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ep2018 said:
1991 maybe. Hawks had beaten us in WA in finals already that year. I still think we'd have lost whether in Perth or Melbourne. LOSE
1992 we beat the cats at the ground the game would have been played at. WIN
1994 the cats wouldn't have come close regardless of where the game was played. WIN
2005 the swans ran us close in the QF and arguably should have won. I think we'd have won in Perth by the skin of our teeth. WIN
2006 who hosts? Sydney who beat us in the QF or us who finished minor premier? WIN in Perth. LOSE in Sydney.
2015 we'd have done them in, perhaps as clinically as in the QF. It would have been their third Perth trip in four weeks. WIN
2018 IIRC is was windy with a bit of rain had the GF been played in Perth but we still would have won in Perth. WIN

We'd be on five or six flags if the higher placed team hosted the GF imo.
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Would we have played as well in 2006 and made the GF had we won in 2005? I have a sick feeling the wheels would have come off completely in 2006 instead of 2007 had we won that year. Also, would we have played as well in 2018 had we won in 2015? I feel we did as well as we did in that finals series because most of the squad had felt the sting of losing in 2015. But I'm straying from the original question of hosting the GF. Just a few things to think about.
 
I get the frustration but I seriously think the political doomsayers are being incredibly cynical. Yes, McGowan wants to be re-elected, but you could argue that he is elected to keep West Australians safe. So it must mean he’s doing a good job.

He’s definitely not there to bow to the wishes of a football league, who lets face it, have always treated WA as nothing but a cash cow.

Rarely, if ever, has there been a decision made at AFL house that didn’t benefit the Victorian clubs first and the “expansion” clubs second, with WA and SA feeding off any crumbs left over. But now the WA government is expected to do a sweeter dance than QLD if it wants a ride home.

Even then, WA and SA clubs have made concessions specifically for the AFL, and were the first to put their hands up to hub interstate “for the good of the game” (sans families of course). Meanwhile all others were tucked up nicely at home, planning for the pandemic to blow over.

Yet that is all forgotten now. Apparently because we haven’t swallowed hard enough we don’t get the special necklace. So * ‘em. if the AFL is happy to showcase their centrepiece at a barely standard football ground in front of 20,000 lucky giveaway winners rather than one of the greatest sporting stadiums in the world in front of 30,000 enraptured fans, then good ******* luck Gil.

If QLD Government is happy to ease restrictions at time of instability and cowtow to the AFLs wishes at the expense of public health and safety then good ******* luck Annastacia.

As for the Eagles, we have never been gifted handouts and history has taught us not to expect a fair go from the AFL. Yet we’re the benchmark club in the AFL era. You could even make the case that our success is in spite of them.

We can absolutely win it this season and will if we’re good enough, no matter where it’s held.
 

