The 2009 fixture

[undies37]

Has anybody seen this on the AFL board part???
We get 1 friday night game,
7 saturday games,
13 sunday games,
and 1 monday game


of those 7 saturday games 2 of them are our home games.

What a load of shit!!!

Thoughts people??

 

[Beats]

From the main board, I couldn't find a link on the AFL site, apparently it's out in half an hour.

ROUND 1
SUNDAY, MARCH 29
Melbourne v North Melbourne MCG

ROUND 2
SATURDAY, APRIL 4
Collingwood v Melbourne MCG

ROUND 3
SUNDAY, APRIL 12
Port Adelaide v Melbourne AS

ROUND 4
SUNDAY, APRIL 19
Richmond v Melbourne MCG

ROUND 5
SUNDAY, APRIL 26
Melbourne v Adelaide MCG (T)

ROUND 6
SUNDAY, MAY 3
Melbourne v Geelong MCG

ROUND 7
SUNDAY, MAY 10
West Coast v Melbourne S (T)

ROUND 8
SATURDAY, MAY 16
Melbourne v Western Bulldogs MCG

ROUND 9
SUNDAY, MAY 24
Hawthorn v Melbourne MCG (T)

ROUND 10
SATURDAY, MAY 30
St Kilda v Melbourne C (N)

ROUND 11
MONDAY, JUNE 8
Melbourne v Collingwood MCG

SPLIT ROUND 12
FRIDAY, JUNE 19
Essendon v Melbourne TD (N)

ROUND 13
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
Brisbane Lions v Melbourne G ?(N)?

ROUND 14
SATURDAY, JULY 4
Melbourne v West Coast MCG

ROUND 15
SUNDAY, JULY 12
Melbourne v Port Adelaide MCG

ROUND 16
SATURDAY, JULY 18
Geelong v Melbourne SS

ROUND 17
SUNDAY, JULY 26
Melbourne v Sydney MO

ROUND 18
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2
Melbourne v Richmond MCG

ROUND 19
SUNDAY, AUGUST 9
North Melbourne v Melbourne TD

ROUND 20
SUNDAY, AUGUST 16
Melbourne v Fremantle MCG

ROUND 21
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22
Carlton v Melbourne TD

ROUND 22
SUNDAY, AUGUST 30
Melbourne v St Kilda MCG

 

[undies37]

thanx beats for doing that

 

[undies37]

SUNDAY, JULY 12

Melbourne v Port Adelaide MCG

not hawks vs kangas

 

[Beats]

The above looks terrible at first glance, but I actually think it's not too bad in terms of who we play. In terms of where/when it's shocking as we will be lucky to pull over 30,000 to more than 4 of our home games.
Just some notes I took -
Interstate games: Port Adelaide, West Coast, St Kilda(Carrara), Brisbane, Sydney(Manuka, Home Game)

Teams we play twice: North Melbourne, Collingwood, Port Adelaide, Richmond, Geelong, St Kilda, West Coast

We don’t play freo until round 20, and Carlton til 21…
I think we might have 2 Saturday night games and 1 Friday night game, that's not so bad...
13 games at the mcg.

 

[Punchy Demons]

Now I know that we finished last & as a result don't get the prime time game slots, but really how fair is the draw?

Get back to playing each team once in the first 15 rounds & then whoever in the last 7 rounds. We don't play Syd until R.17, Frem until R.20 & Carl until R.21

We have 1 x Friday night game, 7 Saturday games (1 x night at Carrara Vs Saints), 13 Sunday games (2 x twilight).

The AFL is supporting us financially but if they really want us to stand on our own feet, don't give us so many Sunday games. I think most Melbourne supporters would be happy if it was a 50/50 split between Saturday & Sunday games. Meaning we would drop 3 Sunday games & pick up 3 Saturday games. Most junior footy is played on a Sunday & that means families don't get to Sunday games! (Hopefully our members of tomorrow)

Further to that is the one Saturday night game against the Saints on the Gold Coast. It is a near definite to being on Foxtel.

Melbourne supporters aren't asking for the prime time Friday night footy slot 5 or 6 times a season but at least more Saturday games & not to play bloody Geelong twice every season (I don't know how long it has been since playing them only once in a season)

Not a very good draw for Melbourne supporters

 

[richskee]

What a great way to start off the season...

MELBOURNE VS NTH MELBOURNE (MCG ATT: 15,000)

 

[davey_magik]

**** the people who did the draw.

**** Vlad.

**** the whole ****ing AFL. We ask for less ****ing Sunday games and what do we get? The same amount (IIRC).

Really this should be something that spurs on all supporters to get to as many games as possible. The AFL obviously wants us out, let's make a stand and show we can get decent crowds.

 

[Bartram_Class]

1 less I think it is actually, didn't we have 14.

