No Melbourne games until

[Snowy]

round 10 according to fixture to be released on Thursday.

[Charlie]

How many?

Do you have a source?

[Mike_B]

If this is true...I would imagine the club is very unhappy....they said they wanted more...and more early on.....instead of a heap in the second half of the season....

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Mike_B
If this is true...I would imagine the club is very unhappy....they said they wanted more...and more early on.....instead of a heap in the second half of the season....

I know what you're pre-empting. I won't be fighting this time. I've presented my case, sent my e-mails, done what I can. If it happens a third time, we're obviously never going to be important enough.

[Matt79]

I just don't see how that can be true!

Imagining roughly that we would have 5 homes games and 4 away in the first 9 rounds based on home, away, home way etc. means we would play in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and one more again in either Perth or Adelaide to make 4 away games.

I do not see how the AFL would organise such a draw with no games in Melbourne until round 10!

All this speculation is usually incorrect and on Thursday we will really find out the truth!

[Damien]

Originally posted by Charlie
I know what you're pre-empting. I won't be fighting this time. I've presented my case, sent my e-mails, done what I can. If it happens a third time, we're obviously never going to be important enough.

If it is true - surely the club can not be to blame.

They would have fought for a better deal for Melbourne. I have no doubt at all.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Damien
If it is true - surely the club can not be to blame.

They would have fought for a better deal for Melbourne. I have no doubt at all.

I'm not saying who's to blame if it's true... I simply don't know.

But there comes a time where you get sick of presenting a case that, for whatever reason, isn't being listened to. If it happens three times in a row, then obviously somebody - be it the club or the AFL - simply doesn't care about the club's Victorian fans. And, having arrived at that conclusion, if it happens again it would thus be pointless trying to argue a case that is going to be ignored.

[Thunder Shaker]

The AFL must be doing something odd with the draw this year if we don't play any games in Melbourne until round 10. We play Essendon in Sydney for the Marn Grook trophy late in the season, which means a game against Essendon in Melbourne sometime in the first seven rounds.

[liz]

Originally posted by Thunder Shaker
The AFL must be doing something odd with the draw this year if we don't play any games in Melbourne until round 10. We play Essendon in Sydney for the Marn Grook trophy late in the season, which means a game against Essendon in Melbourne sometime in the first seven rounds.

We play 3 games at Telstra and one will almost certainly be against the Bombers for the MG trophy. However, there is nothing to say this has to be a game late in the season. It could easily be the first Telstra game, especially if the AFL has decided that playing the Anzac Day Melbourne game at Telstra didn't work. That would leave the return game, in Melbourne, against Essendon to be late in the season. Alternatively, if the AFL abandons the mid-season stand alone game against the Pies, we could conceivably just play one game against Essendon, in Sydney.

The first game we ever played at Telstra in 2002 was against the Bombers - thus it was an early season game.

[westernswan]

Not been rude but i rekon this was a little post for attention, i mean can we get a link and he hast even replied and were all as anxiuos as anything

[Charlie]

The three Stadium Australia games should be set in stone as Collingwood, Essendon and Brisbane. The Pies and Dons nominate themselves - those fixtures have proven that they work there. Richmond, Carlton and Melbourne have been tried and, in my opinion, failed.

The only point to playing a game at Homebush is if it will draw a greater crowd than the SCG can accomodate. Otherwise, we're throwing away a significant proportion of our home ground advantage, whilst making less money than an equivalent crowd at the SCG.

The only club outside the big two Melbourne clubs that could potentially sell more than 45,000 seats at Homebush is Brisbane. It's closer than the other non-Victorian clubs, has enjoyed spectacular recent success, and the two teams always put up a good contest.

edit: Just as an addition, games against Carlton, Geelong, St Kilda and perhaps the Adelaide teams need to be kept at the SCG. These are games that don't have the drawing power of the above teams, but are capable of drawing 35,000 depending on the performances of them and the Swans. These are the sort of crowds that have been sadly lacking at the SCG in the past three years. Sending any of those games to Stade Oz would start to strangle the SCG as a viable venue. The ground MUST have some reasonable fixtures.

[Red]

Originally posted by Matt79
I just don't see how that can be true!

Imagining roughly that we would have 5 homes games and 4 away in the first 9 rounds based on home, away, home way etc. means we would play in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and one more again in either Perth or Adelaide to make 4 away games.

I do not see how the AFL would organise such a draw with no games in Melbourne until round 10!

All this speculation is usually incorrect and on Thursday we will really find out the truth!

Excellent point there Matt.

Funny if it was the case though. Could be really good -- get all the hard games out of the way early while the team is uninjured (touch wood).

Then a mix of home and cruisy 1.5 hour jaunts to Melb. Getting a few games at the G late in the season would be brilliant. It's not like we don't need it .

A late game v Essendon at the G. A chance to bury an ancient hoodoo. If we're contenders at the time, a win could provide irresistable momentum heading into the finals!

As you say, we'll know the truth soon enough. Wow. Excited about the draw. Off-season sucks!!

[Syd Swan]

seems as though our first game will be against either Adelaide, West Coast or Hawthorn if you go by todays Mercury. They have St Kilda v Brisbane, Melb v Ess, Kangas v Carlton, Pies v Bulldogs, Port v Freo and Richmond v Geelong.

[Damien]

Rule out Adelaide as Port is at home and we wont play at home until Round 2.

[Syd Swan]

Originally posted by Damien
Rule out Adelaide as Port is at home and we wont play at home until Round 2.

actually the Mercury say Port travel to Subi to play Freo, so that would mean we more than likely play Adelaide.