2013 Fixture

[liz]

At the risk of causing a civil war, we have members on here who travel from Outer Western Sydney, the Central Coast, Canberra (and many other places!)- all of which can be a longer trek than Melbourne to Geelong... If they bitch about the travel they're regularly told to suck it up and not NARF but when Melbourne fans say Geelong doesn't count because it's so far away there's usually consensus that it's a fair trek.

Yeah, I was going to comment that it takes me less time to get from Southern Cross Station to Geelong than it does to get from my house to Homebush. And I know others travel far further than I do.

[Nico]

Geelong is not a hardship for me. Problem this year was lack of standing room for Swans supporters but as I understand Geelong members could walk in without pre purchasing a ticket.

[Matty10]

At the risk of causing a civil war, we have members on here who travel from Outer Western Sydney, the Central Coast, Canberra (and many other places!)- all of which can be a longer trek than Melbourne to Geelong... If they bitch about the travel they're regularly told to suck it up and not NARF but when Melbourne fans say Geelong doesn't count because it's so far away there's usually consensus that it's a fair trek.

Yes, that is true. We also have people who live in Sydney who bitch about going to Homebush Stadium.

I think the whole point of the argument is that this a team who used to have 11 away games in Melbourne after the move (many were able to live with that, some were not), who have then seen that number slip and slip over the years. It seemed to be that the number had settled on 6 Melbourne games - then we seemed to get the Geelong game each year which made it 5 Melbourne games plus 1 in Geelong (a place which is far for some, not far for others, but either way has limited seating). Now it is 4 Melbourne games plus 1 Geelong.

I can understand the frustration of many of the Victorian fans here - if people don't 'bitch' about the amount of games and their location that number will only decrease yet again.

[Wardy]

Unfortunatly you can't please everyone when it comes to a footy fixture. If there are less games in Melbourne then the membership for the Melbournites should be discounted.

[lwjoyner]

At the risk of upsetting Tasmanian members as I seemed to do last year when I complained about the Hawks game but this Noth game is even worse. Who had the motto "kkep North South" a few years ago a sly dig at us Sth Melb (and now incidently SS supporters) when they were on the verg of going North to Qld. Why do we need to pull themout of the "sh.." why should they not play GC,GWS or WB or Demons or even the Pies, It should be another melb based club. We loose 2 Melb games this yr with the Sts in NZ and the Nth game in Tas surely one of these should not be happpening particularly the Nth game.

[swannymum]

Yeah, I was going to comment that it takes me less time to get from Southern Cross Station to Geelong than it does to get from my house to Homebush. And I know others travel far further than I do.

Yes, but if you take 1? hours at least to get to Southern Cross station in the first place, then have to travel to Geelong, to fight for the few tickets, that cost more than they should, to be outnumbered a zillion to one by heckling Cats fans, it is not worth the effort. If you opt to take the car it takes a helluva long time to even get out of the car park. It is the steady erosion of the opportunity to see our boys LIVE is the problem.

[DST]

At the risk of causing a civil war, we have members on here who travel from Outer Western Sydney, the Central Coast, Canberra (and many other places!)- all of which can be a longer trek than Melbourne to Geelong... If they bitch about the travel they're regularly told to suck it up and not NARF but when Melbourne fans say Geelong doesn't count because it's so far away there's usually consensus that it's a fair trek.

That's not the point Stellation, the problem is that we pay our club an inflated price for entry as part of the membership and then we must pay a minimum of $30 on top of that for a seat (all seats are reserved at their ground).

When a Sydney member comes into the SCG they are guaranteed their reserved seat at a reasonable cost.

If the Geelong FC provided the Swans with say 3,000 seats at no extra cost on a first come first served basis then it would not be an issue. But this is not gong to happen.

DST

[crackedactor]

Rain on Parade

That is one thing that has me so excited about 2013. I know it'll take him most of the season to get back on his feet, if not until 2014, but I can't wait to see him back on the field. I think a lot of people (especially outside of the Swans) have forgotten just how good he might turn out to be.

