geelong get all their home games and home finals, is that they will have a completely unfair advantage to EVERY team in the competition.

The inability for Cats fans to see this is absolutely bewildering. Because it will be the biggest unbalanced advantage available. Bar none.

 

[winty]

No, he has banged on about it for ages. It is an agenda for Geelong (not unfairly so) that is pushed, question or not.

Now, I have no issue with Geelong playing home finals. There will be a definite HGA, which is fine, and deserved. But it won't be as big an advantage as they think. Now I'll explain why.

Geelong have the absolute best of both worlds in the regular season.

They travel only as much as other Vic clubs, which is fine.

However, they get the unique "full home ground" interstate style support, mainly due to venue size. Opposing Vic club supporters can basically not get in, it's a 95%+ home ground crowd. The noise of affirmation is definitely a thing, as much for players as for umpires.

This actually gives them a leg up year on year in the race to qualify for finals. An advantage NO OTHER CLUB in the AFL has. None. Nada. Zip.

When they get their 9 games a year, it will be an even bigger advantage. Imagine only travelling 5 times yet getting full HGA?

So just because every Melbourne based club for one reason or another relinquished their traditional home base to play elsewhere Geelong should be forced to suffer?

 

[hawks787]

You said we can't win after the bye. He just provided proof we can.

Correct me if I'm wrong, one win after a season or post season bye since 2012? Sorry wouldn't consider it rock solid proof

 

[Elton Johns Wig]

So just because every Melbourne based club for one reason or another relinquished their traditional home base to play elsewhere Geelong should be forced to suffer?

Actually, if you're going that angle, Melbourne and Richmond have been affected by this. Melbourne, the original tenants of the G, joind by Richmond.

Then our HGA has been diluted as other clubs have left their grounds to push their way in to shared facility.

So thanks for bringing that up.

Also, and this is a serious question, did every team leave voluntarily, or was their pressure from AFL house to centralise? (If people are whining about the shape of KP, they forget about Glenferrie).




And a good deflection. Because you didn't address, centralisation or not, that you would have the single biggest advantage of ANY team in the AFL once the inevitable happens. Even the interstate teams who haven't relinquished their grounds.