Fixture 2023 Fixture

[CarnTheScray]

I personally don’t care about playing on Good Friday, but the AFL’s handling of that fixture from the get go has been shambolic (first scheduling us, then St. Kilda, then Essendon, then back to us, and now Carlton - as the away team)

The Good Friday Fixture itself has its drawbacks— Easter weekend, lots of people away, Norf being a rubbish side recently - but the AFL have hardly helped the fixture themselves.

Also, for a club that has won 5 spoons this century and generally been a pathetic joke (much to my delight) Carlton are the most looked after side year in, year out with the fixture.

Loads of Friday night games whilst being spectacularly mediocre for years, plus the opening round match,

And on the opening round match, has there actually ever been a decent Richmond vs Carlton round 1 opener?

Year in, year out it is a snore fest and they get to keep it.

And they wonder how they have retained their support base after 25 years of nothing. Imagine if they had our pre 2016 time slots and media coverage for the past 20 years.

 

[The Inbetweener]

Of course we draw one of the SA teams in this gather round weekend. Us (vs Port) and Carlton (against Crows) essentially draw one more away game than the rest of the competition!

We’ve played Port in Adelaide every year for the last 5 years. You’d think they would give us a year off eventually

 

[Sentinel]

Of course we draw one of the SA teams in this gather round weekend. Us (vs Port) and Carlton (against Crows) essentially draw one more away game than the rest of the competition!

We’ve played Port in Adelaide every year for the last 5 years. You’d think they would give us a year off eventually

Great stuff isn't it. The AFL could have played a Showdown so that every match that round is essentially neutral, but why do that when they can give the Adelaide teams another home game and two unlucky others an additional away game. Not like one game could cost teams a top 4/top 8 spot, right?

 

[The Inbetweener]

Great stuff isn't it. The AFL could have played a Showdown so that every match that round is essentially neutral, but why do that when they can give the Adelaide teams another home game and two unlucky others an additional away game. Not like one game could cost teams a top 4/top 8 spot, right?

I really don’t get it. Probably need to reserve judgment until the full fixture is released, but currently it seems to be really unfair to us and Carlton and a big boost for the SA teams

 

[maddog37]

When we both flog Port it won’t matter.

 

[doggies ftw]

Great stuff isn't it. The AFL could have played a Showdown so that every match that round is essentially neutral, but why do that when they can give the Adelaide teams another home game and two unlucky others an additional away game. Not like one game could cost teams a top 4/top 8 spot, right?

Yeah this, surely the showdown makes sense as the ‘pinnacle’ of the weekend, it’s not even wasting the showdown because it’ll get the exact same crowd whether it’s magic round or a normal round. I get that they want to maximise two games crowds instead of one. But **** me surely there comes a time when equality needs to be considered over an extra flipping 20k tickets sold when it comes to something this blatantly unfair.

It’s just so blatantly obvious, when it’s in Perth a Saturday night Derby to showcase the Perth based weekend, when in QLD the Qclash etc

Surely they compensate us somewhere else, but I’m sure they won’t - they’ll definitely compensate Blues though…

Anyway, if playing Port away is make or break for our season then we’ve underperformed and aren’t in the position we should be. It’s annoying but we need to be good enough for this to not worry us

 

[Dogsman16]

Rumours flying about Rd 3 vs lions at marvel.

Might fly down for that one.

 

[Libbaaaa]

To compensate they’ll give us North 3 times.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Do other “minnow” clubs also get treated as the enablers of the “big” or “more worthy” clubs or is it just us?

 

[doggies ftw]

The whole round is shit too, terrible games - if you are gonna do it do it right, but no of course they can’t waste big match ups

Freos games I’m about 2pm Friday in perth lol and WCEs 10am Sunday, nice fixturing…

 

[doggies ftw]

Reckon we’d even get a ticket to our game if we wanted to go over?

 

[Sentinel]

Yeah this, surely the showdown makes sense as the ‘pinnacle’ of the weekend, it’s not even wasting the showdown because it’ll get the exact same crowd whether it’s magic round or a normal round. I get that they want to maximise two games crowds instead of one. But * me surely there comes a time when equality needs to be considered over an extra *ing 20k tickets sold when it comes to something this blatantly unfair.

It’s just so blatantly obvious, when it’s in Perth a Saturday night Derby to showcase the Perth based weekend, when in QLD the Qclash etc

Surely they compensate us somewhere else, but I’m sure they won’t - they’ll definitely compensate Blues though…

Anyway, if playing Port away is make or break for our season then we’ve underperformed and aren’t in the position we should be. It’s annoying but we need to be good enough for this to not worry us

No doubt the compensation will be another trip down the Princes Highway to play Geelong at their home stadium again, like every single other year.

Maybe Carlton's compensation is being awarded the Good Friday fixture?

 

[ossie_21]

Yeah it is very much a 6th interstate game, away vs another team on their home turf. Where you normally only get 5 as a Vic team. Maybe we will get compensated elsewhere on the fixture?

Though the Suns game is at a neutral venue really, so you could argue it balances things out a little.

All being said, our interstate record has been solid in recent times. If we are to be taken seriously, we should beat Port over there.

Well, I was way wrong.

After also losing/not being selected for Good Friday, maybe our compensation is we get to play the Eagles 3 times and twice at Marvel.

Or more 100% likely is we are told to sit down and shut up.

 

[TBOW]

I'm not so worried about who we play, we need to be good enough to beat anyone anywhere.