I'm reasonably happy TBH. Of our travels, only three of them are proper away games.

 

[master bate]

Positives:
7 > 5 Saturdays
Collingwood twice - including round 2 - will be a nice win
Lots of games at the G, no home games at Etihad

Neutral:
Only 5 interstate games (not counting Canberra) - and a trip to the GC is probably better than a trap to Adelaide or Perth.

Negatives:
North Melbourne round 1, GREAT
Geelong at Geelong again, they fill it out no matter who plays there, we should request that we only play them once or that the second game is also at the G.
Only 2 Sat night games, both will be on Fox
Only 1 Fri night game (as to be expected) but it doesn't come until round 12 so we can't turn it into a membership drive night (also 22 teams have played Friday or the equivalent before us in a 16 team comp - go figure).
We play 4 teams from the 8 last year, and 2 of the 3 from the bottom 8 (Port and Richmond) should be competitive next year.
5/6 and 6/8 of our last games are on Sundays, which means if your kids play footy and you aren't really interested in a team that is in the bottom 4 why would you turn up?
Our last game is a Sunday (like we are going to make finals anyway).

Comment
It is better than last year, and maybe all we deserve under the AFL policy of teams that win games get what they want which leads to a dangerous situation when you are in debt but trying to win a flag not just make the 8.

I would argue that this FIXture is deserving of a million dollars plus special distribution to even the competition. But wouldn't it be nice to get the big games and see if we could make the 1million our selves. But the effect of that is the AFL would lose millions in TV rights, so Vlad and co are happy just to fork out to keep us happy whilst they increase the AFL and their own banks balances at the detriment of the game.

 

[undies37]

and also to make things worse our first game is grand prix weekend!!!

 

[McLean_4_Captain]

It is better than last year, and maybe all we deserve under the AFL policy of teams that win games get what they want which leads to a dangerous situation when you are in debt but trying to win a flag not just make the 8.

That's all that we can hope for. We got a bad draw last year after a sh_t year, be happy that it's improved considering we had a worse year. t'll be hard to drag my hungover ass to 6 early sunday games.

Others are much worse off. North had a pretty good year, they've got 6 interstate games, none are to neutral venues and they have to go to Geelong. All 6 of their away games are in the last 11 games, so they'd want to be top 4 at 1/2 way to make finals.

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

Still shitty about the sunday matches, but what bargaining power do we actually have?

Nada. Now we know what we are up against, let's ****ing attack.

 

[KTLK]

Playing at AAMI in round 3 and Subiaco in round 7 is alot better than at the middle and end of the season.
Get it done early to avoid the pressure towards the finals and obviously the team is ready for a challenge while they are fresh from the begining of the season.
Hope the timing playing at these 2 shocking grounds will help the MFC to break the horror run.

 

[McLean_4_Captain]

Schwaby's response to the fixture:

Following the announcement of the 2009 AFL fixture, MELBOURNEfc CEO Cameron Schwab made the following comments:

‘We are pleased to be playing 13 games at the MCG, including all 10 Victorian home matches. It is our home and it’s where our supporters want to watch us play."

“The season starts off well for us with a home game against North Melbourne, and continues with five out of the first six matches at the MCG.”

“It is also pleasing that our traditional home game against Collingwood on the Queen's Birthday will continue in 2009.

“We again play a significant number of Sunday games in 2009. Our goal is to always have a balanced mix of Friday, Saturday and Sunday matches. We do, however, understand that we have to earn the right to play in these premium timeslots and we look forward to a time when we are rewarded by the AFL with a more even mix of game times”

 

[Deledinho]

How in the hell could you play seven 2008 finalists, the 9th team and have trips to Adelaide and Subi in the first ten games? That's disgraceful to say the least. I'm not one for conspiracies but if the AFL have an agenda then they're being none-too-subtle about it.

 

[master bate]

How in the hell could you play seven 2008 finalists, the 9th team and have trips to Adelaide and Subi in the first ten games? That's disgraceful to say the least. I'm not one for conspiracies but if the AFL have an agenda then they're being none-too-subtle about it.

Good pick up, it is a tough start and when two of you're non finalists are Port and Richmond who along with Carlton are the best chance of making the 8 from the non-finalists it looks really tough (especially because history points to one of those teams making the top 4). Oh well, it could be a benefit if we have started training a month earlier than the top 8 sides we could get a jump on them. Or it could be like this year where we played the top 3 teams in the first 3 rounds and three weeks in our season was over.

