What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 3

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Seriously BS if we have to go up against them in the first round on their home deck.
Early in the season I could cop but first round is too much, the psychological impact would be massive if we got rolled again.
Could absolutely see the AFL doing it though, they only care about the dollar. When is the draw announced?

After throwing us all over the country, and having to abide by ridiculous and unfair restrictions placed on us, after Brisbane getting into fourth by err a supposed mistake. Where is our club spokespersons, someone should speak out. Even a Dees fan I was talking to yesterday, was saying how bloody unfair it was for us, it’s almost like they want us to fail.

This has put me into such a bad mood, it feels like we are just the AFL’s plaything, we play well and get rewarded as the away team against bigger clubs on Friday nights, gee thanks AFL. They send us all over bloody Australia, not giving us a choice of our home final. We need to get some Bulldogs in to city hall, ex AFL players from big clubs dominate there and treat us like dirt.
 
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Seriously BS if we have to go up against them in the first round on their home deck.
Early in the season I could cop but first round is too much, the psychological impact would be massive if we got rolled again.
Could absolutely see the AFL doing it though, they only care about the dollar. When is the draw announced?
Can guarantee Bevo and the players would not think like this. The players would not have made the GF this year if they thought like this.

We have complained for years about the club not getting big Friday night games, yet here we are having supporters complaining about getting one.
 
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TBOW

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My only issue with playing Melbourne in round 1 is that we have been trying to establish round 1 against Collingwood as an ongoing fixture.

In fact it is the only semi-consistent, ongoing, exclusive fixture we have. This year was our turn to host which would have provided a good windfall to the club which instead will now go to Melbourne for hosting us in round 1.

Meanwhile Melbourne have claimed Anzac Eve and Queens birthday and now want the AFL to throw them a party for winning the flag.

Under Gordon I would feel confident that we could leverage an inconvenience like losing our regular round 1 against Collingwood into something else that we wanted. Maybe locking in Good Friday for another year. I really hope KWW can channel her inner Gordon when it comes to negotiating this next fixture, as on the back of playing in the Grand Final, it is one we need to capitalise on.
 

Pocket Terrace

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I'd hate to run out with some of you in here as teammates. White flags and excuses 6 months before the game has started. This is competitive sport at the highest level, not some feel good exercise where everyone needs to feel comfortable all the time. If we get done, then we weren't good enough again. Nothing to do with trauma, unfairness or a stiff deal from the AFL. Harden up FFS and get along to support the boys.
 
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My only issue with playing Melbourne in round 1 is that we have been trying to establish round 1 against Collingwood as an ongoing fixture.

In fact it is the only semi-consistent, ongoing, exclusive fixture we have. This year was our turn to host which would have provided a good windfall to the club which instead will now go to Melbourne for hosting us in round 1.

Meanwhile Melbourne have claimed Anzac Eve and Queens birthday and now want the AFL to throw them a party for winning the flag.

Under Gordon I would feel confident that we could leverage an inconvenience like losing our regular round 1 against Collingwood into something else that we wanted. Maybe locking in Good Friday for another year. I really hope KWW can channel her inner Gordon when it comes to negotiating this next fixture, as on the back of playing in the Grand Final, it is one we need to capitalise on.

Yep, the last time we got a round 1 home match against a Victorian team in front of a crowd was way back in 2010 (49k against Collingwood). Collingwood got the benefit of round 1 home matches against us in 2017 and 2021.
 

CarnTheScray

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IDGAF if we play them round 1 or not. If we do I just hope we s**t down their throats.

I just don't have any idea why the AFL would waste this game on Round 1??? Wouldn't they rather have Melbourne and us hold our own home games in Round 1 that will pull big crowds at the two stadiums? Dogs vs Pies would surely be upwards of 45k at Marvel if 100% capacity is allowed and every covid restriction is gone (except the need to show your vaccination card).
 
Given that the AFL is a commercial enterprise that wants to maximise exposure and profit. Its a perfectly logical thing to kick off the season with a replay of the biggest game of the previous season. I can't believe that its hasn't been part of the game since forever.

This is especially so after god knows how many years of the damp squib of soft openings to the season that have been the Carlton/Richmond games. It'll make for a nice change to have two top tier and evenly matched contenders kick the season off with a quality game.

As for Melbourne getting an advantage form seeing their flag unfurled. Who cares and who here wouldn't have loved the same for us? Instead we had to wait until round ******* 2 for the same privilege after the season kicked of with yet another middling Carlton/Richmond snoozefest and an away game against Collingwood.

Just because we run out of puff and got steam rolled in the grand final doesn't mean the same result will ensue next time.

Bring. It. On.
 