I hate to rain on your parade, but I hear his recovery has been slow and it might take a while to find form. Don't expect too much of him in 2013. I am hoping in 2014 he shows something.

[Nico]

You reckon we have problems. Hawthorn supporters are going bananas because they ONLY get 7 games at the MCG. They unfortunately have to go a couple of Kms up the road to play some home games the poor buggers.Greatest pack of whingers of all time.

[DLBIA14]

I think Melbourne supporters should expect a reasonable discount on their membership and if not then they are more than entitled to have a go at the club for not doing so. However the fact that there is only 4 games in Melbourne shouldn't be a that big an issue. It's not ideal and obviously the club doesn't want to alienate our traditional supporter base, but should it only be for this season I don't think its too much of a problem.

Think about all those other interstate supporters who have to travel to see a few extra games - its a bit like that. Fight prices to Sydney can be mighty cheap at times too remember and the SCG on a beautiful winter's day is a treat! Anyway our Melbourne supporters have been handed some cracking big ticket games and don't forget that the grannie is right on your doorstep. No $300 one way flights!

[Zlatorog]

I might be wrong here, but the reason to move games again North and Saints could be that those games don't draw large crowds and they would hardly fill Etihad or MCG, so AFL is keener to move them to places like Tasmania or Canberra, where they have smaller stadiums.
Also, the whole fixture is probably very influenced by Ch7 as well to draw maximum crowd in front of a TV. Expect this year for attendance to drop in general. Times are set to please broadcasters not club members.

[swansrob]

Anyway our Melbourne supporters have been handed some cracking big ticket games

This. As dissappointed as I am about only four games in Melbourne, the fact that one of them is against Hawthorn and one is a Friday night against Collingwood (both at the MCG) eases the pain a little. These two are set to be huge games.

[liz]

I might be wrong here, but the reason to move games again North and Saints could be that those games don't draw large crowds and they would hardly fill Etihad or MCG, so AFL is keener to move them to places like Tasmania or Canberra, where they have smaller stadiums.
Also, the whole fixture is probably very influenced by Ch7 as well to draw maximum crowd in front of a TV. Expect this year for attendance to drop in general. Times are set to please broadcasters not club members.

But you'd think that North and the Saints would draw larger crowds at Ethihad against the Swans than they would against any other non-Victorian side. If those clubs can't survive on home crowds bolstered by 8-10k Bloods supporters, it must be time to question their relevance in the competition, especially as Melbourne based sides.

[Melbournehammer]

As I mentioned earlier when north play I reckon we get pretty close to evens on fans, particularly when we are travelling well and they aren't. Saints usually draw a better crowd - maybe ten thousand more so its usually more 2:1. Melbourne is the other mob we usually run pretty close to.

As for the four games in melb issue - well basically we started with 11 then it was 7-9 for most of the 90s and then the melb sides started to play their away games at the scg or Canberra - which is great for you Sydney fans but shocking for us. Lets put it this way - you miss one game and its less than 10 per cent of the opportunities you have to see them - which is fine because you have limited competition in this code. For us it is bigger and if you are trying to keep your kids in red and white and not yellow and black it becomes harder. If we miss one it is 25 per cent. It's pretty major. My kids have a lot of peer pressure to support someone else and if they do I will be invariably going there until they are old enough to go by themselves.

Us and to a lesser extent Brisbane are the only real two city teams and it is very disappointing that the afl don't do more to recognise this.

[liz]

I am especially excited by rounds 11-13. Back-to-back games in Adelaide presents a splendid opportunity to take a few weeks annual leave to spend in lovely Adelaide, taking in two games and with no need to waste money on a return flight back to Sydney. The bye in the middle provides an extra week to sample the delights of Rundle Mall. I'll have to see if I can find a life size inflatable Kurt Tippett to take with me to accompany me as I stroll down the mall and through the lovely parklands that Adelaide has to offer.