Have they given us the right "rival"?

[Persevering Saint]

Something that's bothered me these last few years is who the AFL have picked as our rival. The choice of the Doggies seems particularly stupid since Melbourne and Geelong also are portrayed as "rivals." Surely the current situation is the worst of all worlds. The fact is that I don't think any of these four teams have really ever had a serious rival (like Carlton & Collingwood, for example), so any rivalry has to be made up.

Geelong IS, most of the time now, our rival team - the animosity we've built up with them after that pre-season Grand Final a few years back has been pretty darn strong.

Of course, the rivalries that makes the most sense, from another point of view, are Cats versus Dogs, and Saints versus Demons. These mascots are total opposites.

Thoughts?

(Having said all that, I hope we absolutely pummel the Doggies this week: percentage!)

 

[sauce_head]

Agree. There is no rivalry between the two teams. Geelong definately should be our team. West Coast should have Sydney.

We would also be good against Freo, after the close games and the AFL handing them one, but it is not as big as Freo WC I guess.

 

[DoggyStyle]

Something that's bothered me these last few years is who the AFL have picked as our rival. The choice of the Doggies seems particularly stupid since Melbourne and Geelong also are portrayed as "rivals." Surely the current situation is the worst of all worlds. The fact is that I don't think any of these four teams have really ever had a serious rival (like Carlton & Collingwood, for example), so any rivalry has to be made up.

Geelong IS, most of the time now, our rival team - the animosity we've built up with them after that pre-season Grand Final a few years back has been pretty darn strong.

Of course, the rivalries that makes the most sense, from another point of view, are Cats versus Dogs, and Saints versus Demons. These mascots are total opposites.

Thoughts?

(Having said all that, I hope we absolutely pummel the Doggies this week: percentage!)

Agreed, there is absolutely no rivarly between the dogs and the Saints, the whole rivarly round is another pathetic effort by the AFL to boost attendence. The fact that each year the team played in rivalry round differs and only the true rival continue to play each other.

Anyway, after this weekends match there may be good cause for the Dogs and Saints to be rivals as I am afraid the Dogs are going to give the Saints a good old fashioned pants down with side that closely resembles a solid VFL team!

 

[bubblegoose]

Anyway, after this weekends match there may be good cause for the Dogs and Saints to be rivals as I am afraid the Dogs are going to give the Saints a good old fashioned pants down with side that closely resembles a solid VFL team!

- geez you're ugly!

 

[joeblow2]

Agreed, there is absolutely no rivarly between the dogs and the Saints, the whole rivarly round is another pathetic effort by the AFL to boost attendence. The fact that each year the team played in rivalry round differs and only the true rival continue to play each other.

Anyway, after this weekends match there may be good cause for the Dogs and Saints to be rivals as I am afraid the Dogs are going to give the Saints a good old fashioned pants down with side that closely resembles a solid VFL team!

I admire your loyalty.

 

[jbazzle]

dont you think we should play sydney. whilst im not quite old enough to remember the old vfl iv heard that south melbourne and st kilda were always rivals with the "lake side" derby.

 

[sainter]

Unfortunately because of our lack of success we haven't been fortunate enough to build up a rivalry like a number of teams.

We're just one of the odd ones out and I think it exposes the whole rivalry round concept as being a contrived load of crap.

The good thing is that if we can be successful on the field we'll be able to enjoy on-field rivalries with other successful teams.

I suppose given that the Bulldogs are one of the very few teams that we have a narrow win-loss record over it's as good as they could have come up with but at the end of the day both clubs have to win to keep their finals chances alive and that alone will make it such a keenly fought contest. Nothing to do with any lingering rivalry between the two clubs.

 

[Gooka]

Not sure why it isn't Dogs and Richmond. Especially over the last 5-10 years they're the team that our supporters and players hate the most I'd imagine.

 

[Ant_]

I agree Saints ppl, no real "rivalry" with you guys. When I was in Melbourne lived near Moorabbin and regularly went to games there. As was stated earlier leave out "rivalry" for Richmond or Adelaide.

 

[Red.White and Blue]

There is no rivalry apart from my family. my mum and sister go for st kilda and me and my 2 other sisters go for dogs. I think were just the teams that dont have a rivalry. The head 2 head is close and thats bout it.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

I think linking a rivalry between dogs and the saints is a bit of a stretch. I would have thought that saints rivalry with freo would be the equal of the dogs. I know the hawks vs the saints in the early 70's (mainly from the 71 grand final) had a fair bit of rivalry just based on the intensity of the contests, however there is no rivalry now. I'm not sure who saints rivals are, maybe they dont have one?

 

[nooB]

Totally agree, what rival? If anything, its Dogs V Tigers and St. Kilda V Freo