Essendon's Home Ground

[gopies1981]

Nice ,you forgot to add 2 premierships in 50 years

Gee thats an old one have never heard that before! Pies win the flag in 2011 and what will I hear? Collingwood 3 flags in 50 years.

Remember since the VFL was renamed the AFL in 1990 Collingwood have won the same amount of premierships as Essendon!

Collingwood - better side, more supporter's, more member's, more money then Essendon!

Essendon are a big club but to say that Essendon will be bigger then Collingwood in a vew years is actually quite funny

 

[Kong]

You know what else is funny?

You overstaying your welcome.

Actually, it's not really. Please go.

 

[Tassieboy]

Interesting debate.

Seems as if we probably have it about right then.

MCG: Collingwood, Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond

Docklands: All interstate clubs + St Kilda, Dogs, North (?),

Doesn't really matter which ground/depends on form: Melbourne, Geelong

 

[theboxmike]

Gee thats an old one have never heard that before! Pies win the flag in 2011 and what will I hear? Collingwood 3 flags in 50 years.

Remember since the VFL was renamed the AFL in 1990 Collingwood have won the same amount of premierships as Essendon!

Collingwood - better side, more supporter's, more member's, more money then Essendon!

Essendon are a big club but to say that Essendon will be bigger then Collingwood in a vew years is actually quite funny

How is it funny when you know the above was true only a few years ago?

It's funny how scared Pies fans get of Essendon because they know where the only team that rivals them in terms of size and support.

 

[Clark G]

Interesting debate.

Seems as if we probably have it about right then.

MCG: Collingwood, Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond

Docklands: All interstate clubs + St Kilda, Dogs, North (?),

Doesn't really matter which ground/depends on form: Melbourne, Geelong

Would prefer playing Melbourne at Etihad as they and their fans hate it there, plus they do not have a large amount of supporters. Prefer playing Geelong at the MCG as our crowds with them, at least recently, cannot be accommodated at Etihad.

 

[Summer Nights]

Gee thats an old one have never heard that before! Pies win the flag in 2011 and what will I hear? Collingwood 3 flags in 50 years.

Remember since the VFL was renamed the AFL in 1990 Collingwood have won the same amount of premierships as Essendon!

Collingwood - better side, more supporter's, more member's, more money then Essendon!

Essendon are a big club but to say that Essendon will be bigger then Collingwood in a vew years is actually quite funny

It's than, not then.

What has renaming the VFL to AFL got to do with it? Sydney joined the AFL in 1982... should we start from there? Essendon has won 4 premierships since then, Collingwood 2. Two can play at this game

Re: membership numbers. 2 years ago, Collingwood finished with less than 46 thousand members. Success can change a lot.

 

[Clark G]

Gee thats an old one have never heard that before! Pies win the flag in 2011 and what will I hear? Collingwood 3 flags in 50 years.

Remember since the VFL was renamed the AFL in 1990 Collingwood have won the same amount of premierships as Essendon!

Collingwood - better side, more supporter's, more member's, more money then Essendon!

Essendon are a big club but to say that Essendon will be bigger then Collingwood in a vew years is actually quite funny

Who cares about a renaming of a competition? It is still the same comp and both teams joined at the same time and we lead you by one.

Better side? What goes up must come down, remember that.

More supporters? Yeah right now 'cause you are winning and we have not had a winning season since 2004, wait until you start to fall, all those bandwagoners will jump off you guys.

More members? See above.

More money? Right now maybe, but money is not everything - how long did it take you guys to win the flag despite being a super rich club?

 

[Ben the Gooner]

16>15

The rest is irrelevant.

 

[azza29]

Both grounds have their advantages. Etihad is out of the elements and great viewing from every seat. MCG has sheer size and you can't beat the roar a 90k crowd on ANZAC day. Plus for AFL members like myself ticketing arrangements for Bombers games at Etihad are a pain in the ass, whereas MCG is easy.

Would love to see enough ticketed Bombers members that it's hard for fans of opposing teams to get in

 

[Bombermania]

Thinking about the ugliness of the Great Southern Stand I reckon they could decorate it maybe put up large photos or painting of the various teams of the century or premiership sides or other great sportsman or even bands that have played the G

The ramp area looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a long time and maybe they need brighter lighting and also better audio

 

[Air_Chester]

The MCG is the place to be.

I'm a fan of various aspects of the Dome, including the customizable aspects for our team, the warmth, the atmosphere helped greatly by the roof and echo-inducing retractable seating. And games are faster.

But the MCG is home, especially when Essendon are hitting top 4 level. Used to draw massive crowds against teams like Footscray and Sydney when peaking in the late 90's. Just can't handle the capacity at the Dome. And the MCG is, you know, the home of football.

Love the MCG, big fan of things at the Dome, but it's definitely not the place for us when we're going through a successful period.

 

[raskolnikov]

16>15

The rest is irrelevant.

Will be 16-16 in October unfortunately.

 

[fishardansin]

I'd much prefer the split 7-4 in favour of the MCG. Those spare 15k seats each game means that it is easier to grow the membership base.

10 years ago we were the most supported team across the nation and with the highest average attendences. Stuffing up list management, which made the decline from the power years worse and longer lasting then necessary, and moving away from the G has seen our position fall away.