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flipper83

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If the AFL want to do a grand final rematch then at least make it the first game of the year.
It baffles me that the AFL rewarded years of abject failure from the Carlton and Richmond football club with the first game of the year every year.
It's such a leg up to 2 already well supported clubs while we have to grovel to get rotated into the good Friday game every couple of years.
 

footscray1973

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Well at the very least we'll find out if our ruck situation has improved (or changed) since the GF? And also if we setup with a defensive side mid at centre bounces.
 
Yep, the last time we got a round 1 home match against a Victorian team in front of a crowd was way back in 2010 (49k against Collingwood). Collingwood got the benefit of round 1 home matches against us in 2017 and 2021.

Yep, this is my point we are lining other clubs pockets. It’s not about whinging about Friday night games, it’s the disparity between us as the host team.
 

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Yep, this is my point we are lining other clubs pockets. It’s not about whinging about Friday night games, it’s the disparity between us as the host team.
It's a convenient excuse that they say we should play Melbourne instead of have a home game against Collingwood ... and of course the Demons have the right to unfurl their flag so it has to be their home game. They will have conveniently forgotten that in 2017 they gave us our first home game in Rd 2 (v Swans) so we had to wait to unfurl ours.

We are continually pushed around by the AFL for the sake of large crowds at other clubs' home grounds. And the best dates on the calendar are given to the biggest clubs even when they have been crap for years. All the equalisation talk is fine until it comes to AFL revenues (crowds and TV rights). Then the minnow upstarts get shoved back in their place.
 

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It's a convenient excuse that they say we should play Melbourne instead of have a home game against Collingwood ... and of course the Demons have the right to unfurl their flag so it has to be their home game. They will have conveniently forgotten that in 2017 they gave us our first home game in Rd 2 (v Swans) so we had to wait to unfurl ours.

We are continually pushed around by the AFL for the sake of large crowds at other clubs' home grounds. And the best dates on the calendar are given to the biggest clubs even when they have been crap for years. All the equalisation talk is fine until it comes to AFL revenues (crowds and TV rights). Then the minnow upstarts get shoved back in their place.
In part it is self inflicted. Yes we haven’t been given many public holiday and Friday night games over the years but here might an example why.

Firstly, in 2019 Collingwood had consecutive games against West Coast and the Dogs at the G.

The game against the Dogs was a Friday night game and the game against West Coast a Saturday game.

The game against the Eagles got a bigger crowd.
We couldn’t draw a bigger crowd than West Coast against Collingwood in our own state

I remember thinking about the difference in support we had that night compared to the SF against the Hawks.

Our supporters do not turn up in great numbers to big H&A games, as evidenced by the fact that we are the only Victorian club that has never drawn over 70,000 to a H&A game.
Yes I would like the AFL give us more of an opportunity to be a big crowd drawer through giving us prime time games but from their perspective they look at the historical numbers and probably think it is too much of a risk. As a result there is a self perpetuating cycle that has developed over the years, as we do not get big games because we get very few chances to pull big crowds, and when we do get a big game the crowd is often disappointing.

Therefore I just hope when when or if we do ever do get a big public holiday game at the G or at Marvel or other Friday night games such as R1 next year, we bloody well turn up or the AFL will be justified in not giving us these times.
 

TBOW

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In part it is self inflicted. Yes we haven’t been given many public holiday and Friday night games over the years but here might an example why.

Firstly, in 2019 Collingwood had consecutive games against West Coast and the Dogs at the G.

The game against the Dogs was a Friday night game and the game against West Coast a Saturday game.

The game against the Eagles got a bigger crowd.
We couldn’t draw a bigger crowd than West Coast against Collingwood in our own state

I remember thinking about the difference in support we had that night compared to the SF against the Hawks.

Our supporters do not turn up in great numbers to big H&A games, as evidenced by the fact that we are the only Victorian club that has never drawn over 70,000 to a H&A game.
Yes I would like the AFL give us more of an opportunity to be a big crowd drawer through giving us prime time games but from their perspective they look at the historical numbers and probably think it is too much of a risk. As a result there is a self perpetuating cycle that has developed over the years, as we do not get big games because we get very few chances to pull big crowds, and when we do get a big game the crowd is often disappointing.

Therefore I just hope when when or if we do ever do get a big public holiday game at the G or at Marvel or other Friday night games such as R1 next year, we bloody well turn up or the AFL will be justified in not giving us these times.
To be fair both games drew pretty much 60k, they had about 1500 more at the West Coast game which also happened to be the grand final rematch.

It's also worth noting that we got 9000 more than St.Kilda to our only non Covid effected Good Friday game and only about 5000 less than Essendon.
 