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Politics at play in the battle for AFL’s big day
WA Premier Mark McGowan and his daughter at Optus Stadium, Perth. Picture: Getty Images WA Premier Mark McGowan and his daughter at Optus Stadium, Perth. Picture: Getty Images
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It’s often said politics and religion don’t mix. When you’re talking about the AFL grand final, it’s a variation of the same maxim. With the game’s traditional host, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, out of action due to COVID-19, the political battle is on to lay claim to the biggest day in the Australia’s sporting calendar.
On paper, you’d probably give three votes to Western Australia — it boasts arguably the country’s best venue (the $2bn Optus Stadium in Perth), it’s devoted to AFL above all other sports, and its two hometown teams (West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers) have for decades unfairly endured the tyranny of distance when it comes to flying across the country every second week to compete.
But there are no fairytales in footy, and it’s looking increasingly likely for AFL fans in WA that the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a grand final in their home state may have slipped away, largely due to the dark arts of politicking.
READ NEXT
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and WA Premier Mark McGowan have never seen eye-to-eye over sporting matters. The two men from different sides of the tracks — McLachlan of the landed gentry, and McGowan from a modest upbringing in rural NSW — have had a long-running disagreement over ongoing funding for Optus Stadium, with the Premier steadfast in his refusal to pour more taxpayer money into its upkeep, and the AFL reluctant to contribute further.
The spat is the backdrop to next week’s announcement by the AFL as to the venue of the 2020 grand final. On Friday, Tourism WA, Optus Stadium and its operator, Venues West, submitted WA’s response to the AFL’s call for details about how a finals series and grand final would work in WA. Yet the consensus seems to be that while it should be Perth, it will almost certainly be Brisbane, a rugby league town, but one with a Premier who has publicly lobbied for the event.
When Labor came to power in WA in 2017, McGowan was unable to extract a contribution from the AFL to finish Optus Stadium. He has not forgotten it.
READ MORE:Battle heats up for AFL grand final location|Cash carrot to move AFL grand final|AFL GF decision coming next week|Victoria’s compo for losing grand final|WA’s pain may be Gabba’s grand final gain|AFL set to break MCG grand final contract
It was at the front of McGowan’s mind in April when he told the AFL it was welcome to have a hub in Perth — indeed, it should — but only on his terms and with not a cent of taxpayers’ money to go with it.
One AFL identity described McGowan as “prickly” in his dealings with the sport, but noted that was often his default position. “There’s no doubt there’s some tension there though. Something has ticked him off.”
McGowan is holding firm. Perth is perfect for the grand final, he says, but there will be no weakening of border controls or quarantine systems, and no cash to be used to lure the event.
Across the other side of the country, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is prepared to offer a multi-million-dollar incentive to get the grand final. Queensland is already in good odour with the AFL — when McLachlan first asked states to help save the season, WA made a “take it or leave it” offer with rigorous quarantine conditions, but Palaszczuk responded with a deal that gave players some freedom of movement.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Getty Images AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Getty Images
The moment 10 Victorian teams relocated to the mostly COVID-free state, Palaszczuk told McLachlan: “If the season is based here then the grand final should be played here too.”
McGowan has been asked almost daily about the possibility of a Perth grand final, and what he is doing to make it happen. On Friday he gave perhaps his most candid answer yet: “Queensland have teams of people working on it, we haven’t acted like that. We’ve played hard to get.”
The fact McGowan has not wooed the AFL hard is not a surprise. For each of the three years McGowan has been Premier, the AFL has invited him to watch the grand final in the Olympic Room at the MCG. Each year he has declined. Grand final day in the Olympic Room is the biggest corporate and political event of the year, the best networking gig money cannot buy for only 550 guests. Think prime ministers, opposition leaders, premiers, billionaires, chief executives and chairs, plus football and sporting legends.
