Collingwood - victim of the 'blockbuster' mentality ?

[Bloodstained Angel]

These comments could equally apply to Richmond, Carlton, Essendon or any other team that insists on 'blockbuster' fixturing.

Ok so the Pies are behind the 8-ball a little bit at the moment. They need at least 4 wins (1 of which should be a percentage booster) from the remianing six games.

But guess what ? - they play Richmond, Carlton and Essendon in that lot, and the other games are Kangaroos (Canberra), Doggies and Freo.

Given that the Pies are desperate to play in the finals, wouldn't Pies fans prefer a draw resembling, say, the Swans run home, which is WCE, Kangaroos, Ess, Melb, St Kilda, Brisbane.

Its still not an easy run home but its a damn sight better and more balanced than what the Pies have to face in the next six weeks.

So Collingwood, by insisting on 'blockbuster' fixturing cuts its own throat every season around this time because they have to play the other big Melbourne clubs and there is little, if any, prospect of winning most of these games even though the Pies could really use about 2 or 3 wins on the trot at the moment.

Likewise at the start of the season, Collingwood often struggle in June and July. The reason for this is they have to 'be up' for so many blockbuster games earlyt in the season that by the time Round 8 comes around, the pIes are usually left drained of all energy after facing Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and another nasty Melbourne outfit (usually the Roos).

Can I ask Collingwood fans - what would you rather ?

- Keep your blockbuster games, pocket the 600 grand per gate, but lose crucial games late in the season and keep missing the finals, or,

- Take your chances with a 'normal' draw, and play a reasonable mix of opponents late in the season and most probably get into the finals, but not make the kind of money that you can with blockbusters.

Finals or the money ?

Which would you rather ?

cheers

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

BSA as melbourne showed this year when they played a "home game" in brissy against brissy money is all important to melb based clubs and they would leave no stone unturned my personal opinion is the 4 pts are far more important than the dollars. short term sure the money is good but long term success which is playing in the finals =attracting sponsership long term.
cheers!

 

[GOALden Hawk]

That's the reason I was annoyed at Malthouse complaining about the club's tought run home after the loss to Hawthorn on Saturday. If I was him, instead of whinging to the press, I'd have a quiet word to Eddie suggesting having to play Essendon and Carlton isn't quite the 'advantage' he is looking for.

Sure, the short-term benefits of making an extra $500,000 are good, but the long-term benefits of making the finals would be far greater than this.

 

[kristin5]

Maybe I'm naive - I thought we played in all these blockbuster games because of some directive from the AFL and/or requests from the other clubs. I know that some clubs request to play us twice a year to boost their funds (ie. Hawthorn and Bulldogs).

Of course, I would rather a more even draw and not play against Essendon, Carlton and Richmond twice every year. I think it is much more important to play finals football - you are getting more money from playing more games as well as more members and increased sponsorship.

 

[AlfAndrews]

In theory ... and for the sake of fairness to all ... I think the draw should be random. But, of course it isn't ... so ...

I must say, I get a bit sick of the way the fixturing is done. We always seem to be playing Essendon, Carlton and Richmond. And with Hawthorn going well again we've got another top team to play twice because of the rigged draw.

But really ... I look at it this way. If we make the finals we are going to come up against these clubs again in September. If we can't beat them now, how the hell are we going to beat them in September.

The money or the finals, you ask.

Well ... there's another way of looking at this. I'm not particularly interested in The Club's finances. That's for the bean counters to worry about. So that's not an issue for me. If they think we'll make more money out of a tougher draw then that's their call.

I'm more interested in my own (very precarious) finances. Making the finals means coughing up money for finals tickets and probably interstate travel. Of course I'll cough up if the Pies make it. But do I really want to be paying the big bucks to go to see an uncompetitive Collingwood team in September.

This might sound like heresy ... but I'd probably be happier with an honourable 9th (no Richmond jokes, please) than getting slaughtered in the first week of the finals because we were out of our depth in September.

When we can make the finals IN SPITE OF a blockbuster draw, we'll know that we are ready to play a serious role in the September action.

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Looking at your post another way Alf - it seems to be a particulary good arguement against the final 8 !

So, a final four or final five would be ideal to avoid the situation you talk about. Uncompetitive teams just making up the numbers come September time.

Will never happen but ...

cheers

 

[AlfAndrews]

I agree, BSA. The final 8 is ridiculous. Just another money-making exercise. It should be the old final 4. Or final 5 at most.

 

[kristin5]

I was talking about this very topic with my friend (Essendon supporter!) on Saturday night. We both think it should be a Final 5. The other teams that just scrape into the Final 8 are usually not competitive enough anyway (although I do recall a time when Collingwood finished 8th and West Coast 1st, so we had to play over there and only ended up losing by a point - heartbreaking!!!).

