Simonds Stadium advantage hides Geelong's issues

[Achilles Heel]

Simmons Stadium ADVANTAGE!!!

You mean Geelong have a home ground that they play home games on?

That is disgusting by the AFL, they should be stripped of this unfair advantage and be forced to play at one of the MCG or Etihad for their home games like every other Melbourne club.

So why do you insist on playing collingwood at the MCG?

 

[Achilles Heel]

I admire Geelong for sticking to their guns and holding on to Skill. I actually was in there a couple of weeks ago for a work event and was so impressed with what you have done to stadium and facilities. However it still is a small ground, with few tickets available for the opposition supporters, whereas we can get in easily to the G or Ethiad if we are the away team.

We have developed Ballarat to play two home games a year, likely against the two SA teams as it is closer to home for them. But access to those games require buying a ticket so all supporters get access. Big difference.

You haven't received as much taxpayer money

 

[sprockets]

So Geelong built Kardinia Park to those dimensions over a century ago to try and get an unfair advantage in 2017?

Who knows but they've certainly had the opportunity to change the shape of the ground since then to make it the same shape as every other ground, including during the recent rebuild. That they didn't tells us what they think of the enormous advantage it gives them and if you look at overall results it's pretty clear that it does.

Pawnote: SS has been upgraded in the past 15 or 16 years in 4 stages, at a cost of well over $150m, for better patron facilities and increased capacity. It shows what GFC think of the people that watch the game as opposed to those that think the public don't matter.

 

[DrMike]

i'm honestly not whining about anything except the opportunity for geelong people to watch the club play, the club had the foresight to fight to keep the stadium, why can't it be used as often as possible? that's what i don't understand home games should be home games, geelongs had a stadium there seinfeld the 40s but it's only now people have an issue with it which is confusing.

You realise 50% of seats would have been allocated to Richmond supporters at Simmonds as well, right?

So 18k Geelong people get locked out of your local ground, just like the 18k that couldn't be bothered turning up to the MCG

 

[sprockets]

i'm honestly not whining about anything except the opportunity for geelong people to watch the club play, the club had the foresight to fight to keep the stadium, why can't it be used as often as possible? that's what i don't understand home games should be home games, geelongs had a stadium there seinfeld the 40s but it's only now people have an issue with it which is confusing.


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Wait... So you want as many Geelong fans as possible to see the game live, but you want them locked out by playing it at SS. Ok.

And Seinfeld...

 

[telsor]

Lol, that is the best you've got?

You think the league should screw itself over in order to help one club?

 

[telsor]

i'm honestly not whining about anything except the opportunity for geelong people to watch the club play, the club had the foresight to fight to keep the stadium, why can't it be used as often as possible? that's what i don't understand home games should be home games, geelongs had a stadium there seinfeld the 40s but it's only now people have an issue with it which is confusing.


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They had the foresight to keep the stadium...

Tell me, did these wise and great managers of your club also have the foresight to get a deal from the league about games/finals to be played there as well?

I mean, even Carlton got one before it upgraded Princes park...

 

[telsor]

So you think money is more important than a fair competition?
Also by your reckoning every game should be played at the mcg, including interstate games.

There is a big difference between moving a game between states and moving it from a suburb.

 

[HaroLad]

So why do you insist on playing collingwood at the MCG?

We didnt

 

[Benaly28]

Have said this for some time.Geelong have a HUGE advantage playing at home,if they played their home games at the g they wouldn't have finished 2nd.Rely to much on their best players.Will more than likely go out in straight sets and another year wasted considering where they finished.

 

[jezza1435]

They had the foresight to keep the stadium...

Tell me, did these wise and great managers of your club also have the foresight to get a deal from the league about games/finals to be played there as well?

I mean, even Carlton got one before it upgraded Princes park...

clearly they did not, and that's not my arguement.


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[telsor]

clearly they did not, and that's not my arguement.

Yeah, your argument is that now that the ground is mostly paid for and upgraded, you want to change the deal in a way that those who mostly paid for said upgrades would never have agreed to...

Given that those who paid have all the power, your hopes of doing that are pretty slim.

 

[Freshwater]

So Geelong built Kardinia Park to those dimensions over a century ago to try and get an unfair advantage in 2017?

Kardinia Park is actually not over a hundred years ago. It was the most recent of all the old local grounds and didn't come in until the 1940s.
I don't understand why it wasn't widened a bit a couple of years ago when the latest two western grand stands were rebuilt?

 

[Jivlain]

This is the post 2012 AFL world
Adelaide
Port Adelaide
West Coast
Fremantle
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Sydney
GWS

When it happens to these teams who qualify for a home final then i will agree.

You're right the Bulldogs game should not have been altered, the AFL want their cake come finals time. It's entertainment business only applies to Victorian clubs. What's fair doesn't come into it.

Both Adelaide (2002 semi) and Brisbane (2004 prelim) have been forced to play "home" finals at the MCG previously. Those are somewhat longer journeys than Geelong's.

 

[Scorpio]

Both Adelaide (2002 semi) and Brisbane (2004 prelim) have been forced to play "home" finals at the MCG previously. Those are somewhat longer journeys than Geelong's.

The last time that happened was 13 years ago, and the AFL did eventually change the rules to rectify it. So if anything it's precedent for Geelong's argument.