When West Coast won the grand final in 2018, McGowan was watching from a pub with his family in Margaret River, 270km south of Perth. In a speech he gave months later at a party thrown in Perth by insurer RAC, he told how neither West Coast nor the Dockers — the team he supports — looked like making the finals early in the season when he promised his children he would take them camping that weekend. He cut the family holiday short to greet the Eagles at their welcome home event in Perth.
The Weekend Australian has been told some in the business community who appreciated McGowan’s consultative approach at the beginning of his term — and especially at the beginning of the pandemic — now find him less accessible. When McGowan told reporters the grand final was “not our main priority”, some took it to mean he did not care. “He’s a squash player from NSW who doesn’t want to risk his iron man image that he’s developed during the pandemic,” one former senior government official said. WA has not recorded community transmission of COVID-19 for 132 days but McGowan talks openly about how easily the virus could re-emerge.
The AFL is not at war with the McGowan government but there is an awareness on both sides that many West Australian footy fans feel the AFL spends proportionally more on clubs elsewhere.
Ron Alexander, the former Fitzroy ruckman and Eagles coach who led the state government department that got Optus Stadium built, says this has been a source of frustration in the west for a long time. “If you look at what the AFL invests in the 18 clubs, WA doesn’t get two eighteenths of it,” he says.
The AFL will be turning its back on an estimated $36m payday if it does not choose Perth as the grand final venue. It would get a further $40-$50m windfall if it was to hold the entire finals series in the west, The Weekend Australian has learned.
By next weekend all bar three of the competition’s 18 clubs will be based in Queensland. Palaszczuk is now playing a careful game; taking personal control of the bid, gagging ministers and their offices, and fending off questions about Queensland’s behind-the-scenes bid to host the final at the often-maligned Gabba.
It is understood she has put together a team that includes Gold Coast Suns president Tony Cochrane and Lions chairman Andrew Wellington, with the their respective chief executives, to advise on the bid.
Under WA’s current coronavirus restrictions, Optus Stadium could take 30,000 people. Palaszczuk believes the Gabba can match it. Optus Stadium is by far the best venue for the league’s biggest and usually most lucrative day of the year given its vast amount of corporate suites and hospitality rooms: 37 per cent of Optus Stadium revenue comes from corporate seats.
While AFL chairman Richard Goyder is a parochial West Australian and is expected to push for Perth, The Weekend Australian has been told the AFL commission is likely to vote for the Gabba as the grand final venue while also hoping Perth and Adelaide will host finals matches.
If Perth misses out, it will not be due to a lack of rapport between Goyder and McGowan, who are known to have a respectful and constructive relationship.
Final negotiations over Optus Stadium were difficult but settled in September 2017 when Goyder met the WA Premier privately at his government office. The final arrangement props up grassroots football. The WA Football Commission had derived a healthy income as leaseholder of the old home of AFL in Perth, Subiaco Oval, but it was due to get nothing from the Optus Stadium deal.
Now the Dockers and West Coast pay the WA government for playing at Optus Stadium and, from that total, the state guarantees $10.3m a year — indexed to inflation — for the WA Football Commission. It means the AFL does not have to put its hand in its pocket to support the commission-run state footy league, but McGowan was said to be happy to have struck a deal guaranteeing the future of the local competition using income from AFL teams.
The result — which effectively leaves the state of WA with the bill for the stadium, its ongoing losses and a guarantee to underwrite the local football league — is a demonstration of the AFL’s tough approach to deal making.
Meanwhile, SA Premier Steven Marshall says Adelaide has a claim to hosting not only a qualifying final but also the decider.
“We are working really hard at the moment on a proposal,” he says. “A lot of it is going to come down to who can host the most people and I think SA has proven time and time again with the Adelaide Oval they can manage large crowds. I know it has been contracted to the MCG for a long time but this could be that silver lining for that otherwise very dark cloud of COVID-19 that we might be able to have a grand final outside the MCG and that could be right here in Adelaide.”
Additional reporting: Courtney Walsh, Michael McKenna
 