While we probably still have the best financial position of any Victorian club we need to get back to that raw power that we once held. Our new facilities and free agency should see us being able to consistently top up our list in the future which will keep us in top half of the table. Playing more games at the G will see us more competitive there and therefore better in finals.

I hope that we only play interstate sides at Docklands from now on.

Though the arrogant Essendon supporter inside me would like to see the club one day play Collingwood and Carlton there with only 500 seats available to the general public!!!!

 

[efcboy]

Gee thats an old one have never heard that before! Pies win the flag in 2011 and what will I hear? Collingwood 3 flags in 50 years.

Remember since the VFL was renamed the AFL in 1990 Collingwood have won the same amount of premierships as Essendon!

Collingwood - better side, more supporter's, more member's, more money then Essendon!

Essendon are a big club but to say that Essendon will be bigger then Collingwood in a vew years is actually quite funny

Essendon have more money than Collingwood. Lets get that fact right. Collingwood were bankrupt before Eddie came on board and have lost a fair amount of money recently on dodgy hotel deals. They are fighting back on the back of success but don't claim something that is incorrect.

 

[JayJ20]

Make your mind up. Done with this split. We're basically selling home games without the home ground advantage at the moment.

Move to the MCG so that this team learns to harden up and play in any weather condition at any time every week against any opponent instead of feeling so comfortable at Etihad. We haven't been a hard team since we've moved our games to Etihad. We won't be playing finals there, so be done with it. It's also contributing to our s**t record interstate. For this mental weakness to be carrying on from one playing group to the next, one coaching group to another shows that we need to do something drastic and this is the first step for me. We need to play in unpredictable weather every week so that we learn to bring the effort in every time.

Instead of following the money, think about winning a premiership first.

 

[Phone]

lotta big claims

 

[Pweter]

Make your mind up. Done with this split. We're basically selling home games without the home ground advantage at the moment.

Move to the MCG so that this team learns to harden up and play in any weather condition at any time every week against any opponent instead of feeling so comfortable at Etihad. We haven't been a hard team since we've moved our games to Etihad. We won't be playing finals there, so be done with it. It's also contributing to our s**t record interstate. For this mental weakness to be carrying on from one playing group to the next, one coaching group to another shows that we need to do something drastic and this is the first step for me. We need to play in unpredictable weather every week so that we learn to bring the effort in every time.

Instead of following the money, think about winning a premiership first.

Weather didn't cost us the last 2 games.

I would love to move permanently to the MCG though.

 

[JayJ20]

Weather didn't cost us the last 2 games.

I would love to move permanently to the MCG though.

It definitely didn't, but this unshakeable softness did. it's the same underlying reason behind why we mostly perform so badly once the rain starts falling. I think we need to stick to one, call it our home ground and build it up to be our home ground. For me, that's the MCG. With our membership well past the capacity of Etihad, this is the only way to go forward.

 

[Pweter]

It definitely didn't, but this unshakeable softness did. it's the same underlying reason behind why we mostly perform so badly once the rain starts falling. I think we need to stick to one, call it our home ground and build it up to be our home ground. For me, that's the MCG. With our membership well past the capacity of Etihad, this is the only way to go forward.

A ground doesn't define toughness or softness though. The way we play in bad weather is certainly an issue for us as we keep trying to to play dry weather football. The only time I've seen different lately is the start of the ANZAC day where it looks like we certainly learned our lesson from the week prior against Carlton.

Is there a path back to the MCG for us though? How can we make it happen? It'd surely require significant buy in from the AFL, the MCC, the owners/management of Etihad and probably the other Victorian clubs too, especially the current MCG tenants.

 

[DapperJong]

HOLY s**t A SHADOW

 

[Pweter]

HOLY s**t A SHADOW

jumps

 

[JayJ20]

A ground doesn't define toughness or softness though. The way we play in bad weather is certainly an issue for us as we keep trying to to play dry weather football. The only time I've seen different lately is the start of the ANZAC day where it looks like we certainly learned our lesson from the week prior against Carlton.

Is there a path back to the MCG for us though? How can we make it happen? It'd surely require significant buy in from the AFL, the MCC, the owners/management of Etihad and probably the other Victorian clubs too, especially the current MCG tenants.

With Hawthorn likely to be out for the next few years, they might have one or 2 home games more at Etihad. We've requested one more home game a year at the MCG, but I would honestly like at least 2-3 more to make the split 6-5/7-4 as the years go by before we eventually move permanently to the MCG within the next 10 years.

Yeah we did learn a lot from the Carlton game, which is why I would like for us to be exposed to those types of conditions more by playing at the MCG.

Either way, we just need make the move, if only for the size of our membership base

 

[JayJ20]

jumps

Was hard to see because of the contrast with the sun. Close the roof

 

[Phone]

you know, there's a reason why the Lions (and other 'interstate' teams) only play like two games a year at the MCG. Actual MCG tenants ain't playing them there....

 

[JayJ20]

you know, there's a reason why the Lions (and other 'interstate' teams) only play like two games a year at the MCG. Actual MCG tenants ain't playing them there....

I'm not saying that we'd have beaten Brisbane at the MCG. We'd lose there too.

Moving to Etihad was originally a short sighted move and it continues to be that way. Let's play most of our games on a ground where finals are played. I really dislike Etihad Stadium for so many reasons, but I dislike playing half our games on one ground and the other half on the other ground even more.