Game Day Around The Grounds Rnds 1 - 5

[Aphrodite]

Was a problem last season, thankfully it shouldn't be this year.

We just don't put teams to the sword when we should.

We've discussed this before Jatz.

There's a possibly of another draw in the season.

 

[Jatz]

We've discussed this before Jatz.

There's a possibly of another draw in the season.

There absolutely is that possibility. Would have thought unlikely but certainly possible.

Still need to develop our killer instinct.

 

[The Sultan]

I literally didn't hear a car horn the 3 or 4 days I was there. Blew my mind.

Lovely city and a great vibe - they were genuinely pumped to have Gather Round and all the interstate folk visiting. It felt like a GF before our match (I'm personally pretty cynical re Gather Round - obviously just a money-maker for AFL - but can't deny that it was fun being there). Was nice. Seems Adelaide would be an easy place to live (and confirmed by some friends we caught up with who do live there) - good restaurants/bars, little traffic, all amenities, 20 mins to the hills with mountain-biking, hikes and vineyards, amazing coast line 20 mins south of the city, an hour to good surf etc. McLaren Vale was beautiful. Locals/Crows supporters were very friendly with us on the train on way to footy and at bars before/afterwards. Had a great time.

+1 i was in RADalaide for the weekend and was first time id actually spent time there, had passed thru it a few times. Generally a chill city, easily to get around, traffic a non-issue, and all the people were friendly and welcoming. Glad its there for next thre years, already boooked accommadation (based on educated guess of when it will be)

 

[FitzroyBlueBagger]

Membrey had 7 disposals in the twos.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Probably 7.0 straight this week…

 

[thebluenewdeal]

There needs to be a crackdown on shots on goal. Players like Harry, who wasn’t the only one, turning the corner when they are in front of goal on their own is a big no. Just take the responsibility and kick it straight between the sticks. I get the set shots because there’s a man on the mark and it’s probably the smart kick on an angle. However, when you’re running into goal on your own then there’s nothing in front of you that’ll stop the trajectory. You can kick it as low as you like as long as it’s straight. It’s basic stuff.

 

[FitzroyBlueBagger]

What game.

It didn’t happen

You have taken the “Blue Pill” i see,
Smart choice, didn’t happen, back to normality happy days…

 

[Burgers45]

And it's likely to be more popular and successful in the coming years.

I didn't even realise it was on until just before the season started and couldn't organise myself to go.

I may go next year however.

Next year, I hope they don't fixture us up with one of the home teams. Us and the Doggies had to play Crows and Port Power respectively. Some media have suggested to maybe play the SHOWDOWN derby next year and then no team will be at a disadvantage.

 

[Accidental genius]

Next year, I hope they don't fixture us up with one of the home teams. Us and the Doggies had to play Crows and Port Power respectively. Some media have suggested to maybe play the SHOWDOWN derby next year and then no team will be at a disadvantage.

I’m not sure they’ll repeat it but I’d be happy for us to play in the opening game of the gather round again.

Ideally against the crom again to return the favor. Something our players should look forward to doing….to get revenge. If I was a player that is what I would want my team to do.

 

[Blue_Fusion]

Was a problem last season, thankfully it shouldn't be this year.

We just don't put teams to the sword when we should.

That's because of our style. Everything just looks like a tough slog...

When you play boring, uninspiring football... it's very difficult to put teams to the sword.

 

[Wickzki]

I’m not sure they’ll repeat it but I’d be happy for us to play in the opening game of the gather round again.

Ideally against the crom again to return the favor. Something our players should look forward to doing….to get revenge. If I was a player that is what I would want my team to do.

We needed to go out and avenge our loss from last year. It didn't happen.

I too would prefer to avoid both Port and Adelaide.Instead, I would prefer to play one of the Melbourne teams (not one of our blockbusters) that we will double up against later on in the year back in Melbourne.

Give us that Friday night of Saturday afternoon slot that Richmond, Melbourne and Essendon got. And if the ladder somewhat holds for this year there'd be worse opponents than the likes of St Kilda.

 

[Arr0w]

Was a problem last season, thankfully it shouldn't be this year.

We just don't put teams to the sword when we should.