Kellythatsit said:
I get the frustration but I seriously think the political doomsayers are being incredibly cynical. Yes, McGowan wants to be re-elected, but you could argue that he is elected to keep West Australians safe. So it must mean he’s doing a good job.

He’s definitely not there to bow to the wishes of a football league, who lets face it, have always treated WA as nothing but a cash cow.

Rarely, if ever, has there been a decision made at AFL house that didn’t benefit the Victorian clubs first and the “expansion” clubs second, with WA and SA feeding off any crumbs left over. But now the WA government is expected to do a sweeter dance than QLD if it wants a ride home.

Even then, WA and SA clubs have made concessions specifically for the AFL, and were the first to put their hands up to hub interstate “for the good of the game” (sans families of course). Meanwhile all others were tucked up nicely at home, planning for the pandemic to blow over.

Yet that is all forgotten now. Apparently because we haven’t swallowed hard enough we don’t get the special necklace. So fu** ‘em. if the AFL is happy to showcase their centrepiece at a barely standard football ground in front of 20,000 lucky giveaway winners rather than one of the greatest sporting stadiums in the world in front of 30,000 enraptured fans, then good ******* luck Gil.

If QLD Government is happy to ease restrictions at time of instability and cowtow to the AFLs wishes at the expense of public health and safety then good ******* luck Annastacia.

As for the Eagles, we have never been gifted handouts and history has taught us not to expect a fair go from the AFL. Yet we’re the benchmark club in the AFL era. You could even make the case that our success is in spite of them.

We can absolutely win it this season and will if we’re good enough, no matter where it’s held.
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Indeed!
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The Australian didn't miss Lynch.

Tom Lynch is an embarrassment to Richmond and the AFL
Will Swanton

Off-field, Tom Lynch may help little old ladies across the street without pinching their handbags. He may volunteer to fold the T-shirts at his local Red Cross shop without dipping his hand in the till.

He may even go to his Macca’s drive-thru and do his bit for humanity by covering the next car’s expenses and telling the check-out chick a cheerful, “Pay it forward.” Off the field, Lynch may be an absolute saint for all I really know.

On the field, I am certain of this much: Lynch’s behaviour is rubbish. If your eight-year-old starts acting like him, you’ll tell him to cut it out.
If these niggling, weak, pathetic cheap shots and dog shots that you put on another bloke when he isn’t looking – when you hit him from behind and then run away like a coward, when you’re trying to act tough but you’re anything but – has been “part of the game” for 123 years, it’s been a rubbish part of the game for 123 years. Damien Hardwick can get his back up all he likes. Lynch is embarrassing himself, his club, his code.
His litany of cheap shots this season are documented. And yet there’s been an incident against Brisbane, in round 10, unnoticed, unpunished and not published, that has been the most contemptible of the lot. Rewind the tape to August 4. Tuesday Night Footy. Lynch has already acted shamefully. Remember?

He’s tackled Alex Witherden, fairly, squarely, bravo. The Lions defender has scraped out a kick. They’ve hit the ground together. The ball is gone. Play has moved on. Witherden is lying on his stomach.
Lynch is above him, getting to his feet. From behind Witherden and on top of him, Lynch takes a full grip of the back of Witherden’s head. He violently drives it to the turf. It’s a low and lily-livered act. Embarrassing.
In the live commentary on Fox Footy, we’ve heard the alternate views.

From Garry Lyon: “There’s nothing in that. That’s just a reminder, you’ve got to get rid of the ball quicker than that, son.”
From Nick Riewoldt: “Yeah, no. We’ll get rid of those.”

Hear, hear. After the match, the five-time All-Australian has added: “I think it’s got to be down to the players as a fraternity to come together and get rid of that stuff that’s crept in. I don’t think it does anyone any favours. It doesn’t look good for Tom Lynch, it doesn’t look good for the game.”
I digress. I actually remember watching that game more for the next delinquent act from Lynch. He’s running to position after halftime. All the players are.
He’s passing a Lions player, whose face is obscured on the footage. He pauses and thrusts a flying elbow as he goes past the Lions player, trying to get the bloke in the ribs. And then he keeps on running.

It has been spectacularly weak. The elbow has missed, adding some comedy to the cringe. It’s been immature. childish. He’s looked like Will Ferrell in Get Hard, someone trying to be a tough guy when he’s not very tough at all.
That missed elbow has come to mind when he’s faked to hit Gold Coast’s Sam Collins this week, whom he’s already punched in the stomach, of course, before running away again.

That fake hit has seemed more lamentable than the real punch-and-flee to Collins’ stomach. It’s a difficult incident to describe.
You know that ghosting thing where a jerk at a pub makes the motion to hit someone, leaping at them, fists raised, trying to get them to flinch? That’s what Lynch has done to Collins. And yet Collins has not so much as blinked, perhaps a reminder to Lynch that his hard man routine is really quite soft. If you were actually at the pub with Lynch, and he was pulling these sorts of stunts, you’d put him in a taxi and send him home with the farewell words of, mate, you’re making a goose of yourself. Stop it.

