The Official AFL 2009 Draw Discussion

[pazza]

Can't complain about Essendon's draw too much. Still not enough Saturday day games, but, that balances out with the opportunity to play in Brisbane.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

The Victorian clubs who complain about FTA coverage should take a look at this - the 6 teams with the least amount of FTA are the 6 non-Victorian clubs. If lack of FTA coverage and Sunday games = CBF payments, then all 6 non-Victorian clubs should be sticking their hand out for their share.

The difference is, the non-Vic sides get 22 FTA games into their home markets.
That list is Victorian, in WA (for example) West Coast and Freo games shown there as only being on Fox will be on both Fox and FTA (often simultaneously, thanks to Fox being stupid and taling away the ability to show different games in different markets).

 

[Reckoner Tiger]

Richmond 2 Friday night games to Carltons 6.......go figure

wow, wtf?
that sucks so bad
can't see a big reason why thats happened, either
both with similar support, both going to be improving sides next year

also, enjoy next year collingwood! its probably the first year in at least 5 where you might actually get a fair draw, like the rest of us.
richmond has rounds 15-21 at the G, that gives me cause for epic happiness

 

[THE_GUN]

good i get to see carlton get pumped more often.

 

[legend166]

Man, we're getting killed in this draw. We only play the bottom 5 sides from this year once each, and Geelong, Hawthorn and Collingwood twice.

Also, Saturday afternoon SCG games are going to be a DISASTER. I have no idea what the AFL are doing. I wonder if the club is spewing.

 

[Hawkk]

Why?

Given the NRL scrapped Saturday Afternoon from their schedule a few years ago, wouldn't be an opportunity for the Swans to carve themselves a niche away from the NRL?

 

[Smyth94]

I still find it hard to see why Carlton was given such a rewarding draw.

'08 was their best season this decade since '01 and they get rewarded with that? I would expect a top four side to receive such a draw, not a team who hasn't played finals for 8 years.

 

[mcgarnacle]

I'm extremely happy with the draw except one thing, we are playing "home" games, at an away venue, versus tenants of the away venue!

That's like Adelaide playing home games vs Sydney at Sydney.

ahhh, no its not.

melbourne clubs do not have a home 'ground' advantage. that ended with melbourne ground rationalisation.

 

[yaco55]

Remember that Channel 7 and 10 receive first choice of games on a Saturday and Sunday.

Therefore the TV channels to a large extent choose which teams appear on FTA.

 

[Truetiger]

Signals the end of your "big 4" status.

Well confirms it.

Thats funny our Crowds this year were in the top4? So yeah you have no idea what your talking about. Just cause we have Sunday games does not mean we are not apart of the top4. Something you will never be apart of.

 

[thatday]

ahhh, no its not.

melbourne clubs do not have a home 'ground' advantage. that ended with melbourne ground rationalisation.

Yes, but a club such as the Western Bulldogs, who play the majority of their Victorian games at the Dome are going to be more suited to the ground and have an advantage over a side who plays most of their home games at the MCG. It would be a home ground advantage if we were playing the Saints at the G next year instead of the dome because we play the G 14 times and they play it once, they play the Dome 15 times and we play it 4.

 

[Rooface]

A little perspective.
Pies and Blues win again in 2009 fixture


24th October 2008, 18:45 WST

AFL heavyweights Collingwood and Carlton are big winners in the 2009 draw featuring three timeslots to be trialled with one eye on the league’s future expansion plans.

Games will be played on two Thursday nights, one Monday night and one Saturday twilight, which is one of four games played on a Saturday Anzac Day.

The innovative timeslots, along with two Saturday afternoon games in Sydney, give the AFL a chance to consider the best fit for a ninth game every round from 2012, when both the Gold Coast and Western Sydney franchises have been admitted to the competition.

Carlton and Richmond open the season on Thursday, March 26, while Hawthorn and Geelong will stage a rematch of the 2008 grand final the following night.