Competition has generally been tight early on, apart from Lions belting North, which we should have done, all the other teams we have played haven't been belted either

Swans belted the Tigers, who had some key players out from round 1

Saints game will be another tight contest

 

[footyfan1978]

Next year, I hope they don't fixture us up with one of the home teams. Us and the Doggies had to play Crows and Port Power respectively. Some media have suggested to maybe play the SHOWDOWN derby next year and then no team will be at a disadvantage.

Two other teams will take their turn to be screwed over. Was meant to be an add on round and not mess with the 22 round, 11 home and 11 away structure but now they basically given a virtual 12th home game to two clubs and 12th away game to two clubs if they keep this up each Gather round. Should have been a Showdown for sure to keep all nine matches neutral.

 

[jj1978]

Two other teams will take their turn to be screwed over. Was meant to be an add on round and not mess with the 22 round, 11 home and 11 away structure but now they basically given a virtual 12th home game to two clubs and 12th away game to two clubs if they keep this up each Gather round. Should have been a Showdown for sure to keep all nine matches neutral.

Or should've gathered in Tassie.

 

[footyfan1978]

We needed to go out and avenge our loss from last year. It didn't happen.

I too would prefer to avoid both Port and Adelaide.Instead, I would prefer to play one of the Melbourne teams (not one of our blockbusters) that we will double up against later on in the year back in Melbourne.

Give us that Friday night of Saturday afternoon slot that Richmond, Melbourne and Essendon got. And if the ladder somewhat holds for this year there'd be worse opponents than the likes of St Kilda.

I'd be be happy to attend a double header next season. I'd stay for both games if it involved four traditional clubs. Should be shorter break between both games though.

 

[footyfan1978]

Or should've gathered in Tassie.

Exactly, although someone at my work place made a good point that if we had a Gather round in Tassie there no ground for any decent size crowds so you would be forced to fixture 9 matches in the round where you normally would be under 35K. So it probably better to leave it until they have their new ground. But personally I am more excited for a Gather round there, than anywhere else in the future. Think it likely a flop in Sydney but Adelaide and Tasmania would get behind it fully.

 

[Blue__Balls]

Two other teams will take their turn to be screwed over. Was meant to be an add on round and not mess with the 22 round, 11 home and 11 away structure but now they basically given a virtual 12th home game to two clubs and 12th away game to two clubs if they keep this up each Gather round. Should have been a Showdown for sure to keep all nine matches neutral.

Ehhhh, we only play Adelaide once this year anyway, so that Gather Round game would normally just have been fixtured at another time.

Our "extra" away game is one of our away games against teams we play twice:

GWS (A)
WC (A)
Mel (A)
Coll (A)
StK (A)
GC (A)

Already got the win against GWS, so that wasn't a hurtful fixture.
Should get the win against WC over there, so ditto that one.
Melbourne, Collingwood and St Kilda are all competitive VIC clubs, and we share home grounds with them to an extent.
GC is probably a tougher prospect than WC are, but less so than GWS in Sydney - 60/40 our way?

The extra fixtured away game for us is either a winnable interstate game or a marquee game against a decent VIC club. Hardly something to get upset about.

 

[footyfan1978]

Ehhhh, we only play Adelaide once this year anyway, so that Gather Round game would normally just have been fixtured at another time.

Maybe, maybe not. If you only play a team once in a season it might he home or away in the normal rounds.
Point is, Gather round was meant to be all nine neutral matches.
It not really about us. It about all 18 teams. Nobody should have had any homeground advantage in Gather Round. All 18 teams should have neutral matches in Gather round. I love the round , just frustrating they did not make it fully neutral for all nine matches.
Gave them a 6 out of 9 for the round. If all 9 matches were neutral and Freo fans were not screwed over with the timing of their match it would have been a perfect execution of Gather round.

 

[Blue__Balls]

Maybe, maybe not. If you only play a team once in a season it might he home or away or the normal rounds.
Point is, Gather round was meant to be all nine neutral matches.
It not really about us. It about all 18 teams. Nobody should have had any homeground advantage in Gather Round.

We also only play PA once, over here. I'm not sure if it's a "rule", but I suspect that we'd typically have one game in SA each year. Which is what we have this year. That it happened to be in Gather Round is somewhat immaterial.

OK, Adelaide may have been a little more fired up because of the nature of the round. In fairness, we bloody well should have been too. We didn't lose because we drew Adelaide in Gather Round, we lost because we were flat and played like poo.