Lynch reminds me of Bernie Tomic. Tomic has always felt pressure to be the tough guy. To be hardcore. I think deep down, Tomic is a gentle soul. I actually doubt he has a bad bone in his body, but he’s been stuck in a role he’s expected to play. Lynch looks similar, trying to be something he is not.
He’s a high-flying player who doesn’t need to keep putting himself in the gutter.
The bad-arse routine is misguided. It does not suit him. He’s not your old-school enforcer.

He’s opening himself up to ridicule. He plays tough enough in the contest. The extras are the rubbish. Supposedly he doesn’t care what we think. Yeah, no, more rubbish. To a degree, everybody does.

Hardwick’s response to the criticism of Lynch has been churlish and unedifying. David Schwarz says the “boneheaded” Lynch is up for “goose of the year,” which has been putting it mildly, I would have thought. And which is completely in tune with common appraisals.

But Hardwick has become all uppity, saying: “David Schwarz, I played a grand final against that bloke and within 20 minutes of the game, he was crying. So (he should) have a look at himself at some stage.”
Yeah, no, sorry, it may be Hardwick who benefits from a peek in the mirror.
Lynch doesn’t have to look far to see how to really play tough. With real backbone. You don’t see Dusty Martin carrying on with this sort of spineless rot. It’s fake physicality. As for Hardwick’s sniping of Schwarz, just supposing the Melbourne great really had cried at the 20-minute mark of the 2000 grand final. Just supposing he’s cried for every minute of every term in that game.
So bloody what? What does the 2000 grand final have to do with Lynch’s impertinence now? Lynch has not covered himself in glory, and nor has his coach.

The Tigers play Essendon at Darwin’s TIO Stadium on Saturday night.
 
oak79 said:
Did a tour of mcg a couple of days before 2018 grandfinal - the tour guide said they expected less members because an interstate team was playing.

Of course it ended up being a record crowd.
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What a strange comment from the tour guidem They'd had non victorian teams in the GF for the previous 6 GF.
 
www.abc.net.au

Assessing three imperfect options to host the 2020 AFL grand final

The race to host the 2020 AFL grand final is heating up with three main contenders emerging, but all of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia have flaws in their pitches.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

Weren't things simpler when we could just complain about the MCG hosting the grand final every year in perpetuity without actually having to come up with an alternate solution?

Sure, we went on a pretty nifty little streak there for a while of higher-finishing interstate teams getting smacked in grand finals to lower-ranked MCG tenants, but in hindsight that natural imbalance may actually be preferable to the COVID-coerced shemozzle we now find ourselves in.

At the moment, we know two things — there will be an AFL grand final this year, and it won't be at the MCG. The league and Victorian Governments may not have 100 per cent confirmed the latter, but not even the AFL could be so wedded to its Victorian traditions to think it would be a good idea.

So the bidding process is underway in earnest, with three contenders emerging and staking their claim. All three have legitimate arguments as to why they should host the season's final game, but all three bids are also fairly flawed.

It leaves the AFL with three imperfect options and one difficult choice. (Oh, and for the sake of this exercise, we're leaving NSW out of this rundown, which all but guarantees a Homebush grand final).

