Fix-ture

[JC Hawks]

You can't judge the fixture half way through the season.

Best way to assess the season is to just see who each team plays twice.

 

[Malifice]

I still don’t get why it was changed from playing every team once before playing the first 6 or so teams you played against to finish the year.

I’m pretty sure we play Richmond twice in 6 weeks before even playing Freo this year which strikes me as odd

Edit: removed Brisbane, we play them the week before the tigers rematch

If they keep the season to less games than sides in it, it should be along the lines of play every team once and then it progresses to a series of 2 x 3 week conferences of 6 teams each (sorted by ladder position at the end of round 17)

You can then instill some kind of advancement for the winner of one group to move to the next group up, and have the bottom team in each conference drop down a group or something like that.

Then you move onto the final 3 weeks of the top 6 teams playing for a double chance or a home final (or both) and the middle 6 teams fighting out for the final 2 spots in the top 8.

The bottom 6 clubs are excluded from a shot at finals with 3 weeks to go, but practically speaking that's the case from mid season anyway.

It also means no-ones season is over till round 20. Its possible for a bottom 6 side to win conference 1 and then finish top 2 in conference 2 (progressing to the finals). This is countered by the fact that the top grouping at the end of round 17 are largely safe from that point (one side will drop out after conference 1, but gets a double chance to get back into the finals by coming top 2 the next conference against weaker teams) and the middle group have one side progress to the finals in conference 1 and then the two top teams in conference 2 make it also (albeit to away elimination finals).

It's the fairest way of doing it without adding or subtracting rounds to the comp, or reducing or adding sides.

Another option is 2 x groups of 9 in 8 rounds. Two bottom teams of group one drop out, the top 6 teams get locked into finals in that order and the winner of the bottom group get a wild card entry in 8th spot.

Something along those lines.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

17 game season, alternate home and away each year. All Geelong's home games in Geelong. Every team travels once to WA, SA NSW & QLD each year. Carlton get no prime time games.

Problem solved

 

[Blueyboy74]

Assessing the fixture half way through the year can lead to false conclusions.

But Richmond's fixture (not the "draw") will put an * over their eventual back-to-back if they achieve it. The season for the premier is supposed to be an ordeal of repeatedly facing the top 6 teams... it is supposed to be a battle of attrition.

The Tigers don't have to press their claims during the H&A season.....they will have easily sewn up a home final. Not how it is supposed to be.

Ha ha good one. Funnily enough The Age rated our draw the 3rd toughest when it was released ... significantly tougher than Carlton or Hawthorn's for that matter.

 

[BF Tiger]

Mods need to look at banningvthreads about Richmond's draw. It was created using the formula of previous seasons. It was known about before the season started. It has easier periods and harder periods. It will feature teams that rise and fall, something completely beyond the club's control.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Ha ha good one. Funnily enough The Age rated our draw the 3rd toughest when it was released ... significantly tougher than Carlton or Hawthorn's for that matter.
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What a steaming pile of horseshit that method is. Points based on a "projected ladder order", based on betting odds - odds which already take into account fixture difficulty. I'll not even start on the arbitrary points system.

This was Champion Data's assessment: Richmond goes from AFL’s second-easiest draw to second-hardest

Granted, Carlton looks a little high at 11th. But perhaps there was a trade-off made between fixture difficulty and favourable TV slots. Clubs go to the AFL with begging bowl in hand and these things are factored in.

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

The point of the OP is that you mistakenly believe think 'Equalisation' comes in half-season chunks.

Football is a lot about momentum and confidence. Richmond's first 10 weeks is an absolute free kick and it mindbogglingly not an issue discussed in the media.

They have played Adelaide in Adelaide, but are yet to play any of the other three teams from last year considered the best, GWS, Sydney and Geelong, in almost half a year...head scratching.

We all know fixtures get easier and harder depending on how teams perform, but preseason a lot of people would also have had Brisbane, Carlton, North, West Coast, Collingwood and Fremantle in their bottom six. They have played all of those teams in the first 10 weeks.

 

[BPikkers]

First of all, when you are anchored to the bottom, every game must feel like playing a top 8 team.

Secondly, I suggest you assess your fixture over the past 3 years and come back to let us know how you feel.

 

[Blueyboy74]

Football is a lot about momentum and confidence. Richmond's first 10 weeks is an absolute free kick and it mindbogglingly not an issue discussed in the media.

They have played Adelaide in Adelaide, but are yet to play any of the other three teams from last year considered the best, GWS, Sydney and Geelong, in almost half a year...head scratching.

We all know fixtures get easier and harder depending on how teams perform, but preseason a lot of people would also have had Brisbane, Carlton, North, West Coast, Collingwood and Fremantle in their bottom six. They have played all of those teams in the first 10 weeks.

Not quite as mindboggling as Collingwood's opening 10 rounds in 2011 though ... the Pies played just two finalists from 2010, all of the bottom 3 sides from that year as well, welcomed 3 interstate sides to their home yet didn't have to travel once themselves! I'd imagine you would be bald now from all the 'head scratching' that must have caused.

