Eagles 2020 season: Finals

[FreeTK]

 

[Taylor]

I think all games should be away games until WA opens up and then the end of the season is all home games where West Coast and Freo get to feel like a Victorian club and play at the same ground for ten weeks in a row.

 

[arfadunger]

Was just thinking this exact same thing. Obviously when I first heard about what Eddie said last night I thought that it appeared to be a way of getting rid of our potential run of home games at the end of season which wasn't great.

But being based n Alice Springs (or elsewhere in the NT) wouldn't be a bad thing for the reasons you stated and while we appear to have a pretty good supporter base there it could open the market up a bit for us and you would expect that we would have some home ground advantage with the warmer weather. Lots to play out first still.

 

[FreeTK]

I think all games should be away games until WA opens up and then the end of the season is all home games where West Coast and Freo get to feel like a Victorian club and play at the same ground for ten weeks in a row.

This was my preferred model at first too.

Living in Melbourne my concern about that is the impacts of Victorian restrictions and climate.

Melbourne winter is very different to Perth. Average temperature here in Victoria in June/July is 12 degrees compared to 19 in Perth and the heavy conditions could impact on the Eagles style of play.

A warmer climate in Alice Springs will help West Coast with their kick/mark/down the line style of play.

The climate + restrictions will make a Victorian experience very difficult on the players, they will feel like they are in a gulag. Alice give the options of moving around the community and some of their resorts are first class and will give the players a nice home base to play home.

I like the look of Crown Plaza in Alice, could be fun and family friendly with a private gym and resort 15 minute walk from the middle of town.

Best hotels and places to stay in Alice Springs - Tourism Australia

See what Alice Springs has to offer with great accommodation options from luxury pool-side suites to affordable, family-friendly studio villas.

www.australia.com

Beyond this year I'd love to play the "heart of the nation" game in Alice Springs each year (as long as it wasn't a WC home game).

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Far out this is a great conundrum.

I was sold on the idea of having a free run at home games in the back end of the season (potentially with fans) at optus. Very appealing tbh. This Alice idea is great. Have crowds and be in warm weather.

I wonder what the players would prefer?

 

[shooshka]

Far out this is a great conundrum.

I was sold on the idea of having a free run at home games in the back end of the season (potentially with fans) at optus. Very appealing tbh. This Alice idea is great. Have crowds and be in warm weather.

I wonder what the players would prefer?

Best case scenario to me is that we get the 'hub' of away games at the start with a view to having the 'hub' of home games at the end (at Optus). If the borders don't open up, then the home 'hub' can hopefully be moved to Alice Springs.

Buys a bit of time (as realistically the country might/will look different a month from now - the rate of change is pretty rapid at the moment.

Worst case scenario (assuming we are talking about a 4-week hub period) maybe we could negotiate for one of our away games to be a home game - but against an opposition not at their home ground (Geelong at Marvel seems the obvious one, or bulldogs/saints at MCG). Then get an 'away' game against Freo in a 4-week home hub. Obviously there are a lot more than 8-games to get through though - so we will have to see what happens!

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Best case scenario to me is that we get the 'hub' of away games at the start with a view to having the 'hub' of home games at the end (at Optus). If the borders don't open up, then the home 'hub' can hopefully be moved to Alice Springs.

Buys a bit of time (as realistically the country might/will look different a month from now - the rate of change is pretty rapid at the moment.

Worst case scenario (assuming we are talking about a 4-week hub period) maybe we could negotiate for one of our away games to be a home game - but against an opposition not at their home ground (Geelong at Marvel seems the obvious one, or bulldogs/saints at MCG). Then get an 'away' game against Freo in a 4-week home hub. Obviously there are a lot more than 8-games to get through though - so we will have to see what happens!

Wouldn't the best case be home games at optus at the end?

 

[FreeTK]

South Australian Premier has come out and stated that they are happy to give the Power and Crows exemptions from 14 day quarantine, but not teams from outside SA, essentially meaning the AFL will have to make adjustments for 4 of the 18 clubs. It will be interesting to see how things progress.

 

[Bacchus]

South Australian Premier has come out and stated that they are happy to give the Power and Crows exemptions from 14 day quarantine, but not teams from outside SA, essentially meaning the two SA teams are in the same boat we are.

Except they can realistically fly to and back from games in Victoria so they are still based at home in Adelaide. They are massively disadvantaged, we are disadvantaged squared. The SA teams have one hand tied behind their back, we have two. Thanks to the intransigence of our Premier, our season is lost before it has started.

