On The Road vs H&A - do we have it wrong?

[daniel_4tw]

With Pies set to fly directly from SA to QLD it got me thinking… do we have the Home / Away regular rotation wrong?

Would it make more sense instead to do the fixture where teams are ‘on the road’ for periods and then get a block of home games for a period?

For example, for the teams that travel to WA twice per year… would it be better to player West Coast in WA one week then Fremantle in WA next week, and stay and train in WA.

For the west teams that travel a lot, why not spend a month in Victoria and play 4 away games against Melbourne based sides, then get a month back in WA? Surely that is better than flying 8 hours ever second weekend.

This is how a lot of American sports do their fixture as players go on the road for periods.

It will likely impact interstate clubs more than Vic clubs but could be a way to lessen the travel burden.

 

[deck]

This is how a lot of American sports do their fixture as players go on the road for periods.

You appear to be confusing sports like Baseball and Basketball where they play everyday or every 2nd day. So you will get maybe up to 14 days at home and similar on the road.

The NFL do it with the west coast teams usually once a year playing back to back games on the east coast where teams stay out there for the 2 games.

 

[daniel_4tw]

You appear to be confusing sports like Baseball and Basketball where they play everyday or every 2nd day. So you will get maybe up to 14 days at home and similar on the road.

The NFL do it with the west coast teams usually once a year playing back to back games on the east coast where teams stay out there for the 2 games.

Ok point taken I see NBA the longest ‘road trip’ this season was 2 weeks.

So maybe 1 month is too long… but having AFL regularly schedule a 5-6 day break and playing 2 games in one state could be a good compromise.

Fremantle Round 6 - 9
Round 6: MCG
Round 7: Optus
Round 8: Marvel
Round 9: Optus

Wouldn’t swapping round 7-8 be better from an Freo perspective and just have Fremantle stay and train in Melbourne. If they did a Saturday game and Friday game it is only 6 days away and could be as short as 5 days.

Obviously the entire fixture needs to be redone.

 

[powerrrrrrrrrrrr]

Players have families and young kids. They shouldn’t have to pack up for weeks at a time and live interstate just because they play for a WA team etc.

This would only incentivise more players to head back to Vic so they can be home with their family.

 

[hawkman]

Players have families and young kids. They shouldn’t have to pack up for weeks at a time and live interstate just because they play for a WA team etc.

This would only incentivise more players to head back to Vic so they can be home with their family.

You could make every team do it once a year. Victorian clubs do a Qld or WA double

 

[Clark G]

Playing consecutive games away without returning home actually became a bit of a thing during the pandemic affected years but it has not been something that has carried forward (unlike say the rolling fixture for the later rounds).