 

[DrPepper]

Collingwood victim of the Block Head mentality!

GO BOMBERS!!!

 

[Joel]

I'm actually quite sick of all these "blockbusters" we play. It should be restricted to Essendon twice a year, with Carlton and Richmond rotating every other year. All the other teams can go get stuffed with their "blockbusters", with all other games being rotated on a yearly basis. This means:

NO "traditional" first round clash with the Hawks, and no other "tradtitional" matches played against Collingwood other than that of Anzac Day (while on a few years old, will end up being the only traditional match Collingwood plays every year).

 

[All The AFL]

Originally posted by Joel
I'm actually quite sick of all these "blockbusters" we play. It should be restricted to Essendon twice a year, with Carlton and Richmond rotating every other year. All the other teams can go get stuffed with their "blockbusters", with all other games being rotated on a yearly basis. This means:

NO "traditional" first round clash with the Hawks, and no other "tradtitional" matches played against Collingwood other than that of Anzac Day (while on a few years old, will end up being the only traditional match Collingwood plays every year).

I would of thought you Magpie idiots would relish that chance of playing a team of PRETTY BOYS twice a year!

 

[PiesPremiers]

Originally posted by All The AFL


I would of thought you Magpie idiots would relish that chance of playing a team of PRETTY BOYS twice a year!

what a ********.. theres always 1 isnt there!!!!

no, i would rather keep playing the blockbuster games! we are going to have to play them in the finals anyway. its just getting to the finals thats going to be tough.

but once we're there, we know we can match it with these teams, because, to have made the finals, we have beaten the best sides in the comp to get in..

 

[Rooboy 96]

Originally posted by kristin5
I was talking about this very topic with my friend (Essendon supporter!) on Saturday night. We both think it should be a Final 5. The other teams that just scrape into the Final 8 are usually not competitive enough anyway (although I do recall a time when Collingwood finished 8th and West Coast 1st, so we had to play over there and only ended up losing by a point - heartbreaking!!!).

It really depends on the quality of the team.... in 1997 the Kangaroos slipped into the finals in 7th... won their first two finals... and made another prelim... anything can happen once a quality team gets there...

 

[TigerTank]

Originally posted by Joel
I'm actually quite sick of all these "blockbusters" we play. It should be restricted to Essendon twice a year ... All the other teams can go get stuffed with their "blockbusters", with all other games being rotated on a yearly basis. This means:

Of course, Joel, you know that this is an utterly ridiculous thought.

Why the hell should Essendon and Collingwood be treated differently to anyone else when they each represent only 1/16th of the stakeholders in the AFL?

GET RID OF ALL RETURN BLOCKBUSTERS. ALL OF THEM!

Or don't you have the courage to attempt to survive without little financial favours from the AFL?

Collingwood is not special - Essendon is not special - treat them exactly the same as everyone else.

 

[Seth]

Myself I would rather an even draw. Can't work it out sometimes. MM comments are a bit perplexing in this dept as as stated we do request these games. But it will never be an even draw whatsoever for any team so if there are other advantages then I suppose it is there to be used. Funny thing is though is that we have played well and beaten some of the bigger teams but drop games against sides that we should have won this year and have made it harder for ourselves. If say we had beaten Sydeny at Colonial, Geelong and Brissy at MCG which we should have, the run may not be so daunting, so they only have themselves to blame.

 

[Joel]

Originally posted by TigerTank


Of course, Joel, you know that this is an utterly ridiculous thought.

Why the hell should Essendon and Collingwood be treated differently to anyone else when they each represent only 1/16th of the stakeholders in the AFL?

GET RID OF ALL RETURN BLOCKBUSTERS. ALL OF THEM!

Or don't you have the courage to attempt to survive without little financial favours from the AFL?

Collingwood is not special - Essendon is not special - treat them exactly the same as everyone else.

Fine, do that...BUT how long will Richmond last?

 

[PiesPremiers]

"but the afl are lining our pockets with money with these games"

what a load of **** hawk fans!!! pure **** !!!!

 

[Grendel]

Originally posted by PiesPremiers
"but the afl are lining our pockets with money with these games"

what a load of **** hawk fans!!! pure **** !!!!

Where did that quote come from and which Hawk fan made it?


Blockbusters? Bollocks. Make it a two year rotation, with the odd double up game that misses out just that, a random miss. Ie alterantate sides every other year in rounds 16-22. Its about as fair as a draw as you can get under current guidelines.

 

[PiesPremiers]

Originally posted by Grendel


Where did that quote come from and which Hawk fan made it?

in the absolutely livid thread.. think i was "the hitman" or "hawk 2001"

lining our pockets.. LOL ... a true hawk.. a true hawk!