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Gee, you'd think some of posts here would suggest we've all only been Dogs fans for five minutes! The way people are pointing out the fact we get screwed around fixture wise lol. People forget we didn't play Carlton twice in a season for 16 years in a row or whatever it was? The fact that Adelaide had actually played more often on the MCG in the preceding years than we had when we were forced to host a final there against them in 2015? Etc. Etc.
 

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To be fair both games drew pretty much 60k, they had about 1500 more at the West Coast game which also happened to be the grand final rematch.

It's also worth noting that we got 9000 more than St.Kilda to our only non Covid effected Good Friday game and only about 5000 less than Essendon.
Ok great let’s keep it up.

Still My main point is historically we don’t draw crowds when we could or should.
 
Gee, you'd think some of posts here would suggest we've all only been Dogs fans for five minutes! The way people are pointing out the fact we get screwed around fixture wise lol. People forget we didn't play Carlton twice in a season for 16 years in a row or whatever it was? The fact that Adelaide had actually played more often on the MCG in the preceding years than we had when we were forced to host a final there against them in 2015? Etc. Etc.
So what are you saying? Do you want us to shut up about it?

It was wrong then and it's wrong now.
 
Ok great let’s keep it up.

Still My main point is historically we don’t draw crowds when we could or should.
It's a double whammy though and that's why it hurts. Not only don't we get the big fixtures which has an immediate hit to our bottom line but it means we get less publicity and less FTA exposure. So young people and new arrivals choosing which club to follow make the obvious choice and plonk for a Richmond, Carlton, Collingwood or Essendon.

It becomes self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating. Until that cycle is broken - or until we win something like three flags in a row - it's not going to improve.
 

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It's a double whammy though and that's why it hurts. Not only don't we get the big fixtures which has an immediate hit to our bottom line but it means we get less publicity and less FTA exposure. So young people and new arrivals choosing which club to follow make the obvious choice and plonk for a Richmond, Carlton, Collingwood or Essendon.

It becomes self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating. Until that cycle is broken - or until we win something like three flags in a row - it's not going to improve.
Yeah I said that in my post and why the AFL should look at giving clubs like ours more of an opportunity in prime time and Public Holidays.

But we have to grasp the chance when it comes along, and often we don't as a supporter base.

Round one next year is a great chance to show we can turn up and finally get over 70,000 to a H&A game.
 

TBOW

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Gee, you'd think some of posts here would suggest we've all only been Dogs fans for five minutes! The way people are pointing out the fact we get screwed around fixture wise lol. People forget we didn't play Carlton twice in a season for 16 years in a row or whatever it was? The fact that Adelaide had actually played more often on the MCG in the preceding years than we had when we were forced to host a final there against them in 2015? Etc. Etc.
To back this up with some recent stats.

Over the past 10 seasons we have played the big 5 Melbourne clubs an average of 5.5 times a season. That means we play them all once and every second year we play one of them twice.
As a baseline, considering an 18 team competition and 22 games a year, we should play them 6.5 times a year. Effectively one of them twice every year and two of them twice every other year.
That means we are consistently over a 10 year period being deprived one additional large drawing game every year. Keep in mind that we also won a premiership in this time so probably deserved to get top billing more regularly.

Whats-more, over that same period against those same teams we have played 25 times at home and 31 times away. To break it down, in six of those seasons we have played less times at home then away, in 3 we have broken even and in only one have we played more home games against these teams then away games.

If both of these factors were at parity, it would more or less equate to one additional home game against a top 5 club every year, which would be quite a lucrative proposition.

I understand that the AFL will have fixturing reasons why we don't play these teams more times throughout the year, but I can not understand why there is such a significant discrepancy in home game fixturing.

It is just another example of the numerous hurdles that we need to overcome being a smaller club in the Melbourne market.
 

Libbaaaa

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As long as we are playing at the G I don’t particularly care. Post the bye we were terrible at Marvel this year. We’ll most likely double up against the Dees regardless next year.
 
It's a convenient excuse that they say we should play Melbourne instead of have a home game against Collingwood ... and of course the Demons have the right to unfurl their flag so it has to be their home game. They will have conveniently forgotten that in 2017 they gave us our first home game in Rd 2 (v Swans) so we had to wait to unfurl ours.

We are continually pushed around by the AFL for the sake of large crowds at other clubs' home grounds. And the best dates on the calendar are given to the biggest clubs even when they have been crap for years. All the equalisation talk is fine until it comes to AFL revenues (crowds and TV rights). Then the minnow upstarts get shoved back in their place.

Except when the minnows are playing good football that the crowds want to see, then we have the pleasure of being the away team in a prime fixture. Breadcrumbs from the rich, hmm.
 
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