2004 AFL Fixtures

[monopoly19]

Taken from the Offical Website:

Sydney - director of football Andrew Ireland

?We?re pretty pleased with the draw. It?s well-balanced for us. We?ve got some big games out at Telstra Stadium, but also some good games at the SCG, which we were hopeful that we could get. Probably the only downside for us is having only five games in Victoria ? four in Melbourne and one in Geelong. We asked to try and get six Melbourne games for our Melbourne supporters. But we do understand the difficulties for the AFL when we are scheduled to play an away game against the Kangaroos in Canberra.?

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Craig
That would be silly if people stopped supporting the Swans because of an AFL decision. Live with it.

I can't see why people don't make a bit of a road trip to Canberra and a couple to Sydney and Adelaide. That way you would get to see 10 or so games and have a few weekends away at the same time.

There are also Virgin airfares of $80 return occassionally which also makes it easier.

Mate, we bloody "lived with it" this year, remember? We only got 5 games THIS YEAR AS WELL!!! For 2004, I was expecting that they'd do the right thing and even things up, but noooo.... the AFL's biggest non-home city supporter base isn't important enough?

WHY THE HELL Should we pay $80 to go to a game of footy which 5 years ago was in Melbourne? There were just as many interstate sides then! Nothing has changed except the attitude of the powers that be. Sydney's Melbourne fans are paying the price for our years of loyalty... "Don't worry, they'll stick around. They always do" seems to be the attitude.

This is the biggest joke I've ever seen. Anybody who makes an excuse for this crap TWICE IN A ROW is quite simply, selfish.

[Rob-bloods]

What is Andrew Ireland on, I seem to recall that when they surveyed the Swans Sydney base 80% or so preferred Sunday aftrenoon games at 2.00.

[Angelic Upstart]

The draw's a slap in the face for Melb fans

We get one Melbourne game in the first thirteen rounds! If they're going to give us the bare minimum Melbourne games they might at least have the decency to spread them out.

I'm really annoyed by the draw, and will think twice about forking out for a membership. The club should recognise that the Victorian fans have been hard down by (again!), and it should include in the Victorian members package an extra game, ie $87 or whatever it is covers the 5 Victorian games plus an optional non-Victorian game.

[DST]

Originally posted by Charlie
This is the biggest joke I've ever seen. Anybody who makes an excuse for this crap TWICE IN A ROW is quite simply, selfish.

No excuse for it Charlie, just plain and simple explainations.

The AFL try and accomodate all the clubs requests when they submitt their wishlist. But the simple matter is that they cannot possibly grant all wishes to clubs while still getting the maximum value for members, paying public, tv right holders and sponsors etc.

It would seem from the draw that the two most important wishes that Sydney had next year have been accomodated:

1) From a playing point of veiw, we don't have to back up and travel two weeks in a row more than once. This will help us acheive the highest ladder position as possible

2) From a finance point of veiw we were given the Collingwood game on the bye weekend as the home team. From a gate receipt. sponsorship. tv expsoure and corporate support perspective this is exactly what we needed and wanted

DST

[Ryan Bomford]

Geez, I didn't think there was any room for reason on this site.

[DST]

Re: The draw's a slap in the face for Melb fans

Originally posted by Angelic Upstart
We get one Melbourne game in the first thirteen rounds! If they're going to give us the bare minimum Melbourne games they might at least have the decency to spread them out.

I'm really annoyed by the draw, and will think twice about forking out for a membership. The club should recognise that the Victorian fans have been hard down by (again!), and it should include in the Victorian members package an extra game, ie $87 or whatever it is covers the 5 Victorian games plus an optional non-Victorian game.

That is a very good point Angelic, rather than complain about the AFL not giving us enough games down here lets look at ways of expanding on the membership.

But the club has already expanded the offerings over the last couple of years by provding a membership that includes access to a couple of Sydney games if you want to pay for it up front.

Maybe they could organise for the Canberra game against the Roos to be included as part of the Melbourne membership games but more than likely this wuill still be over the cost of the 5 games we play here in Melbourne.

DST

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by monopoly19
Probably the only downside for us is having only five games in Victoria ? four in Melbourne and one in Geelong. We asked to try and get six Melbourne games for our Melbourne supporters. But we do understand the difficulties for the AFL when we are scheduled to play an away game against the Kangaroos in Canberra.?

Obvously we don't know the full story, but at least it looks like the club tried. How hard and what happened we don't know. I don't know why we have to play the 'Roos at Manuka, although I assume it's probably because they think there is more chance of Sydney supporters heading down than Melb club supporters going up.