-SNIP-
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BlueandGoldforever said:
Politics at play in the battle for AFL’s big day
WA Premier Mark McGowan and his daughter at Optus Stadium, Perth. Picture: Getty Images WA Premier Mark McGowan and his daughter at Optus Stadium, Perth. Picture: Getty Images
It’s often said politics and religion don’t mix. When you’re talking about the AFL grand final, it’s a variation of the same maxim. With the game’s traditional host, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, out of action due to COVID-19, the political battle is on to lay claim to the biggest day in the Australia’s sporting calendar.
On paper, you’d probably give three votes to Western Australia — it boasts arguably the country’s best venue (the $2bn Optus Stadium in Perth), it’s devoted to AFL above all other sports, and its two hometown teams (West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers) have for decades unfairly endured the tyranny of distance when it comes to flying across the country every second week to compete.
But there are no fairytales in footy, and it’s looking increasingly likely for AFL fans in WA that the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a grand final in their home state may have slipped away, largely due to the dark arts of politicking.
READ NEXT
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and WA Premier Mark McGowan have never seen eye-to-eye over sporting matters. The two men from different sides of the tracks — McLachlan of the landed gentry, and McGowan from a modest upbringing in rural NSW — have had a long-running disagreement over ongoing funding for Optus Stadium, with the Premier steadfast in his refusal to pour more taxpayer money into its upkeep, and the AFL reluctant to contribute further.
The spat is the backdrop to next week’s announcement by the AFL as to the venue of the 2020 grand final. On Friday, Tourism WA, Optus Stadium and its operator, Venues West, submitted WA’s response to the AFL’s call for details about how a finals series and grand final would work in WA. Yet the consensus seems to be that while it should be Perth, it will almost certainly be Brisbane, a rugby league town, but one with a Premier who has publicly lobbied for the event.
When Labor came to power in WA in 2017, McGowan was unable to extract a contribution from the AFL to finish Optus Stadium. He has not forgotten it.
READ MORE:Battle heats up for AFL grand final location|Cash carrot to move AFL grand final|AFL GF decision coming next week|Victoria’s compo for losing grand final|WA’s pain may be Gabba’s grand final gain|AFL set to break MCG grand final contract
It was at the front of McGowan’s mind in April when he told the AFL it was welcome to have a hub in Perth — indeed, it should — but only on his terms and with not a cent of taxpayers’ money to go with it.
One AFL identity described McGowan as “prickly” in his dealings with the sport, but noted that was often his default position. “There’s no doubt there’s some tension there though. Something has ticked him off.”
McGowan is holding firm. Perth is perfect for the grand final, he says, but there will be no weakening of border controls or quarantine systems, and no cash to be used to lure the event.
Across the other side of the country, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is prepared to offer a multi-million-dollar incentive to get the grand final. Queensland is already in good odour with the AFL — when McLachlan first asked states to help save the season, WA made a “take it or leave it” offer with rigorous quarantine conditions, but Palaszczuk responded with a deal that gave players some freedom of movement.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Getty Images AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Picture: Getty Images
The moment 10 Victorian teams relocated to the mostly COVID-free state, Palaszczuk told McLachlan: “If the season is based here then the grand final should be played here too.”
McGowan has been asked almost daily about the possibility of a Perth grand final, and what he is doing to make it happen. On Friday he gave perhaps his most candid answer yet: “Queensland have teams of people working on it, we haven’t acted like that. We’ve played hard to get.”
The fact McGowan has not wooed the AFL hard is not a surprise. For each of the three years McGowan has been Premier, the AFL has invited him to watch the grand final in the Olympic Room at the MCG. Each year he has declined. Grand final day in the Olympic Room is the biggest corporate and political event of the year, the best networking gig money cannot buy for only 550 guests. Think prime ministers, opposition leaders, premiers, billionaires, chief executives and chairs, plus football and sporting legends.