The Cats play Collingwood on Easter Thursday (round three), while the Magpies and St Kilda will play on a Monday night in May (round seven) because the AFL was keen to avoid scheduling too many games on the low-drawing Mother’s Day Sunday.

Anzac Day will feature the Collingwood-Essendon clash, but also Hawthorn hosting West Coast in Launceston starting 5.40pm local time, with two games that night, in Perth and Melbourne.

The AFL is yet to make a final decision on what day to schedule most of the games the Gold Coast and Western Sydney play, but chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said next year’s timeslots would give the league something to consider.

“We think they’ll be events in themselves and good games with good promotion and good build-up, and it also looks forward to the future when we have potentially nine games and our ninth games will have to be scheduled somewhere,” he said.

“So we will have had a look at a couple of different slots by then.”
While the AFL did its best to satisfy most requests from clubs and venue operators, some clubs fared better than others.

Collingwood will play 18 games in Melbourne, travel only four times interstate and play the 2008 grand finalists only once each.

The Magpies were again rewarded for their high-drawing power, as all clubs requested them in home games.
Carlton were rewarded for their improvement last season, by earning greater exposure in the coveted Friday night timeslot, as well as playing foes Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond twice each and the Hawks and Cats only once each.

McLachlan said Hawthorn’s rise last season also earned them greater exposure on Friday nights, free-to-air television and in Launceston, where they host St Kilda, North Melbourne, the Eagles and Brisbane Lions at their second home.

In contrast, clubs which slid last season, such as Melbourne and Essendon, were drawn to play regularly on Sunday, the day least preferred by fans.

Sydney and Adelaide were the only clubs unlucky to draw both reigning grand finalists twice each.
The greatest challenge for the AFL is scheduling a fair draw for a 16-side competition played across 22 rounds.

The league again courted controversy by scheduling some sides to play twice before meeting others for the first time.
However, McLachlan said the system had been “softened” by the scheduling of no teams to play each other a second time by round 10, and for no teams to meet for the first time in round 22.

But underlining the anomalies, Melbourne and Collingwood meet in round 11 after playing in round two, while Adelaide and West Coast play for the first time in round 21.
MELBOURNE
AAP

 

[damochandler]

11 night home games for brisbane. i dont know why they got that. i am glad the bombers are playing up here. i dont know why the bother with monday games and thursday night games. i am all for more games on satudays. just like back in the day

 

[tessray]

Import your teams 2009 fixture into Outlook or iPhone at my website http://www.opencals.com. All calenders are free and can be imported into almost any calender program.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Man, we're getting killed in this draw. We only play the bottom 5 sides from this year once each, and Geelong, Hawthorn and Collingwood twice.

Also, Saturday afternoon SCG games are going to be a DISASTER. I have no idea what the AFL are doing. I wonder if the club is spewing.

Apparently the club asked for it. Without any NRL games on in the timeslot, its worth an experiment. Its probably better for Ten though, they might get a few viewers to watch the Swans in the afternoon (against nothing) rather than take a bath in the ratings on Saturday night - maybe even schedule a repeat of Happy Gilmore - before showing their Saturday night game at 11:30.

 

[scotia]

HI all,

I've written a tool to generate calendars for importing for any team (or all teams), with custom reminders etc.
It produces CSV and ICS (iCal) files, as well as PDF (no reminders obviously!).
It works with Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar etc etc.

It can be found here:
http://www.thismonkey.com/afl/2009/aflfixture-2009.shtml

Please take a look, and leave comments, ideas etc if you like.

Thanks
Scott

 

[Lakey91]

All i think is that the swans got sold a melon in the 2009 draw. They are in for a rough year

 

[SELFCONFESDAFLNERD]

I'm very content with 11 rounds without leaving Victoria for the Kangas. However, it puts more pressure on us to perform early on, hopefully not another start like 06 or 07 although the end would be good (07).

Six games outside of Victoria in the second half of the year, oh well, better do decent early or Laidley's credentials could be queried.