So far all our rumored games are night games which is good commercial exposure.
Not getting good Friday is not ideal but that was always kind of viewed as a rotating opponent and is doomed to fail as long as Norf is involved.

 

[Claythesmiths]

Between this, the finals travelling debacle last year, the absurd Wednesday game in R1, and losing Good Friday, it suggests to me that Ameet Bains is tiptoeing around the AFL, probably because he’s hoping for a position there himself. It reeks of a union boss who sells out her workers and suddenly finds herself in a safe Labor seat come election time.

 

[dogwatch]

Between this, the finals travelling debacle last year, the absurd Wednesday game in R1, and losing Good Friday, it suggests to me that Ameet Bains is tiptoeing around the AFL, probably because he’s hoping for a position there himself. It reeks of a union boss who sells out her workers and suddenly finds herself in a safe Labor seat come election time.

Maybe. Maybe not. I’m keeping an open mind on that one.

The reality is the AFL has changed the power structure since the 1990s so that while technically the clubs appoint the board which in turn appoints the executive it’s really the executive that runs nearly everything including appointments. It dishes out all the favours and punishments it likes.

They make decisions that accord with their own business agenda, not so much the clubs’ wishes. They dispense largesse at their own whim and don’t take kindly to any clubs kicking up a fuss in public.

Best hope is to raise concerns behind closed doors and hope to come out without being beaten up too much. That’s why you’ll seldom hear much bleating from any club.

 

[Sentinel]

I wonder if the AFL might potentially look at one of our away games being vs Port Adelaide at a neutral venue (and likewise for Adelaide vs Carlton)? Meaning all 4 clubs end up with 11 home, 11 away and 1 neutral like the rest of the competition?

Wishful thinking I'm sure - would be the fairest option but we know that's not in the AFL's interest.

 

[BenF]

Is anyone planning on going to the Gather Round game against Port? The information around tickets (or lack thereof) is appalling. Hopefully we hear from the Club soon, if not the league.

 

[maddog37]

This years theme.

 

[ossie_21]

I reckon the “compensation” for this will be something the AFL would have told the club directly.

Such as you’re getting an extra Friday night home game, against an opponent like Collingwood. That would give us a strong gate as it would draw a big crowd.

 

[doggies ftw]

I'm not so worried about who we play, we need to be good enough to beat anyone anywhere.

So far all our rumored games are night games which is good commercial exposure.
Not getting good Friday is not ideal but that was always kind of viewed as a rotating opponent and is doomed to fail as long as Norf is involved.

All away games though (except interstate Brissy)

Last year we had awesome prime time exposure, all for the benefit of the opposition whilst our home games are Sunday arvos etc, then people look at home crowd avgs and say we rely on handouts

 

[X_box_X]

I'm not so worried about who we play, we need to be good enough to beat anyone anywhere.

While this is definitely true, I would also argue that whether we like it or not, sometimes matches are decided on luck when two teams are evenly matched. A poor umpiring decision, a chaotic bounce of the ball... If we're good enough, but our strong opponents are equally as good, then it may very well come down to a bit of luck. And obviously you don't want to rely on luck to win matches.

Getting off to a good start is crucial. The two best starts we've had under Bevo saw us go on to play in the GF. Sure, there have been several times we're we've finished the home and away season strongly, but come finals for whatever reason we have hit a brick wall.

The evidence suggests getting off to a strong start to the season gives you a massive leg up. It allows you to rest key players at certain times throughout the year because there's not as much pressure on you to win matches.

 

[Pep_x]

Already shaping up as a really tough start to the season.
We'll know where we're at early anyway. Probably get Freo in Perth on Rd 2 as well.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Great stuff isn't it. The AFL could have played a Showdown so that every match that round is essentially neutral, but why do that when they can give the Adelaide teams another home game and two unlucky others an additional away game. Not like one game could cost teams a top 4/top 8 spot, right?

The league couldn't give a single **** about the consequences of clubs winning or losing. They care about sucking on money from the sweet government T**ty that this round will generate. So they're not going to risk this gimmick fizzing in prime time by playing the two yokel sides in a showdown.

Nor are they going to pit one of the yokels against one of the premiership favourites.

As is their way. What they conspired to do was play the highest ranked yokel against the lowest ranked of last years finalists in the hope of a competitive game and that just happens to be us. Personally, because we have no say in all of this I'd rather this outcome than having to play on some suburban ground in the middle of the afternoon like some of the lesser games are clearly being forced to.

I don't think it's a coincidence that neither of the yokels are playing their prime time games against top 4 sides. They're taking enough risk opening with Adelaide V Carlton. When that game inevitably blows out and it will. It's going to cast a bit of a shadow over everything that follows. The problem for the fixers errr... the schedulers of each game is that they had no choice but to kick it of with the biggest team in town. Not their poor cross town rivals.

Problematically though they couldn't do it against a finalist from last year, nor could they do it against another cellar dweller. So once again they contrived an outcome that sees the yokel play against a non finalist, but a team with a large and expectant Melbourne following to appease the broadcasters. Now everything is completely fair and above board and we can all get behind the incredible idea of the Gather Round. A Festival of Footy!

It still blows my mind that the marketing gurus at the AFL are so bereft of ideas that they had to lift the concept directly from another sport. And still chose to call it the "Gather Round." Which If memory serves me correctly is a euphemism for a debaucherous act at 2-day EDM festival.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Round 6 - Port Adelaide @ Adelaide Oval

Round 5 isn't it?