When West Coast won the grand final in 2018, McGowan was watching from a pub with his family in Margaret River, 270km south of Perth. In a speech he gave months later at a party thrown in Perth by insurer RAC, he told how neither West Coast nor the Dockers — the team he supports — looked like making the finals early in the season when he promised his children he would take them camping that weekend. He cut the family holiday short to greet the Eagles at their welcome home event in Perth.
The Weekend Australian has been told some in the business community who appreciated McGowan’s consultative approach at the beginning of his term — and especially at the beginning of the pandemic — now find him less accessible. When McGowan told reporters the grand final was “not our main priority”, some took it to mean he did not care. “He’s a squash player from NSW who doesn’t want to risk his iron man image that he’s developed during the pandemic,” one former senior government official said. WA has not recorded community transmission of COVID-19 for 132 days but McGowan talks openly about how easily the virus could re-emerge.
The AFL is not at war with the McGowan government but there is an awareness on both sides that many West Australian footy fans feel the AFL spends proportionally more on clubs elsewhere.
Ron Alexander, the former Fitzroy ruckman and Eagles coach who led the state government department that got Optus Stadium built, says this has been a source of frustration in the west for a long time. “If you look at what the AFL invests in the 18 clubs, WA doesn’t get two eighteenths of it,” he says.
The AFL will be turning its back on an estimated $36m payday if it does not choose Perth as the grand final venue. It would get a further $40-$50m windfall if it was to hold the entire finals series in the west, The Weekend Australian has learned.
By next weekend all bar three of the competition’s 18 clubs will be based in Queensland. Palaszczuk is now playing a careful game; taking personal control of the bid, gagging ministers and their offices, and fending off questions about Queensland’s behind-the-scenes bid to host the final at the often-maligned Gabba.
It is understood she has put together a team that includes Gold Coast Suns president Tony Cochrane and Lions chairman Andrew Wellington, with the their respective chief executives, to advise on the bid.
Under WA’s current coronavirus restrictions, Optus Stadium could take 30,000 people. Palaszczuk believes the Gabba can match it. Optus Stadium is by far the best venue for the league’s biggest and usually most lucrative day of the year given its vast amount of corporate suites and hospitality rooms: 37 per cent of Optus Stadium revenue comes from corporate seats.
While AFL chairman Richard Goyder is a parochial West Australian and is expected to push for Perth, The Weekend Australian has been told the AFL commission is likely to vote for the Gabba as the grand final venue while also hoping Perth and Adelaide will host finals matches.
If Perth misses out, it will not be due to a lack of rapport between Goyder and McGowan, who are known to have a respectful and constructive relationship.
Final negotiations over Optus Stadium were difficult but settled in September 2017 when Goyder met the WA Premier privately at his government office. The final arrangement props up grassroots football. The WA Football Commission had derived a healthy income as leaseholder of the old home of AFL in Perth, Subiaco Oval, but it was due to get nothing from the Optus Stadium deal.
Now the Dockers and West Coast pay the WA government for playing at Optus Stadium and, from that total, the state guarantees $10.3m a year — indexed to inflation — for the WA Football Commission. It means the AFL does not have to put its hand in its pocket to support the commission-run state footy league, but McGowan was said to be happy to have struck a deal guaranteeing the future of the local competition using income from AFL teams.
The result — which effectively leaves the state of WA with the bill for the stadium, its ongoing losses and a guarantee to underwrite the local football league — is a demonstration of the AFL’s tough approach to deal making.
Meanwhile, SA Premier Steven Marshall says Adelaide has a claim to hosting not only a qualifying final but also the decider.
“We are working really hard at the moment on a proposal,” he says. “A lot of it is going to come down to who can host the most people and I think SA has proven time and time again with the Adelaide Oval they can manage large crowds. I know it has been contracted to the MCG for a long time but this could be that silver lining for that otherwise very dark cloud of COVID-19 that we might be able to have a grand final outside the MCG and that could be right here in Adelaide.”
Additional reporting: Courtney Walsh, Michael McKenna
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That is a great article. So refreshing to read some journalism with actual research. If I was the AFL I wouldn't give it to WA either based on the attitude and actions so far.
 
