The Grand Final should be hosted at a neutral venue

[i am a logo]

This game was over before it began. Hawthorn gifted the easiest, most unfair national premiership ever thanks to the AFL's stubbornness.

ANZ stadium or Adelaide oval would have been perfectly suitable alternatives. The "hurr durr tradition" argument is BS. The 1991 Grand Final was played at some soulless venue. If the AFL was about tradition then Fitzroy would still be around.

The decision to keep playing the Grand Final at this venue every single year is a blight on the competition

You filthy interstaters should just be thankful you're allowed in our comp.

Okay. St Kilda wouldn't even exist today if not for West Coast / Adelaide

 

[Jobe Watson]

To be fair, this is Victoria's league. You interstaters should be thankful we let you play in it at all.

 

[iBeng]

To be fair, this is Victoria's league. You interstaters should be thankful we let you play in it at all.

And some victorian clubs are lucky they're still in it at all...

 

[Nile]

Are you...Are you feeling OK?

You're an idiot. Stats over the last 10 years may suggest there's no advantage, but if you think that conclusively proves there isn't one, I'm afraid you're the one who isn't feeling ok.

Great idea. Everyone, off the MCG!

In fact, let's convert it to a soccer stadium.

Sorry you're too buttblasted to accept the fact that you, richmond, collingwood and hawthorn have an unfair advantage.

 

[DashinD]

Let's just get a map and find the point the exact distance from Perth Melbourne Adelaide Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Actually better factor Fremantle into it too. Adjust slightly for GWS. Build a 100000 seat stadium, most probably in the middle of the desert.

And then do it all again when Tasmania gets a team.
Easy.

 

[DashinD]

If it's at the mcg and the top side is from interstate, the traveling side should have 70% of the club seating allocation to at least create a home ground atmosphere. When it's 50-50 a lot of the neutral seating gets snapped up by the Victorian side creating a very large home ground advantage

Decent suggestion

 

[sherb]

If you wanted a truly "equal" competition, you would not play the Grand Final at a club's home ground.

That's the problem with people here arguing for "equality", they only want it as long as it suits them.

 

[NathanMX]

Hawks and Weagles played 3 times this year I think, twice at Subiaco, once at the MCG, Hawks won twice, what makes you think a neutral venue would have made the result any different? Pretty sure even if the game had been held at ANZ stadium or even Subi that the same team would have won.

 

[Altum Volantes]

They should hollow out Uluru and build a stadium there. Easy Fix.

 

[sverik25]

I reckon West Coast would have won if it was at Subiaco.

 

[iBeng]

I reckon West Coast would have won if it was at Subiaco.

 

[sverik25]

Not sure why that is so hard to comprehend given the amount of travel Hawthorn would have had to do, the home ground advantage and what happened there in the QF.

 

[NathanMX]

Not sure why that is so hard to comprehend given the amount of travel Hawthorn would have had to do, the home ground advantage and what happened there in the QF.

Nah I reckon todays result would have been inevitable anywhere. Hawks did win at Subi earlier in the season, and they are the big game players. West Coast players still would have been nervous a fair bit and still made mistakes, so not sure the location made much difference.

 

[westie]

The training oval at Seaford is a dimensional replica of the MCG!

 

[STFU Donnie]

Why hasn't anyone argued the other point I made in the OP? If you insist on the romance of having every Grand Final at the MCG, why not force other teams to adopt different home grounds? Similar to Wembley in the UK; biggest stadium by far, hosts every final, but the FA doesn't let anyone use it as a home ground, at least not permanently.

Perhaps they are treating it with the commensurate level of contempt.

 

[EscapeHere]

Wouldn't have mattered where it was if the Eagles played the same. Couldn't hold their nerves - simply no composure. Completely unprepared psychologically.

 

[Testekill]

I reckon West Coast would have won if it was at Subiaco.

Yes, because everyone in the crowd would have been cheering for West Coast and intimidating the umpires

 

[Testekill]

This game was over before it began. Hawthorn gifted the easiest, most unfair national premiership ever thanks to the AFL's stubbornness.

ANZ stadium or Adelaide oval would have been perfectly suitable alternatives. The "hurr durr tradition" argument is BS. The 1991 Grand Final was played at some soulless venue. If the AFL was about tradition then Fitzroy would still be around.

The decision to keep playing the Grand Final at this venue every single year is a blight on the competition

Okay. St Kilda wouldn't even exist today if not for West Coast / Adelaide

No, you guys were just shit on the day

 

[sverik25]

Yes, because everyone in the crowd would have been cheering for West Coast and intimidating the umpires

Too true, and it would have helped immensely.

 

[Matt_TY]

So, what venue are you proposing that's big enough?
And how are you proposing to get the biggest football game of the year and all the celebrations surrounding it organised in a random "neutral" city on less than a week's notice?

ANZ stadium or Adelaide oval would have been perfectly suitable alternatives. The "hurr durr tradition" argument is BS. The 1991 Grand Final was played at some soulless venue. If the AFL was about tradition then Fitzroy would still be around.

Ahahahah Sydney the day before the rugby GF at the same venue, sure, good idea. Also, a packed Adelaide Oval (capacity 53,500) or, for that matter, a completed (60,000, 2018) and expanded (70,000, "potentially") Burswood, would represent the single lowest attendance at a Grand Final since the 1948 replay. There is no way known the AFL would countenance that for a microsecond.

The MCG is the only suitable venue. Build an 80,000+ stadium in Adelaide or Perth and then we'll talk.

 

[Benno_900]

Agreed.

Should be hosted at Croke Park.

 

[YES! YES! YES!]

What about that 150,000 stadium in Pyongyang.

That could be also be a neutral venue provided Kim Jong Un doesn't like the Victorian teams.

 

[Westy177]

The argument that playing the Grand Final at the MCG potentially disadvantages non-Victorian teams has validity, even if implementing an alternative would be practically impossible. The world's major sporting events that are comparable to the Grand Final don't work that way - either they rotate through venues, like the Super Bowl or the Champions League final, or they play it at a neutral venue, like the English FA Cup. I don't think it's unreasonable to acknowledge that there's a peculiarity in the AFL system, even if there's no solution to it. In any event, I don't think it would have helped West Coast today.

 

[SgtSchulz]

Shoulda been in perf

 

[sverik25]

Maybe the AFL should consider a pre-nominated Grand Final venue. I suppose though with ANZ Stadium no longer going to be used for AFL there are probably only four suitable venues.