Review Round 2 vs North Melbourne @ Metricon Stadium (27.03.21 - 7:10pm)

Jessbek

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Mar 24, 2012
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Crowd under 7K was disappointing. 1K was probably North supporters. Where are SUNS fans?
Felt this was very noticeable and something that I found almost embarrassing. COVID case impacted no doubt but that crowd figure is extremely disappointing
 
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Felt this was very noticeable and something that I found almost embarrassing. COVID case impacted no doubt but that crowd figure is extremely disappointing
Almost the perfect cocktail of a poor crowd.

-People still worried about Covid, especially with the Brisbane outbreak.

-Lack of travelling support from Melbourne as people don't want to book flights. Explaining the lack of NM cheer squad.

-NM are really poor so neutral interest is at an all time low for them.

-Suns still seem flakey as, get a few more wins and people will look to jump back onboard.

The Carlton game should see an improvement in the crowd. Especially if the Suns win on Friday.
 

robo_1

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Crowd under 7K was disappointing. 1K was probably North supporters. Where are SUNS fans?

Could be a number of reasons..
I have seen a lot of comments of members not happy about not having their seats maybe time for the club to give seats back to members?

I wonder how many walk up fans aren’t going because you have to pre purchase and pay booking fees on top

Also some people prefer to stand and watch so if they can’t do that maybe stay home or go to a pub

Plus a Saturday night game against a low team
 
Jan 27, 2014
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Top 5 Pressure Acts from the game

Macpherson - 29 - 3rd overall
Miller - 27 - 4th overall
Brodie - 26 - 5th overall
Greenwood - 25 - equal 6th
Anderson - 24 - equal 8th

Hope everyone gets off Brodie’s case, saying he looked cooked after the first qtr.

you don’t rack up those numbers if your not putting in the effort.

good on him
For turning himself around.
 
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Hope everyone gets off Brodie’s case, saying he looked cooked after the first qtr.

you don’t rack up those numbers if your not putting in the effort.

good on him
For turning himself around.
Felt he looked a little off it with ball in hand. But these numbers don’t lie. The work rate is there.
 

GC2015

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It will be basically a home game for Carlton. Last time at least 60% crowd were Carlton fans.
This will change quickly if we keep winning. A crowd of 14k showed up when we played the Blues at Metricon in 2019 so you're essentially saying 8k were Carlton fans and 6k were Suns fans. It's a pretty safe bet to assume Carlton fans will show up regardless so you can probably say between at least 6-8k Blues fans will show up. The question is whether we can boost the amount of Suns fans/curious locals any higher than 6k. I believe a win over the Crows should boost the local contingent to around 8k which would make the crowd about an even 50/50 split.

If we beat Carlton then our next home game against Sydney could push closer to 20k due to the Swans flying at the moment and Buddy's first game at Metricon in five years. It's quite a simple equation really - win more games and they will attend.
 
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Felt this was very noticeable and something that I found almost embarrassing. COVID case impacted no doubt but that crowd figure is extremely disappointing
7:10 is too late, you can’t have little ones out until after 10pm, many young family’s would of dropped out for that reason alone
 
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Hell no
7:10 is too late, you can’t have little ones out until after 10pm, many young family’s would of dropped out for that reason alone
Yeh this. Only me and my eldest went. Youngest still too young and so him and other adult didnt attend.

i dont like the fixture without days and times beyond round 6. Cant see whether to buy membership for my youngest if games all end up being at night.
 

eighties

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I have no kids love the 7pm games haha!

Actually like the twighlight games the best 440pm. Doesnt interfere with your day and can still head out afterwards for dinner / drinks.
 

The Victorian

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Yeh this. Only me and my eldest went. Youngest still too young and so him and other adult didnt attend.

i dont like the fixture without days and times beyond round 6. Cant see whether to buy membership for my youngest if games all end up being at night.
Yeah, I know early on in our existence the clubs pushed for the Saturday twilight games as families could attend etc. another thing to keep in mind is the Queensland dew with night games too so maybe twilights are the best option? I’ve suggested arvo games before but get shut down as local footy is on during the day so the twilight game probably maximises attendance with the GC demographics?

hopefully the AFL releases the next block soon. I plan to come up from Melbourne for a few games but could only do Saturday arvo or twilight games due to my packed weekend schedule with football coaches etc on the Sunday and Auskick on the Saturday morning so it’ll be a fly in fly out prospect for me but again I can’t confirm or plan anything without this schedule being finalised! Another option is a Thursday night game at home then I could stay overnight?!
 

GC2015

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7:10 is too late, you can’t have little ones out until after 10pm, many young family’s would of dropped out for that reason alone
While I understand that we want to appeal to younger fans, I really think people overstate this issue. It's not like we can't appeal to an older demographic. The majority of teenagers and anyone older (that doesn't have young children) would have no issue staying out until 10pm on a Saturday night. I'm telling you - if we have on field success, they will come regardless of the time slot.

Look at some of our crowds we pulled in 2014 when we were legitimately contending for a finals position: 19.5k against Richmond in round 1, 16.5k against Brisbane in round 3, 17.7k against Hawthorn in round 4, 21.3k against Sydney in round 12, 18.2k against Geelong in round 14, 24.1k against Collingwood in round 16. These are really solid crowds for our market and we weren't even a top 4 team leading into any of these fixtures (11th leading into round 3 against Brisbane, 8th leading into round 4 against Hawthorn, 8th leading into the round 12 fixture against Sydney, 8th leading into the round 14 fixture against Geelong, 8th leading into the round 16 fixture against Collingwood) so you have to think the crowds would be even greater if we were a legitimate top 4 team back then. We were literally a fringe top 8 team for most of that year and had really solid crowds!