BlueandGoldforever said:
The moment 10 Victorian teams relocated to the mostly COVID-free state, Palaszczuk told McLachlan: “If the season is based here then the grand final should be played here too.”

Additional reporting: Courtney Walsh, Michael McKenna
Click to expand...


QLD reinforcing restrictions in Brisbane and some suburbs in response to the Youth Hostel outbreak may change that...

I wonder, in what scenario would they still be able to offer a 75% capacity for a GABBA GF?
 
Rowan18 said:
That is a great article. So refreshing to read some journalism with actual research. If I was the AFL I wouldn't give it to WA either based on the attitude and actions so far.
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Who cares where the GF is this year, in the grand scheme of things?
 

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the harry said:
How can you be so negative, even about WA being covid free?!
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you do know COVID doesn’t operate in a vacuum right?

at some point being COVID free will come at a far greater cost in terms of lives lost
 
Rowan18 said:
That is a great article. So refreshing to read some journalism with actual research. If I was the AFL I wouldn't give it to WA either based on the attitude and actions so far.
Click to expand...

We are very fortunate then that you don’t run the State. The AFL has never done any favours for this State.


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ep2018 said:
1991 maybe. Hawks had beaten us in WA in finals already that year. I still think we'd have lost whether in Perth or Melbourne. LOSE
1992 we beat the cats at the ground the game would have been played at. WIN
1994 the cats wouldn't have come close regardless of where the game was played. WIN
2005 the swans ran us close in the QF and arguably should have won. I think we'd have won in Perth by the skin of our teeth. WIN
2006 who hosts? Sydney who beat us in the QF or us who finished minor premier? WIN in Perth. LOSE in Sydney.
2015 we'd have done them in, perhaps as clinically as in the QF. It would have been their third Perth trip in four weeks. WIN
2018 IIRC is was windy with a bit of rain had the GF been played in Perth but we still would have won in Perth. WIN

We'd be on five or six flags if the higher placed team hosted the GF imo.
Click to expand...
dont forget 96 and 99 where we got shafted by the mcg rule.

that's 2 more prelims we wouldve been able to have a crack at

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Rowan18 said:
That is a great article. So refreshing to read some journalism with actual research. If I was the AFL I wouldn't give it to WA either based on the attitude and actions so far.
Click to expand...

Why? Because the state government decided to prioritise public health and safety over the wishes of a navel gazing sporting league?

Or because McGowan chooses to holiday with his family in Margaret River rather than hob-nob with the same corporate elites and government officials we all complain about who get a free ride to the GF every year?
 
Clint Wheeldon now has two of the greatest moments in radio history to his name. Tonight he has added to his call of the cricket - look it up - with his interview of Jack Darling after the match.
If this isn’t verbatim, it’s close enough until they release the recording:


Clint wheeldon: do you know where you’re staying in qld yet?
Jd: not sure yet - might have to bring a swag.
CW: you’re not much of an outdoorsman, Jack.
JW: I dunno bout that.
CW: you go alright in a tent I suppose...
 
Last edited:
Appalling organisation by VFL - this should have been sorted out before fixtures were announced.

Fock I’ve seen kids organise chook raffles better.

Should stay in Perth till VFL get their shite together.

Will be disruptive to WCE players et al.


Sent from my iPad using BigFooty.com
 
From tonight's The Tackle

THE MC-GOVERNOR OF DEFENDERS

I wrote like No.4 before the West Coast game and, with Luke Ryan having a fabulous year, the argument still stands, but, on Sunday night, Jeremy McGovern reminded everyone he still might be the alpha male of the defensive world. He took eight intercept marks, which is the most by any player this year, and five of them came in the final quarter when the Giants were prowling. Put it this way, if McGovern didn’t play, the Giants could’ve won.
 
Hangover Noir said:
Clint Wheeldon now has two of the greatest moments in radio history to his name. Tonight he has added to his call of the cricket - look it up - to his interview of Jack Darling after the match.
If this isn’t verbatim, it’s close enough for until they release the recording:


Clint wheeldon: do you know where you’re staying in qld yet?
Jd: not sure yet - might have to bring a swag.
CW: you’re not much of an outdoorsman, Jack.
JW: I dunno bout that.
CW: you go alright in a tent I suppose...
Click to expand...
Gotta hope there is a soundbite of this exchange. Sounds like an absolute pisser to have heard live.
 
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