19,039 on the Gold Coast
-
LIVE: St Kilda v Hawthorn - Rd 12 - 7:30PM Thu
Squiggle tips Hawks at 66% chance -- What's your tip? -- Injury Lists » -- All Rd 12 Games
-
SuperCoach Rd 12 SC Talk - Trade Talk - Capt/VC - 2026 Fight MND Comp ,//, AFL Fantasy Rd 12 AFF Talk - AF Trades - Capt/VC
2026 Attendances
- Thread starter PonsfordMagpie
- Start date
- Tagged users None
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
Fambam84
Senior List
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2025
- Posts
- 226
- Reaction score
- 363
- AFL Club
- Tasmania
Very good
Log in to remove this Banner Ad
It’s a big ask. Collingwood are just going though. Essendon looked very tired after today’s game, Pies have two days more break. Bombers lose Ridley and probably Edwardes, both hurt the side. Pies should be favourites.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2018
- Posts
- 1,706
- Reaction score
- 1,938
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Do you support the Suns at home when they play Carlton and Collingwood?
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2014
- Posts
- 2,345
- Reaction score
- 3,163
- Location
- Tbar
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
- Other Teams
- FC Barcelona, Atlanta Hawks
Outstanding crowd. Bookmark it now, if the Sun manage to beat Hawthorn next week, 15k+ is on the cards for the expansion cup the following week on the Goldy
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2018
- Posts
- 1,706
- Reaction score
- 1,938
- AFL Club
- Carlton
I support any team that’s playing Carlton or Collingwood
Do you go to the games? Just curious if the Suns home crowd are made up expat Vics.
We can only hope! That said, I have zero faith in the club admin. For all we know they could do something stupid like sell games to FNQ instead.
To be fair, it’s also the first Saturday afternoon Marvel game in years. All the Marvel ‘home’ games since Covid have been Sunday afternoon / night games.
Yes, I go to the odd game at PFS. The crowd at their games are very much young families. The adults possibly barracked for a Victorian side but their kids are Suns fans. In 20 years those kids will be bringing along their Suns supporting children.
The crowd was probably ~55% Suns / 45% Bombers today. That’s how it felt from the side I was sitting, although it’s hard to know based on where you’re sitting in the ground. It’s a carnival type atmosphere, different to games in Vic. The early afternoon slot isn’t good here, people go out for brunch, do activities or go to the beach. School sport for the kids all make it hard for people to go early. Late arvo is perfect.
I think the Suns have a great future up here.
If your rationale is that it would prevent Melbourne based Hawthorn fans from attending, then hasn't that been happening for years by playing home games in Tasmania?
Absolutely. Hawthorn should have left Tasmania 15 years ago when the AFL gave them the godfather offer to leave Launceston. Games like today show that Hawthorn fans will travel to Marvel. And that’s a win-win-win for HFC members, the AFL and the non Victorian clubs who have been scheduled in Launceston for years.
Port, the Gold Coast and GWS should be playing Hawthorn at the MCG and Marvel not in Tasmania, FNQ or Canberra.
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
Agree completely.
No issue with Richmond selling a home game to Tassie during the rebuild at the expense of a Marvel game, but in 3-4 years you want 11 games in Melbourne with every competitor advantage available.
When Hawthorn started playing games in Tasmania their two Docklands home games drew 16,000 against the Dockers (in 2000 and 2001). Since they started playing home games at Marvel again (in non COVID impacted years) their nine home games have now drawn an average of more than 32,000. And if you take out the games against Victorian opposition it’s 31,150 (from seven games).
The myth that Hawthorn fans hate Marvel as much as Richmond and Melbourne is about 20 years out of date. Who even cares about Waverley Park anymore anyway? Sure the crowds aren’t MCG level but the drop off is no where near as great as the traditional MCG tenant clubs (it’s more like Essendon and Carlton).
There is no reason Hawthorn shouldn’t play a package of 3, 4 or even 5 home games at Marvel. That way the AFL get another high drawing Marvel tenant, the non Victorian teams can get more games in Melbourne and the Devils have the oxygen they need to grow. It’s a win-win-win for everybody.
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
It's a good crowd because I understand the context, but I feel like the very context that we should be assuming that crowds decrease for these Marvel games to be a bit strange. I get that there's certain capacity constraints and quality of seating (ie, sitting on the back row with a GA ticket, vs a reasonable seat at the MCG), plus MCC member etc. considerations. But this crowd would have been around 45-50,000 at the MCG surely? There are still several thousand Hawthorn fans that level of their support does not extend to attending a different stadium, which can easily be considered disappointing.
This isn't to disagree with the above point though that Hawks are better at it than fans of other clubs. Just strange that it happens at all, to any club.
It's like the times when it's clear that there's only like, 5,000 Melbourne fans at a Marvel game. I do wonder how it can be that there's more than 5,000 people that claim to be passionate Melbourne fans then?
This isn't to disagree with the above point though that Hawks are better at it than fans of other clubs. Just strange that it happens at all, to any club.
It's like the times when it's clear that there's only like, 5,000 Melbourne fans at a Marvel game. I do wonder how it can be that there's more than 5,000 people that claim to be passionate Melbourne fans then?
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
Precisely. Having heard it from people directly involved in the deal, I'm not quite sure even Hawthorn members fully appreciate the benefit of the Tassie deal. It's made Hawks incredibly rich as a club, well beyond how rich they "should" be regarding their direct-to-consumer memberships, attendances, merchandising etc. Obviously we all have access to financial deals, but it obfuscates the benefit in the alternate reality of having played more games in Melbourne over the last 25 years. You need to hear it from Launceston/club people who make these decisions themselves and were candid with me in telling me so.
One can argue that the Launceston money was necessary to account for the fact that Waverely as a training base was one of the least appealing in the AFL. Now they have Dingley, and improvement, they don't really need Launceston anymore, because the money they gain is to what end? To not play in front of their Melbourne fans?