Palaszyzuk in Queensland who has a closed border is able to give professional football teams an exemption, Lisa Harvey doesn't see why it can't happen, McGowan and Cook are digging their feet in. Obviously if there was greater than a minimal risk of covid infection nobody would be thinking of it.

Sometimes you have to be flexible, but McGowan must see more votes in being hardline than in having a football season. Interesting to see how that works out.

I can see the Eagles giving it a go to start with and then getting worn out by playing away games every week. If you are three or four games off the pace, what is the use of having a run of home games at the end? And who is to say that will even happen. McGowan has given no indication that it will be the case. In fact, he is giving every indication that it won't be.

No wonder David King is talking about the greatest premiership ever, if in the most unlikely case that it happened.
I am disappointed that our premier could not see some way to negotiate, this is not the AFL's fault this time.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

There is no way the VFL will let us play all the games if we relocate as away games giving us a large block of home games at the end. That’s how it should be but it won’t happen.
If there is 16 rounds to play and let’s say we are based East for the first 7 rounds of that 16 you will find that 3-4 of those games will be counted as home fixtures and therefore we will get approximately 5 home games at Optus for the season.
We will be penalised because our premier is looking out for our welfare. As far as the Vics are concerned though our premier will be the reason we get shafted again.
And once again I will bet our CEO says nothing and just bends over for head office as per normal.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Except they can realistically fly to and back from games in Victoria so they are still based at home in Adelaide. They are massively disadvantaged, we are disadvantaged squared. The SA teams have one hand tied behind their back, we have two. Thanks to the intransigence of our Premier, our season is lost before it has started.

Palaszyzuk in Queensland who has a closed border is able to give professional football teams an exemption, Lisa Harvey doesn't see why it can't happen, McGowan and Cook are digging their feet in. Obviously if there was greater than a minimal risk of covid infection nobody would be thinking of it.

Sometimes you have to be flexible, but McGowan must see more votes in being hardline than in having a football season. Interesting to see how that works out.

I can see the Eagles giving it a go to start with and then getting worn out by playing away games every week. If you are three or four games off the pace, what is the use of having a run of home games at the end? And who is to say that will even happen. McGowan has given no indication that it will be the case. In fact, he is giving every indication that it won't be.

No wonder David King is talking about the greatest premiership ever, if in the most unlikely case that it happened.
I am disappointed that our premier could not see some way to negotiate, this is not the AFL's fault this time.

I think it’s harsh to crack the premier, he is looking out for our welfare as he should. Pity the Vic and NSW leaders didn’t care about their people more.

 

[FreeTK]

Except they can realistically fly to and back from games in Victoria so they are still based at home in Adelaide. They are massively disadvantaged, we are disadvantaged squared. The SA teams have one hand tied behind their back, we have two. Thanks to the intransigence of our Premier, our season is lost before it has started.

Palaszyzuk in Queensland who has a closed border is able to give professional football teams an exemption, Lisa Harvey doesn't see why it can't happen, McGowan and Cook are digging their feet in. Obviously if there was greater than a minimal risk of covid infection nobody would be thinking of it.

Sometimes you have to be flexible, but McGowan must see more votes in being hardline than in having a football season. Interesting to see how that works out.

I can see the Eagles giving it a go to start with and then getting worn out by playing away games every week. If you are three or four games off the pace, what is the use of having a run of home games at the end? And who is to say that will even happen. McGowan has given no indication that it will be the case. In fact, he is giving every indication that it won't be.

No wonder David King is talking about the greatest premiership ever, if in the most unlikely case that it happened.
I am disappointed that our premier could not see some way to negotiate, this is not the AFL's fault this time.

I don't think it is as bad as you put it out there to be. South Australia now coming out and saying AFL teams will not be able to fly in to the state puts pressure back on AFL to find a solution, which could mean competition wide hubs. If I was West Coast, I would be putting forward the following;

1) We relocate to Victoria and play "away games for the first 8 weeks. Those away games are either in Melbourne against Victorian teams, with 1 or 2 away games in NSW/QLD against teams in that state followed by a run of 7/8 home games at Optus with the 1 away game being in Adelaide against an SA team.

This option can be framed to the AFL as promoting the AFL is the region which they are keen to do.

or

2) We retain our normal 1 home 1 away game and base ourselves in Alice Springs until a time that the WA borders open. Adelaide and Port can stay in Adelaide with away games in the front half of the season. Freo can either stay in Alice with us, or move to Melbourne.