 

[Ron The Bear]

We all know fixtures get easier and harder depending on how teams perform, but preseason a lot of people would also have had Brisbane, Carlton, North, West Coast, Collingwood and Fremantle in their bottom six. They have played all of those teams in the first 10 weeks.

There are so many poor-to-average teams (check the fixture for next week). Gotta fit 'em all in somewhere.

You lot should've done your howling when the draw was released in November. Then maybe, maybe you'd have had some credibility.

 

[blitzer]

The only thing the AFL have done wrong concerning Carlton's fixture is not putting them on Sunday a lot more. From 2019 - Carlton Sunday should be a thing.

 

[Cuzz09]

I am not a fan of Fri night games. No matter who plays.

Give me Sat arvo every time.

On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[citizen-erased]

It's always unfair when your team is .

Chin up. There's always next week.

Against Sydney.

In Sydney.

lol
brutal.

 

[Papa G]

AFL also fixture the old "Big 4" "taditional" rival derbies early in the season to maximise crowds before hope is lost, particularly for Carlton supporters. That means in the first 8 rounds you play your "traditonal" season opener against last year's premier, you play an unexpected top 8 side in Collingwood (who weren't top 8 when you played them, and Essendon who were a finalist last year.

You've played what were thought to be bottom 4 fancies Gold Coast and North, non finalists Melbourne and the Bulldogs, as well as games against sides who were always going to beat you.

So you've actually played 5 finalists from last year and 5 non finalists. I really don' know what you are whinging about?

 

[telsor]

Fixture is worked out over 22 rounds, based on last years results. How it looks after 9 or 10 doesn't really come into it.

Also...any team that is in to top 8 is likely to player fewer top 8 teams because they can't play themselves.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

I actually think the Tiges have been a little unlucky in running into sides in hot form- North, Pies particularly, now Essendon suddenly up and about.

Not to mention we caught Carltons best (first) ten minutes of their season flush.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

You can’t have it both ways though, I agree with the op that Carlton’s fixture for the first month should be the other 4 clubs who finished near them on the bottom last year but are you then prepared to get rid of the season opener against Richmond?
Everyone wants a so called better fixture but no one will give anything up to get it.

 

[My name geoff]

Theoretically in a fair sporting contest, the AFL would not attempt to handicap the competition like a horse race based on last year's form, and all eighteen clubs would receive a fixture of as close to equal difficulty as possible.

I agree. But the fact is they intervene all the time based on their premise that the league must be equalised.

 

[My name geoff]

17 game season, alternate home and away each year. All Geelong's home games in Geelong. Every team travels once to WA, SA NSW & QLD each year. Carlton get no prime time games.

Problem solved

Patrick Cripps is twice the player Oliver is.

 

[My name geoff]

AFL also fixture the old "Big 4" "taditional" rival derbies early in the season to maximise crowds before hope is lost, particularly for Carlton supporters. That means in the first 8 rounds you play your "traditonal" season opener against last year's premier, you play an unexpected top 8 side in Collingwood (who weren't top 8 when you played them, and Essendon who were a finalist last year.

You've played what were thought to be bottom 4 fancies Gold Coast and North, non finalists Melbourne and the Bulldogs, as well as games against sides who were always going to beat you.

So you've actually played 5 finalists from last year and 5 non finalists. I really don' know what you are whinging about?

Another person who has missed the point of the op

 

[mattymac]

We come off a 6 day break traveling to Perth to then travel to Melbourne to play Hawthorn coming off a bye.

It's complete arse.

 

[Billy ray]

The AFL need to upgrade from their Commodore 64 computer to ensure each team plays eachother once thru rounds 1-17.
And that each team gets at least one friday night game (even if away fixture).

 

[wowlace]

Yeah pretty much this ^^. Dwelling on the fixture and enjoying the competition are basically incompatible, it's far and away the most ****** thing about the game. Threads like this are a dime a dozen and always remind me of this fact.

I'm with you on this. But we can all agree we would like to see the good match ups in the primetime spots. This season has failed that so far. Badly.

 

[smasha]

Haha,media bring up state of the game because we are winning,went quiet on the subject last week after a Richmond loss now oppos back in form after a Richmond win.



#weareeveryonesgrandfinal

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

This is not a thread designed to be some sort of excuse for Carlton’s poor season or a criticism of Richmond’s success, the two teams are merely being compared as an example to illustrate how head scratching and fickle the AFL’s equalisation attempts are.

By round 11 Carlton, a team who was bottom 4 last year:

•will have played the entire current top 8. (*Based on an assumption North get up over Freo tomorrow)
•played 6 of last years top 8
•played 4 games outside of Melbourne.

In the same time, the reigning premier Richmond:

•Played 5 of the current top 8
•played 3 of last years top 8
•played 2 games outside of Melbourne

The AFL are pumping up ‘equalisation’ but a bottom 4 team in the first half of the season have played double the finalists and double the games outside Melbourne as the reigning premier? Seems odd.

Put the spinnaker up, surely Carlton has a good run home and will sail downwind into the finals.