Hearts to hearts
Brownlow Medallist
- Mar 16, 2001
- 24,971
- 61,719
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Wales, Eastwood, West Ham
Last year North were scheduled to play Geelong at Docklands for the Cats' home game, they had it changed to keep their eight game deal (and, quite rewaosnably, to not play their home game at their opponent's home ground). It's a pain to be drawn there every season (and preseason too this year) but good on them for making it work.
In the end the Kardinia Park fixture is less an unfair advantage to Geelong than it is to the clubs who are never ever drawn to pay there under the competition's financial maximisation strategy. Same goes for Aurora Stadium, and same will go for Ballarat if it gets up and running for North. Some clubs will never have to play outside Melbourne CBD. Other clubs will have to travel to the genuine home grounds of their opponents more often. It's not just about interstate games, it's more a general rule that smaller-drawing clubs get a tougher fixture for where their away games are played.
And yes, I know we all like to share the cash, just saying that in an ideal world the fixture would be more equitable and not divide scheduling advantages based primarily on crowd drawing power. Might be nice for clubs with smaller home grounds and supporter bases more remote from Melbourne city to have the big drawing clubs visit once in a while too.
In the end the Kardinia Park fixture is less an unfair advantage to Geelong than it is to the clubs who are never ever drawn to pay there under the competition's financial maximisation strategy. Same goes for Aurora Stadium, and same will go for Ballarat if it gets up and running for North. Some clubs will never have to play outside Melbourne CBD. Other clubs will have to travel to the genuine home grounds of their opponents more often. It's not just about interstate games, it's more a general rule that smaller-drawing clubs get a tougher fixture for where their away games are played.
And yes, I know we all like to share the cash, just saying that in an ideal world the fixture would be more equitable and not divide scheduling advantages based primarily on crowd drawing power. Might be nice for clubs with smaller home grounds and supporter bases more remote from Melbourne city to have the big drawing clubs visit once in a while too.