 

[Jivlain]

The last time that happened was 13 years ago, and the AFL did eventually change the rules to rectify it. So if anything it's precedent for Geelong's argument.

Once they replaced the MCG deal which led to those, they changed it to the current home-state status quo.

GWS' home final against Sydney was played at ANZ last year.

 

[Scorpio]

Once they replaced the MCG deal which led to those, they changed it to the current home-state status quo.

Yes but rules can be changed.

 

[SCRAY72]

To grow the game. You play in Melbourne for gate receipts.

One is positive, one is selfish.

Some people just dont understand do they?

 

[PhatBoy]

Regardless of the 'does it mask our deficiencies' argument.

Ignore that for a second.
I want to address the seemingly huge issue of us having a home ground.

There are 8 teams in the competition outside of Geelong who get more or less exclusive use of a ground (Adelaide and Perth teams are a technical exception but for the sake of the discussion they fit the bill).

All 8 of them get to play half their games on those grounds, giving them a natural home advantage every time they play, aside from derbies at least.

That's 11 games.
We get 7-8 (seven this year).

We had 6 interstate trips this year. Most Victorian teams do.

But there are exceptions.
Collingwood for example had 5 last year, and this year, and in 2015.

What Collingwood and other Melbourne teams don't have to do, is take home games outside their home city. True, two of them CHOOSE to with some regulatory, and another shifts one every season or so, but by and large, at the very least they play their home games in their home
City.

Now, doubtless it would be better for any side to play all their home games on the same ground (docklands or the MCG) but what is the next best option? To at the very least play the OTHER home games at a relatively close venue, and still in your home city.

When it comes to advantages and disadvantages, naturally the interstate clubs have further to travel so that makes things hard. On the flipside every home game they play is against a side who has travelled considerable distance and with little if any support.


We don't really get that. When an interstate team comes to Geelong, it's really no different to if they came to Melbourne. So for those visiting sides it's a moot point. We'd have that advantage wherever we played in Victoria.

So really the only advantage we ever get comes against the Dogs, Saints, Roos and Demons. (And tigers this year). And for those sides, there is no disadvantage really in terms of travel, it's not like a long flight or anything.

Essentially we keep getting criticised basically because we have managed to be a provincial side in a city-based competition, and due to simple geography.

The influence of our home ground on our football? That's another issue, though I will say this - our ground dimensions aren't a lot different to those at Adelaide or Perth so if we get criticised because our ground is the wrong shape for most people, maybe those clubs should cop it as well.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Any extra money made by playing teams away from their home ground would most likely be swollowed up by AFL execs bonuses etc.
Lets not pretent it is for the good of the game.

For the good of the game = you play on the ground and in front of the home crowd you earnt the right to play on and around.

In saying that, Cats cant have it both ways. They either play all their games at skilled and no longer request the bigger venue when it suits their needs only, or they deal with it when the AFL bigwigs want to dip their wicks just as they have done.

Dunno how many times this needs to be explained.

They have to play home games in Melbourne to make up that shortfall as a result of the likes of Hawthorn and North selling games off interstate.

Geelong simply says to the AFL that if ypu want us to make up your shortfall then this is what we want.

Pretty reasonable I'd have thought considering Geelong would in all likelihood make less money playing home games at the MCG and Docklands.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Kardinia Park is actually not over a hundred years ago. It was the most recent of all the old local grounds and didn't come in until the 1940s.
I don't understand why it wasn't widened a bit a couple of years ago when the latest two western grand stands were rebuilt?

It is well over 100 years old. They only shifted there because Corio became unavailable during WWII.

As for widening it. It is only practical on one side of the ground because of Moorabool St. It would have to be half of the ground being done at once to allow it to happen.

 

[Achilles Heel]

Kardinia Park is actually not over a hundred years ago. It was the most recent of all the old local grounds and didn't come in until the 1940s.
I don't understand why it wasn't widened a bit a couple of years ago when the latest two western grand stands were rebuilt?

Because they would have lost their home ground advantage

 

[Freshwater]

It is well over 100 years old. They only shifted there because Corio became unavailable during WWII.

As for widening it. It is only practical on one side of the ground because of Moorabool St. It would have to be half of the ground being done at once to allow it to happen.

It could have happened and surely would have been discussed. Those discussions were never made public and we got what we got. I know the ground well. The last two developments on the western side just had to be built out more, it would not have been difficult. But someone or a group of someone's didn't want to for their own reasons.

 

[PhatBoy]

Because they would have lost their home ground advantage

So you're saying if the ground was wider, despite still playing and training there and having a home crowd, we'd suddenly turn into a neutral venue?

Exactly what is it that somehow makes OUR narrow ground so advantageous to us anyway? As opposed to say, the four Adelaide and Perth teams who play on a narrow ground? Does our kicking suddenly get more accurate when the ground is narrow?

 

[Cats Eye]

You're continuing on with the spin. Would you rather have played FIVE games at a ground during the year prior to a final there or just ONE? Also, yet again taking into account that Richmond DON'T TRAIN at the MCG (whereas Geelong play AND train 5/6 times a week at SS) it's NOT much of an advantage to them at all, all things considered.

No they don't, you might want to get your facts right before using them as a point to back your argument.