[DST]

Originally posted by Rob-bloods
What is Andrew Ireland on, I seem to recall that when they surveyed the Swans Sydney base 80% or so preferred Sunday aftrenoon games at 2.00.

Andrew Ireland runs our football department, his comments (besides the Melbourne comment) are from a football perspective not membership and supporter perspective.

Lets change the survey question to this and see what answer you get back:

"The TV contract with channel 9 means that all Sunday games will start at 1.10pm. If you have the choice between Sunday at 1.10pm or Saturday night, what would be your preferrable time"

Point is, that the survey is redundant becuase only under very limited circumstances will we ever play at 2.00pm ever again on a Sunday, in that situation most will take the Saturday nigh option.

DST

[swan_17]

Originally posted by DST

But no club gets anywhere near their wishlist

If I were Eddie McChin, having my team travel to Perth only once in two seasons, would be pretty high on my wishlist

[DST]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Obvously we don't know the full story, but at least it looks like the club tried. How hard and what happened we don't know. I don't know why we have to play the 'Roos at Manuka, although I assume it's probably because they think there is more chance of Sydney supporters heading down than Melb club supporters going up.

But we do know the full story, every year the AFL publishes on their website what each club has marked on their wishlist.

From memory Sydney has asked for 6 or 7 games in Melbourne every year.

The AFL have assumed nothing, just as we have a wishlist so does the Roos and they specifically asked for 3 games in Canberra of which 1 must be against Sydney. The AFL complied with that.

And before anyone jumps up and says why did they get their wishlist, the Roos asked for 5 or 6 firiday night games and got 1 only.

DST

[Charlie]

Ok mate, fair points. But TWICE in a row is simply too much. Once, and I'll "live with it", twice, and I simply don't know what to do. I don't want to blindly accept it, but how the hell do you punish the AFL without punishing the club?

And if one more person says that we should simply pay lots of money to go interstate, I'll scream. Does money have no meaning to some of you? Sometimes, you simply can't afford to have "a few weekends away". Going up for the preliminary final cost my parents and my sister somewhere around $350, as a rough estimate. That's without any accomodation, only 1-way on Virgin.

It must be nice to have all the answers, sitting in comfort knowing that you have 12 games to go to, plus maybe a little day trip to Canberra.

[DST]

Originally posted by Charlie
Ok mate, fair points. But TWICE in a row is simply too much. Once, and I'll "live with it", twice, and I simply don't know what to do. I don't want to blindly accept it, but how the hell do you punish the AFL without punishing the club?

And if one more person says that we should simply pay lots of money to go interstate, I'll scream. Does money have no meaning to some of you? Sometimes, you simply can't afford to have "a few weekends away". Going up for the preliminary final cost my parents and my sister somewhere around $350, as a rough estimate. That's without any accomodation, only 1-way on Virgin.

It must be nice to have all the answers, sitting in comfort knowing that you have 12 games to go to, plus maybe a little day trip to Canberra.

Charlie, I like you live in Melbourne and would love to go to 12 games a year but can't afford or justify the amount needed to do so. But unfortunately we support a team that plays outside of our state.

Can I just add one thing, imagine if you are Eagle, Docker, Power or Crows fan living in Melbourne. They are all faced with playing most of their away games away from Melbourne in Darwin, Tassie and Canberra.

At least we draw enough support in Melbourne to warrant the Victorian clubs to play us on their home turf.

DST

[Plugger46]

Originally posted by DST
Charlie, I like you live in Melbourne and would love to go to 12 games a year but can't afford or justify the amount needed to do so. But unfortunately we support a team that plays outside of our state.

Can I just add one thing, imagine if you are Eagle, Docker, Power or Crows fan living in Melbourne. They are all faced with playing most of their away games away from Melbourne in Darwin, Tassie and Canberra.

At least we draw enough support in Melbourne to warrant the Victorian clubs to play us on their home turf.

DST

Eagles, Dockers, Power and Crows don't have a supporter base in Melbourne so that's irrelevant. Their roots are from their respective states, ours are from Melbourne.

If it continues the way it does, swans supporters in Melbourne will drop off, I won't be one of them, but believe me some will...

[Troy G]

The AFL says one of the guiding principles was to develop "as close as possible, a draw which gives all clubs, no matter what position on the ladder, equal opportunities".

Well how do they explain Eddie's level playing field seemingly having a large tilt in their favour!

I've counted 9 out of 22 games for the Pies being Thursday or Friday night games (ie. big events and big money earners) and the Pies playing on the last four Friday nights of the year before the finals! The whole month of August!