The worst option and the one we should avoid is relocating to Melbourne and playing a fixture with scheduled home and away games from there. West Coast should not allow this option to occur.

3) The third option is that the AFL is able to talk McGowan around. This will depend on the political pressure on McGowan who can be quite single minded once he is settled on a particular view. We will need to see better results from NSW and VIC in order to provide McGowan the political cover to change his mind. I can imagine a couple of weeks of lower cases in NSW and VIC McGowan being able to be swayed "Now that those on the East Coast have finally got their act together I am comfortable with the AFL's proposal not posing a risk to the health of West Australians". This may not happen until a period of time after the season is rebooted, and we need to be prepared for that.

 

[dewcefault]

There is no way the VFL will let us play all the games if we relocate as away games giving us a large block of home games at the end. That’s how it should be but it won’t happen.
If there is 16 rounds to play and let’s say we are based East for the first 7 rounds of that 16 you will find that 3-4 of those games will be counted as home fixtures and therefore we will get approximately 5 home games at Optus for the season.
We will be penalised because our premier is looking out for our welfare. As far as the Vics are concerned though our premier will be the reason we get shafted again.
And once again I will bet our CEO says nothing and just bends over for head office as per normal.

Let's hope not.

I definitely get the sense they'll rob home games from us because otherwise it'd be 'unfair' for us to have something the Vic teams get every year. Then they'll complain & whinge about why we're unhappy and we should be grateful they let us come and rescue them from financial ruin. If only we had a time machine.

I would love to be able to hurt the AFL without hurting the Eagles but unfortunately that can't happen. The competition needs an overhaul, less teams, definitely less teams in Vic and a more national approach.

Hopefully if SA don't provide an exemption for teams flying to Adelaide then we have effectively 4 of us with a similar issue and can stand united.
SA teams stay at home but only fly to play away games
WA teams hub in Vic and get a bunch of away games out of the way.

 

[dewcefault]

I think it’s harsh to crack the premier, he is looking out for our welfare as he should. Pity the Vic and NSW leaders didn’t care about their people more.

Opposition have finally found an issue they can attack him on so it's going to get messy

 

[D-N-R]

Maybe a season in Melbourne might be good to learn how to play in the wet.

Season looks like starting in June so things might have changed by then and we might be more open, even more so in July and August.

Hopefully we play away games early on and get the balance in home games in the latter part of the season.

 

[ep2018]

I suspect we'll play 'home' games in Melbourne against non vic teams. Like we'll play the Swans at Etihad as a 'home' game.

 

[ep2018]

Maybe a season in Melbourne might be good to learn how to play in the wet.

Season looks like starting in June so things might have changed by then and we might be more open, even more so in July and August.

Hopefully we play away games early on and get the balance in home games in the latter part of the season.

Cant see two week quarantine being lifted until a cure/vaccine is made and mass produced.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Opposition have finally found an issue they can attack him on so it's going to get messy

Mate I am a liberal man through and through but this virus is not about politics and both the federal and our state government have done a good job with it.

 

[shooshka]

Wouldn't the best case be home games at optus at the end?

Yep, I think that is what I was trying to say also (option 1, optus, option 2 if we must, Alice Springs)

 

[shooshka]

There is no way the VFL will let us play all the games if we relocate as away games giving us a large block of home games at the end. That’s how it should be but it won’t happen.
If there is 16 rounds to play and let’s say we are based East for the first 7 rounds of that 16 you will find that 3-4 of those games will be counted as home fixtures and therefore we will get approximately 5 home games at Optus for the season.
We will be penalised because our premier is looking out for our welfare. As far as the Vics are concerned though our premier will be the reason we get shafted again.
And once again I will bet our CEO says nothing and just bends over for head office as per normal.

GC 2018 fixture may be a decent lead here - as they had issues with access due to comm games.

Played Home (cairns), away, home (against Freo at Optus guessing for $), away (wc), away (brisbane), away (adelaide), away (wb), home (melb, Gabba), home (PA shanghai). So the ability to schedule 4 away games in a row is there for the league - but obviously they also had the ability to play home games in their state at different stadiums (and one in China at the end).

 

[D-N-R]

Cant see two week quarantine being lifted until a cure/vaccine is made and mass produced.