In fact, three of the six big crowd games I've listed above were played on a Saturday night - Richmond (19k), Hawthorn (17.7k) and Collingwood (24k). I know people will say some of those are big Victorian clubs and would pull a massive amount of away fans every year regardless of results but check out the drop in attendance in our very next fixture against those six clubs when we were no longer competing for a finals place: 2015 - Collingwood (16.4k), Brisbane (12.4k), Sydney (13.0k), 2017: Hawthorn (14.7k), Geelong (13.6k), Richmond (16.2k). This drop isn't coincidental, it's directly related to our on field performance.

tl;dr - the stats show that we will pull big crowds if we win regularly, regardless of the time slot.
 
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Yeh this. Only me and my eldest went. Youngest still too young and so him and other adult didnt attend.

i dont like the fixture without days and times beyond round 6. Cant see whether to buy membership for my youngest if games all end up being at night.
I’m
While I understand that we want to appeal to younger fans, I really think people overstate this issue. It's not like we can't appeal to an older demographic. The majority of teenagers and anyone older (that doesn't have young children) would have no issue staying out until 10pm on a Saturday night. I'm telling you - if we have on field success, they will come regardless of the time slot.

Look at some of our crowds we pulled in 2014 when we were legitimately contending for a finals position: 19.5k against Richmond in round 1, 16.5k against Brisbane in round 3, 17.7k against Hawthorn in round 4, 21.3k against Sydney in round 12, 18.2k against Geelong in round 14, 24.1k against Collingwood in round 16. These are really solid crowds for our market and we weren't even a top 4 team leading into any of these fixtures (11th leading into round 3 against Brisbane, 8th leading into round 4 against Hawthorn, 8th leading into the round 12 fixture against Sydney, 8th leading into the round 14 fixture against Geelong, 8th leading into the round 16 fixture against Collingwood) so you have to think the crowds would be even greater if we were a legitimate top 4 team back then. We were literally a fringe top 8 team for most of that year and had really solid crowds!

In fact, three of the six big crowd games I've listed above were played on a Saturday night - Richmond (19k), Hawthorn (17.7k) and Collingwood (24k). I know people will say some of those are big Victorian clubs and would pull a massive amount of away fans every year regardless of results but check out the drop in attendance in our very next fixture against those six clubs when we were no longer competing for a finals place: 2015 - Collingwood (16.4k), Brisbane (12.4k), Sydney (13.0k), 2017: Hawthorn (14.7k), Geelong (13.6k), Richmond (16.2k). This drop isn't coincidental, it's directly related to our on field performance.

tl;dr - the stats show that we will pull big crowds if we win regularly, regardless of the time slot.

I agree with you about success bringing crowds but the future of the club is in those kids that have only ever been ☀️ fans, the ones that will stick fat during future lean times. IMHO we need to be making sure they can attend as many games as possible, and 7:10 starts doesn’t get it done
 

GC2015

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I agree with you about success bringing crowds but the future of the club is in those kids that have only ever been ☀ fans, the ones that will stick fat during future lean times. IMHO we need to be making sure they can attend as many games as possible, and 7:10 starts doesn’t get it done
We know the AFL are never going to give us 10 or 11 home games on a Friday/Saturday night in any given year. We'd be lucky to receive night games for more than half our home fixtures in one season. Therefore, opportunities will always exist for youngsters to attend afternoon home games throughout the season.

I'm absolutely convinced the our home crowd figures will be strong for night games if we're winning regularly and the younger ones will get their turn with afternoon games throughout the year as well. However, as we win more games there will be a greater push from the broadcasters for us to play more games at the desirable night time TV slots. So this is really an unavoidable issue when we start winning games on a regular basis.

Having said that, an extended period of winning also gives us a fantastic opportunity to build a very loyal fan base in the younger generation because those night games they couldn't attend in their younger years are suddenly a really attractive night out with friends now that they are teenagers. I know this is asking a lot but if we could replicate something similar to what Sydney did over the last decade where they played finals in every season except one as well as playing in a few grand finals and winning a premiership, then you've hooked a generation of supporters for life. The Swans went from 26.2k members in 2009 to 61k in 2019 and that's the kind of jump you can achieve if you have a long period of success and a lot of those kids who jumped on board will be lifelong Swans fans because of their fond memories in their childhood.
 

eighties

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Watched the replay yesterday. Jeez King got his hands to so many balls but missed alot of marks, some of them sitters. Still presented really well but he could have kicked 6+ goals i think.
 
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Watched the replay yesterday. Jeez King got his hands to so many balls but missed alot of marks, some of them sitters. Still presented really well but he could have kicked 6+ goals i think.
Just needs to learn to attack the ball a little bit softer, all well and good to attack it hard but he doesn't slow down enough to get his hands around the ball
 

Jirik13

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Just needs to learn to attack the ball a little bit softer, all well and good to attack it hard but he doesn't slow down enough to get his hands around the ball
It would be also nice if umpires treat Ben like they treat protected forwards in Melbourne. Several times McKay chopped his arms and nothing happened. Even commentators mentioned it.
 
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