sr36
TheBrownDog
I agree with you.HGA is real - Home State advantage is real.
Travel issue is real.
None of this can be denied, every stake holder in the AFL system be it administration, Coaches, players, runners, water boys etc etc all agree the above is true.
Yet here we are still trying to make a case it is not true.
The issue I have with much of the commentary is that the home ground and travel advantages are ignored for non-vic teams - all that's looked at is their disadvantages.
Ignoring gather round, the non-vic teams have the same number of games with a home ground and travel advantage as they have with a disadvantage. Same for the Melbourne teams who don't sell home games.
The only question regarding equality of home ground and travel is the question of the cumulative impact of additional travel. If someone can show me something that demonstrates that heavier travel during the season results in a decline in performance as the season goes on, I'll agree that the Melbourne teams have an overall advantage. But at the moment I just hear sooking about the 10 travels, whilst ignoring the advantage of the 10 times teams travel to play on non-vic club's home grounds.