That might be quite a while away, if ever. I think if the country gets a good handle on it, they will relax it. A 12 month wait might kill the economy.

Cook was just on TV saying the AFL model isn't good enough to prevent the spread, but he did suggest that changes might occur if other states can control their numbers.

He did push the idea of a WA hub.

 

[FreeTK]

That might be quite a while away, if ever. I think if the country gets a good handle on it, they will relax it. A 12 month wait might kill the economy.

Cook was just on TV saying the AFL model isn't good enough to prevent the spread, but he did suggest that changes might occur if other states can control their numbers.

He did push the idea of a WA hub.

Part of me wonders if there is a thread of wanting hubs to help the WA economy. Hubs have been priced at $40m to run. I am sure a few state governments are eyeing off the AFL money and thinking they would prefer the hub model as it poses less health risk and is an economic win opposed to a fly in fly out model.

In other news, Tassie has joined in the chorus saying that they have concerns about Hawks and North playing there in a fly in fly out model.

In response Jeff Kennett called them selfish. Hawks play 4 games each year in Tassie for 5 years in a $20m deal with the Tassie state government.

'Very selfish': Hawks president Kennett hits out at Tasmania

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has hit out at Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein for suggesting the state is unwilling to host AFL games without crowds.

www.theage.com.au

 

[shooshka]

Part of me wonders if there is a thread of wanting hubs to help the WA economy. Hubs have been priced at $40m to run. I am sure a few state governments are eyeing off the AFL money and thinking they would prefer the hub model as it poses less health risk and is an economic win opposed to a fly in fly out model.

In other news, Tassie has joined in the chorus saying that they have concerns about Hawks and North playing there in a fly in fly out model.

In response Jeff Kennett called them selfish. Hawks play 4 games each year in Tassie for 5 years in a $20m deal with the Tassie state government.

'Very selfish': Hawks president Kennett hits out at Tasmania

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has hit out at Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein for suggesting the state is unwilling to host AFL games without crowds.

www.theage.com.au

Kennett has been a little-off-the-mark for a while on a lot of things, but he is flat out wrong here.

Why on earth you would fly 2 teams down there to play a game of footy is beyond me. If it was a hub style that is different (but quarantining for 2-weeks on entry isn't going to work, and fly-in-fly-out is what the Premier is saying no to). Different if one of the teams is based there - but to fly 2 teams in would be insanity.


On a separate topic - is there any chance SA/WA border opens at some stage. Both states have 'hard' border closures and (I think) 14-day mandatory quarantine periods on arrival. May be a way to get some games out-of-the-way (derby/showdown plus SA/WA matchups) buying extra time hoping for easing of restrictions.

 

[dewcefault]

Mate I am a liberal man through and through but this virus is not about politics and both the federal and our state government have done a good job with it.

Hey mate, I totally agree with you. I was just referring to this:

‘Relax WA’s borders for AFL clubs’: State Opposition

The WA Liberals have called for the State’s hard border closure to be relaxed to allow AFL clubs to fly in and out of Perth.

thewest.com.au

Admittedly I don't pay for the West so I've only seen the headline.
Overall I'm very impressed that state and federal oppositions have managed to work with the Premiers and PM to do their jobs unlike some of our allies.

My concern is it'll turn political as the curve flattens and it becomes less about saving lives and more about saving the economy.

 

[D-N-R]

Part of me wonders if there is a thread of wanting hubs to help the WA economy. Hubs have been priced at $40m to run. I am sure a few state governments are eyeing off the AFL money and thinking they would prefer the hub model as it poses less health risk and is an economic win opposed to a fly in fly out model.

In other news, Tassie has joined in the chorus saying that they have concerns about Hawks and North playing there in a fly in fly out model.

In response Jeff Kennett called them selfish. Hawks play 4 games each year in Tassie for 5 years in a $20m deal with the Tassie state government.

'Very selfish': Hawks president Kennett hits out at Tasmania

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has hit out at Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein for suggesting the state is unwilling to host AFL games without crowds.

www.theage.com.au

The hub would be easier to control. Having seen the debacle with the Ruby Princess, newmarch house and now the meat work cluster, I have little faith that governments can adequately control cases. Things that seem obvious, like checking people before they disembark or testing people in a workplace, seem to be beyond their abilities.

I agree with the Tassie govt. It's pointless for the hawks to play there. They are there to attract visitors and spectators. No crowd means no point. Jeff is concerned about the $$ which won't be forthcoming if they don't play.