-Our 2004 Draw-

[Mead]

From the thread on the main board...

1.) Western Bulldogs vs Eagles
Telstra Dome
2.) Eagles vs Port Adelaide
Subiaco Oval
3.) Essendon vs Eagles
Telstra Dome
4.) Eagles vs Brisbane Lions
Subiaco Oval
5.) Carlton vs Eagles
Optus Oval
6.) Eagles vs Fremantle Dockers
Subiaco Oval
7.) Melbourne vs Eagles
MCG
8.) Eagles vs Sydney Swans
Subiaco Oval
9.) St Kilda vs Eagles
Telstra Dome
10.) Eagles vs Richmond
Subiaco Oval
11.) Collingwood vs Eagles
Telstra Dome
12.) Eagles vs Adelaide Crows
Subiaco Oval
13.) Kangaroos vs Eagles
Manuka Oval
14.) Eagles vs Geelong
Subiaco Oval
15.) Hawthorn vs Eagles
York Park
16.) Eagles vs Essendon
Subiaco Oval
17.) Port Adelaide vs Eagles
AAMI Stadium
18.) Eagles vs Western Bulldogs
Subiaco Oval
19.) Brisbane Lions vs Eagles
Gabba
20.) Eagles vs Carlton
Subiaco Oval
21.) Eagles vs Fremantle Dockers
Subiaco Oval
22.) Eagles vs Melbourne
Subiaco Oval

Both good news and bad news there. Trips to both Manuka and York park, but a nice run home, with 3 in a row at Subi.

As for opponents/venues/timing, assuming that teams stay pretty much the same as they did this year in terms of form (which they assuredly won't, but anyway...)

Our first month is a bitch. Games against the bulldogs and Essendon away, and 2 very tough home games against Brisbane and Port- we'd do well to go 2/4 there.

Second month sees us have a couple of (hopefully) easy beats away in Carlton and Melbourne, our home derby and Sydney at subi. 3/4 would be nice.

Third month starts off with the dread St Kilda at the Telstra dome fixture- it'd be really really nice if we could actually win this one for a change Also the Pies in melb (Mick is obviously still afraid to face a west coast crowd again), and one easy, one hard home games against Richmond and Adelaide.

The fourth month turns is a bit tough in terms of travelling. Roos, and Hawthorn in Manuka and York Park, but eminently winnable games at Subiaco against Geelong and Essendon. On the upside, thats 4 very beatable teams, so if we come through the travel okay, this could be where we set up our finals campaign.

Fifth month is a danger period. Two of the toughest road trips in the game against Port and Brisbane. Losing those two is one thing, I just hope we don't see a repeat of this season's rd 17 expedition to AAMI. If we're going to fall apart thanks to injuries, you'd expect those two roadtrips against rock hard opposition is when it will happen. On the upside, there are two wins for the taking at subi against the Bulldogs and Carlton, with the Blues hopefully providing a nice, low intensity game prior to the derby.

Final two games are both at subi, another derby, albeit in round 21, and then Melbourne to finish off the regular season.

As far as opponents go, again, its mixed news- teams we play twice:
Bulldogs
Carlton
Melbourne
Brisbane
Port Adelaide
Essendon
Fremantle

So we do have a 2 games against a few of 2003's whipping boys, with 8 games against the 3 of the bottom 4 sides from 2003, Just so long as they don't draft their way to superstardom, that looks pretty okay to me.
At the other end of the scale, we have the two toughest double head fixtures in the comp, with 2 games against both Brisbane and Port, and the other two return fixtures against a couple of decent 8 sides this year in Essendon and Freo.

 

[Altum Volantes]

Ahh the release of the fixture.

Required for Fixture review -

A dash of arrogance, 3 tablespoons of expectation and half a pound of optimism.



Roll on '04 !!

 

[Mead]

Originally posted by Black JuJu
Ahh the release of the fixture.

Required for Fixture review -

A dash of arrogance, 3 tablespoons of expectation and half a pound of optimism.



Roll on '04 !!

More than half a pound, i'd say

My well thought out prediction, after long and detailed consultation with my arse, and prior to trade week, draft, preseason, or anything at all helpful...
We'll go 15 and 7 for the regular season and finish 2nd on the ladder, behind Port Adelaide.
Our finals series will be
v Collingwood (at Subi) - win
[break]
v Sydney (at Subi - win)
v Collingwood (at MCG) - win

Trent Carroll will win the norm smith to go with his brownlow medal which he picked up a few weeks earlier, Worsfold will mock Malthouse until he bursts into tears again, and after the GF, Cousins will get thoroughly ****faced again and fall down the stairs, breaking his other arm this time.

You heard it here first. Now that is sorted, I don't suppose there's any reason to actually watch the footy next year.

 

[JUDDanaut]

I dont ****ing understand the Afl Fixture. That is two years in a row now that Collingwood DO NOT travel to perth to play the Eagles. For goodness sakes AFL search into it and make changes.










GO EAGLES

 

[noodle]

Originally posted by Mead
Trent Carroll will win the norm smith to go with his brownlow medal which he picked up a few weeks earlier...

i thought i saw satan ice skating to work the other day.

