Nope, we are a team that needs that connection between the group and at the start of season we didn't have that due to covid limits. Then as every team has had , well almost every team. We have had to face hubs and being away from home whilst teams such wce , bris etc have had the advantage of actually playing in their home.ground. sleeping in their own beds etcBullshiit mate
2020 will be remembered as the compromised season of limited training sessions, shortened 16 minute quarters, just 17 H&A rounds and many unlucky teams (but not Richmond) having to play games with 4 day breaks vs teams with over a week's rest.
The reigning premiers were actually favoured by the various challenges when you consider they had all the pieces & a premiership gameplan already in place. Especially compared to many of their struggling rivals who weren't able to bridge the gap due to the restrictions on what they could do.
Richmond was extremely blessed they were able to spend the last 4 months in their sunny Queensland hub with their families while other clubs had to endure the upheaval of 3-4 week hubs in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
The Tigers received the easiest draw of all Victorian teams.
AFL fixture 2020: Who won and who lost from the revised schedule?
Richmond got a major leg-up, while Hawthorn didn't have any luck. And how much help did the South Australian and Queensland teams have?www.theage.com.au
Home/Away
The home advantage which the non-Victorian teams enjoyed actually elevated Port Adelaide and Brisbane into 1st and 2nd place. Both of these teams could be considered flag pretenders in 2020, particularly the Lions with many inexperienced players and maybe a season away from mounting a serious challenge to Richmond or Geelong in September
- 5 games in Melb before the travel restrictions (4 at MCG, 1 at Marvel.) Fortunate not to have any interstate games in that block.
- Disadvantaged by only 3 away games after that (vs Giants, Crows, Port)
- 2 travel games on neutral turf (vs Swans at Gabba, vs Ess in Darwin)
- The rest of your games were played at your "home away from home" on the Gold Coast (inc. matches vs WCE and Freo)
Apologies to any Port and Lions fans reading this, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this was the weakest top 2 in AFL history.
Days Break
32 games this season where one team had 2 or more days' extra rest than its opponent on a short week (i.e. backing up off a 4 or 5 day break)
In a whopping 26 of these 32 matches, the more rested team won.
This was a seriously compromised aspect of the condensed revised fixture. Some games were quite farcical.
Richmond enjoyed 5 games with this advantage (the most) and had ZERO games with this disadvantage (the fewest)
Games advantaged:
5 Rich
4 St K
3 Coll, WB
2 Bris, Port, Melb, Carl, Ess, Adel, GC
1 Geel, WCE
0 Haw, GWS
Games disadvantaged:
4 Haw, GWS, Adel
3 Coll, NM, Freo, GC
2 Geel, Bris, Ess
1 St K, WCE
0 Rich, WB, Port, Syd, Melb, Carl
I'm not saying there was an AFL/Channel 7 conspiracy to make things easier for Richmond. But if you analyse the fixtures each club was given, the AFL could not have made things any easier for your side compared to other Vic teams.
Congratulations Richmond fans on your club winning the premiership. (Seriously, well done.) Some would say it was an asterisk flag in a compromised season. I don't care about all that rubbish. People on here will put an asterisk against virtually any flag. Who cares? It doesn't matter. They all count.
But please cut the crap about Richmond "doing it tough" this season. Some clubs actually did it tough, but Richmond wasn't one of those.
edit: I'm not even buying into the argument about which dynasty is the best. I don't really care about that crap either. Who cares? Winning the flag is the only thing which counts. With 3 flags in 4 years, the Tigers can be deservedly described as a dynasty alongside the great teams of the past.
To win a flag when there is such an obvious advantage just shows how good this team is.
Imagine if your team Hawks won if they were forced to go to NT or something whilst other teams were allowed to play at their home ground from time to time
And mate , staying in hotels cooped up 24/7 is tough even with family.
Large chunks of that season was without family too so your point is invalid.
To win the hardest flag of all time shows why we are the greatest of all time.
If anything all these restrictions and challenges should of hindered our game plan, yet it didn't . We got hit, got back up and returned it with force. GOAT