Opinion Which club currently has the biggest home ground advantage in the AFL?

[GC2015]

2024 home game W/L records at main ground/s

• Sydney: 9-2 @ SCG (81.8%)
• Gold Coast: 7-2 @ Carrara (77.7%)
• GWS: 6-2 @ Showgrounds (75%)
• Port Adelaide 9-3 @ AO (75%)
• Fremantle: 7.5-3.5 @ Optus (68.1%)
• Collingwood: 6-3 @ MCG (66.6%)
• Geelong: 6-3 @ Kardinia Park (66.6%)
• Brisbane: 7-4 @ Gabba (63.6%)
• Carlton: 6-4 @ Marvel/MCG (60%)
• Melbourne: 6-4 @ MCG (60%)
• St Kilda: 6-4 @ Marvel (60%)
• Essendon: 6.5-4.5 (59%)
• Hawthorn: 3-3 @ MCG (50%)
• Adelaide: 5.5-6.5 @ AO (45.8%)
• Bulldogs: 4-5 @ Marvel (44.4%)
• West Coast: 4-7 @ Optus (36.3%)
• North Melbourne: 2-5 @ Marvel (28.5%)
• Richmond: 1-10 @ MCG (9.1%)

There's more to it than just the W-L record (like travel, crowds etc), but the numbers above should give people a good idea of what's going on. So, which club currently has the biggest home ground advantage in the AFL and why?

 

[craffles]

Geelong, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney and GWS as no one else plays home games there and they do regularly.

End thread.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Hawthorn: 3-3 @ MCG (50%)

Now do Launceston.

 

[randyzany]

Geelong, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney and GWS as no one else plays home games there and they do regularly.

End thread.

Mmmm.... I'll put Sydney, Giants, (although Giants foolishly schedule one of their home games in Canberra) Brisbane, Gold Coast, (Suns may also schedule one of their home games somewhere else, can't be bothered looking into it) West Coast, Fremantle, Adelaide, Port as clear cut equal first as they play 10 home games against teams that rarely play in their respective home grounds.

Sometimes years between matches, and have to contend with the impact of plane travel such as hopping on a plane for 2 to 4 hours (not to mention driving to the airport and driving from the airport to the hotel) at least a day before the game and booking alternative accommodation that disturbs the usual pattern of visiting teams

Geelong on the other hand have had just 9 games at Kardinia Park (and there might have been a few seasons where Geelong just had 8 or just 7 games at KP if I recall correctly) for decades as they have been strong armed by the AFL to play 2 of their home games at the 'G.

For Geelong's genuine 9 home games most of the away visiting teams that come to KP are just an hour drive down the road. Players playing for Melbourne based teams (some could even be living in or near Geelong) don't have to fly out a day before and arrange hotel accommodation to sleep in a foreign environment before the game. It is hardly some huge cumbersome task that involves the aforementioned inconvenient impact of teams flying to a different city.

And in regards to Geelong's 2 MCG 'home games', it is almost always against one the so-called Big 4 clubs that have larger supporter bases (and usually playing well enough to be in the Top 8 or thereabouts) that can drown out Geelong supporters, who have to travel to watch their own team play in a home game.

So, Geelong's home 'advantage' is relatively negligible compared to the advantage that interstate sides get playing against teams that have to travel by plane to Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

Geelong's home advantage for mine is generally overrated because of the club's success due to being well managed, as it's not even close to the much bigger advantage that interstate sides get from their home games.

Granted Geelong do get to play a few more MCG matches in a year in comparison to interstate clubs but that's a whole different topic altogether.

 

[Pistol Night]

GC in Darwin

 

[L_W_P]

Geelong, and it's not even close IMO.

They get all the schedule benefits of being a VIC team, only leaving the state 4-5 times a season, while also having a unique home ground.

If we are focusing on just home games then maybe there's another conversation but, with the scheduling of their away games, the Cats advantage at home is amplified exponentially more than anyone else.

 

[terrybull]

I voted Brisbane because of opposition players brains becoming numb of constantly hearing Country Roads and Sweet Caroline…

 

[Timothy Luncheon]

Geelong, and it's not even close IMO.

They get all the schedule benefits of being a VIC team, only leaving the state 4-5 times a season, while also having a unique home ground.

If we are focusing on just home games then maybe there's another conversation but, with the scheduling of their away games, the Cats advantage at home is amplified exponentially more than anyone else.

Correct. Cats fans won't accept that though. If they got home games in finals then they'd have the clearest advantage in both the H&A season and the finals

 

[PhatBoy]

Geelong, and it's not even close IMO.

They get all the schedule benefits of being a VIC team, only leaving the state 4-5 times a season, while also having a unique home ground.

If we are focusing on just home games then maybe there's another conversation but, with the scheduling of their away games, the Cats advantage at home is amplified exponentially more than anyone else.

We played 7 home and away games interstate this season, 6 the year before.

 

[PhatBoy]

Correct. Cats fans won't accept that though. If they got home games in finals then they'd have the clearest advantage in both the H&A season and the finals

Tell you what. When the tigers host us at Kardinia park, we will call it square.