 

[GoEagles]

Originally posted by JUDDanaut
I dont ****ing understand the Afl Fixture. That is two years in a row now that Collingwood DO NOT travel to perth to play the Eagles. For goodness sakes AFL search into it and make changes.

GO EAGLES

The AFL has fixtured Collingwood to play Fremantle in Perth because they know that they would attract a 35,000+ crowd for that game (up from around 30,000), whilst if Collingwood played the Eagles in Perth it would already attract 40,000 (up from around 38,000).

We have a tough start to the season. The bulldogs will do anything to win that first game, although there will be no nathan brown to cause us any headaches.

All I beg next year is the club to request NOT to play St Kilda at Docklands.

 

[theorangeapple]

this is not good peoples ....this draw has potential to seriously *** us up next year.
I really do not like the idea of playing port and lions so close together....we never got over Port bashing us up last year - it ruined our season.

 

[Chris_Judd]

What a f#@#@! $hithouse draw... Once again we have to travel to Melbourne to play Collingwood... and they don't have to come here..... once again we play St Kilda in Melbourne... I cant remember the last time we played St Kilda in Perth and not had a follow up game.....

and I also know for a fact altho its probably not public knowledge yet that the Eagles specifically asked the AFL to schedule more games at the MCG... given the fact we have played about 3 games in 3 years there... and the Dockers got to play there 4 or 5 times last season.... and what do we get... only 1 MCG match... yet for all our begging we still get to play the "MCG tenants" alright..... in York Park and Canberra. The AFL are a complete joke.

 

[mouldy_bread]

All our Melbourne games are in the first half of the season I wish they would have spread them out a bit more.

 

[sedders]

Vic members will have a boring second half. 6 Vic games up to round 11, then nothing.

I guess we could catch the ferry in round 15.

 

[ozzult]

It's an OK draw. Nothing spectacular, nothing to whinge about, unless you are a serial whinger.


The fact that we play Brisbane and Port twice is outweighed by the fact that we get to play Melbourne, Dogs and Carlton twice. I'm also glad we get to play Essendon twice because we need to beat them this year. Hopefully we can serve up another belting to Brisbane.

 

[materamagic]

Average draw. Bear in mind we have had our last 3 matches at Subi for a few years running. The 2 Fri night matches are fantastic I thought. We play Brissie, Port twice. What other team has to go to Manuka and York Park? We have had relatively good performances at both venues so that aint a performance based worry. I mean a draw is a draw. Eagles have to perform no matter where they play and what position, its win, win, win.

 

[Exeter]

Draw is ok by me.

Although the two home games against the Dockers look to be a bonus

 

[quiksilva]

Eddie always manages to get Collingwood a good draw . Collingwood have like a total of 7 Friday night games he will commentate

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Originally posted by sedders
Vic members will have a boring second half. 6 Vic games up to round 11, then nothing.

I guess we could catch the ferry in round 15.

Definately disappointing. But atleast we don't have to play in Geelong next year, so thats a bonus for us Melbournians.

 

[ozzult]

Originally posted by QuiKsiLvA
Eddie always manages to get Collingwood a good draw . Collingwood have like a total of 7 Friday night games he will commentate

So?

 

[ozzult]

This is Trev Nisbett's comments regarding our draw.


“Overall we’re reasonably pleased with the fixtures, although a little disappointed there are only two Sunday (home) games. Originally our last game against Melbourne was slotted in for a Sunday, but has been changed so that should Melbourne qualify for the finals they will have an extra day to recover from the travel. There is a strong emphasis on Friday and Saturday night games and our members and supporters indicated through attendances this season that they preferred night football. The night games seem to work in favour of most people, those who have to work on Saturdays and those with sporting commitments with their children on Sundays. We’re happy that our last three games will be played at Subiaco Oval and that after playing the Kangaroos in Canberra in round 13 we do have our bye. "

The Eagles are disappointed at having to play six away games on Sundays when their preferred option was to play Saturday matches.

 

[eagleskickass]

Well shizers, im gonna struggle to get to games next year with night fixtures etc and sat Arvo fixtures But if its good for the team i can cop it. I work Fri and Sat nights and will have to miss WAFL when we have Sat arvo which i dont like.


Grrr

 

[eagleskickass]

Having said all that it is beneficial for the majority and if it helps West Coast out im happy, just annoyed i personally will prob miss more games than i get to see

 

[ozzult]

I am going to miss four games because of Saturday arvo games. I play local footy on Saturday afternoon, and we even requested less Saturday afternoon home games, but the AFL still gives us four.

I'm not too happy about that aspect, but there isn't much I can do. I don't think I'll be splurging the $360 odd for a Captains Club membership this year if I only get to see 7 games. Probably just go the cheapo budget $127.

 

[Goldenblue]

It's not a bad draw.

We have some hard games at the beginning and we have the 3 games at home in the end, but we seem to be a team that has mid season slumps, so looking at the middle part of the draw, if the slump was to occur we would do alright.

 

[Voice of Reason]

I think it's a reasonable draw for the Eagles given the inherent limitations of geography (hello, Burkey).

Once again the WAFL will have to:
a) think intelligently and ensure as few as possible clashes with AFL to maximise its attendances and reward loyal fans of clubs in both leagues; or
b) stick head in sand, moan, whinge and pretend it's not happening.

Over to you, WAFC.