 

[Bails2008]

One of our saturday home games is against WC . For Fornicating Under Consent of the Kings sake what are the AFL trying to achieve. I understand we have to earn a better draw but at least give us a big drawing game on one of the Saturday we do play at home (all 2 of them). Selfishly sunday games are great for me coaching senior football on sat. Almost zero chance to get to sat games but honestly from a financial and club point of view it is shisenhousen. We have drafts, salary caps, no free agency, rookie lists etc to even up the competition but continue to have a shockingly lopsided draw. The thing is others have worse draws than us.

Hypothetically 2 even sides chance of playing finals could be decided purely on who has a better draw. How can we not play 3 sides by round 17. Lets be honest its a joke and has been for years now. Thank god I have foxtel.

 

[saj_21]

Selfishly sunday games are great for me coaching senior football on sat. Almost zero chance to get to sat games but honestly from a financial and club point of view it is shisenhousen.

Hypothetically 2 even sides chance of playing finals could be decided purely on who has a better draw. How can we not play 3 sides by round 17. Lets be honest its a joke and has been for years now. Thank god I have foxtel.

Agree with you on the Sunday games i play on a satdy arvo and from a selfish point of view games on Sunday are great for me but overall is not good for the club.

I didn't see what was wrng with the old system rounds 1-7 are repeated from 16-22. No system will ever be fair but waiting 20 weeks to play a team is rediculous most teams don't start tanking until later in the year but rarely by round 15 when everyone has played eachother at least once.

 

[AFL is Number One]

The 2009 fixture is pretty much par for the course for a side that finished last.

Until we get increased attendances, play good attractive footy,.... we will be playing plenty of Sunday footy.

Its exactly as one of the guys said : at the moment we have no bargaining power whatsoever.

Its really our own fault. I mean...I went to all our Vic games last year...and to be there for games with 16 to 22 thousand fans at an emty G..was most dissapointing. I wonder how the players felt.

Where are our fans??? TURN Up and support the club FFS and then we may get Andy Demetriou to start doing us some favours.

Remembert that it was Andy D who reninded us that being called Melbourne didn't guarantee us anything..and in fact he went further and said that at the moment our Club name as a sellable brand was worth nothing.

So taking all that into account...we are in no position to complain about a fixture. Good teams just get on with it and play anyone,anytime , anywhere.

Bring it On. And Lets go to the home games guys! Go Dees.

 

[malodeez]

Positives:
7 > 5 Saturdays
Collingwood twice - including round 2 - will be a nice win
Lots of games at the G, no home games at Etihad

.

positives
* picks 1 and 2 in next years draft
*bring on 2010

 

[RandB]

We can analyse this draw and find negatives and positives as much as we want. We can tell ourselves that 7 saturdays is better than 5 and playing Collingwood twice is a bonus etc. I'm sure we'll all pick the eyes out of it over the next few days.

The one undeniable problem is that we are trying to get a major sponsor and the amount of Sunday games we play is killing us from a corporate point of view. Yes, Dees fans have to get off their asses and make the most of what is a lot of Sunday games, we'll have to live with it but from a club point of view our next major sponsor will play a large part in our future and this draw is none too enticing for corporate dollars. Sure, the Kangas may be a bit worse off with their fixture but they are signed up from a corporate point of view. We on the other hand are in a precarious position IMO.

Has anyone heard any developments regarding our next major sponsor?

 

[carrben12]

I'm having a wedding party on Sunday the 5th in Oz. I'm only in Melb for that weekend and the weekend after. Lucky that I picked the 1 weekend out of teh first 7 when we play on Saturday or else I wouldn't have gotten any footy on my trip to Oz.

Very tempted to move our tickets out of Oz back 2 days, but my soon-to-be wife might not be so keen on giving away 2 days of our Fiji honeymoon so that I can squeeze in another game.

 

[unstable punt]

**** the people who did the draw.

**** Vlad.

**** the whole ****ing AFL. We ask for less ****ing Sunday games and what do we get? The same amount (IIRC).

Really this should be something that spurs on all supporters to get to as many games as possible. The AFL obviously wants us out, let's make a stand and show we can get decent crowds.

there just frickin' raping us these fascists, they don't give a toss and know we can't say too much about it, they say they want us to stand on our own feet but screw us continually with these crap draws... Socialist organisation??? what a crock of shit

 

[The Great Gabsby]

I can accept the fact that we don't deserve too many good timeslots because lets face it, we were shit this year. What I can't accept is the ridiculous double standards set in place by the clown brigade at the AFL, particularly this clown:

AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said Melbourne's draw reflected its performance.
"It's been two years running they have clearly been the bottom team," McLachlan said.

Hmm I didn't realise we came last in 2007 as well. I was sure Richmond and Carlton finished below us. And yet......

Carlton, on the other hand, a side that has not distinguished itself in any fashion for eight or nine years, will play on a Sunday on only four occasions in 2009, enjoy six Friday nights and have 16 matches broadcast free-to-air.

Go figure.