Could have swapped the fixture with our away game against Collingwood or Melbourne, played one of them in SA in R5, and if we'd jogged out with the same attitude we showed last week they'd have pumped us by 10 goals too. Then we'd still have a game against Adelaide, in SA, later in the year....and they'd still have fired up against us (as they normally do, given they clearly see us as a beatable team).

 

[footyfan1978]

We also only play PA once, over here. I'm not sure if it's a "rule", but I suspect that we'd typically have one game in SA each year. Which is what we have this year. That it happened to be in Gather Round is somewhat immaterial.

OK, Adelaide may have been a little more fired up because of the nature of the round. In fairness, we bloody well should have been too. We didn't lose because we drew Adelaide in Gather Round, we lost because we were flat and played like poo.

Could have swapped the fixture with our away game against Collingwood or Melbourne, played one of them in SA in R5, and if we'd jogged out with the same attitude we showed last week they'd have pumped us by 10 goals too. Then we'd still have a game against Adelaide, in SA, later in the year....and they'd still have fired up against us (as they normally do, given they clearly see us as a beatable team).

Yeah. We should have beaten Adelaide
anyway but i am not posting about that. My post is Gather Round should be all neutral games, fullstop. If Port or Crows play at Adelaide Oval in Gather round it should not be against any of the other 16 clubs.

 

[Blue__Balls]

Yeah. We should have beaten Adelaide
anyway but i am not posting about that. My post is Gather Round should be all neutral games, fullstop. If Port or Crows play at Adelaide Oval in Gather round it should not be against any of the other 16 clubs.

OK, here's where I think we've digressed.

Previously you were saying that "Gather round was meant to be all nine neutral matches" and "Was meant to be an add on round and not mess with the 22 round, 11 home and 11 away structure". I don't recall anything from the AFL suggesting that this was a requirement or consideration.

So while I'd agree that perhaps it should be a round of 8 neutral games plus a showdown, that was never confirmed for this year, and as such it's hard to argue that we've been screwed over. Arguably, the outcome of your suggestion would have been our game against Adelaide happening later in the year with no discernible difference to our chances of winning, and one of our additional games against Collingwood/Melbourne/St Kilda being played at a neutral Adelaide Oval....instead of a neutral MCG or Marvel Stadium. Either way, it's a game against Adelaide in SA, and a game against a competitive VIC club at a venue neither side has any appreciable advantage at.

 

[Arr0w]

Gather round

Port v Crows

Everyone else

 

[SkyhorseTamer]

Gather round

Port v Crows

Everyone else

agree but more money in having more marketable marquee weeks in Adelaide. So I think it'll always remain separate.

 

[Coona Blues]

agree but more money in having more marketable marquee weeks in Adelaide. So I think it'll always remain separate.

This. Both clubs virtually guaranteed sell out, no matter who they play. No way the AFL pass up a seperate sell out with the showdown.

 

[footyfan1978]

My post is Gather Round should be all neutral games, fullstop. If Port or Crows play at Adelaide Oval in Gather round it should not be against any of the other 16 clubs.

OK, here's where I think we've digressed.

Previously you were saying that "Gather round was meant to be all nine neutral matches" and "Was meant to be an add on round and not mess with the 22 round, 11 home and 11 away structure". I don't recall anything from the AFL suggesting that this was a requirement or consideration.

So while I'd agree that perhaps it should be a round of 8 neutral games plus a showdown, that was never confirmed for this year, and as such it's hard to argue that we've been screwed over.

It is probably not important to even say we were screwed because it could be any of the 16 clubs from interstate that screwed over. That is the point for me. They should have taken away any potential for this screwing the clubs from out of the state by simply doing the clear solution of Port v Crows to avoid this and keep it a nice clean 9 matches of neutrality. I mean, that was part of the whole appeal of this add on round when it was first talked about as an idea. To have it so different to a normal round and have no teams with home ground advantage. It is just frustrating they spoilt it to being that wonderful way it should have been. I would have gone for sure if I knew all the matches were neutral and I could attend three of four matches like that. It will be wonderful if they could clean that up next year.

 

[BlueGum]

We need to start winning away more and dealing with expectations. Experience v Crows will learn them a few things.