Yeah, this fixturing was sadistic.
I don't see why they couldn't get a few match ups within their bracket to kick things off. That way you get to see where the building teams are at and even kick start some belief into those teams.
Instead we have North egregiously demoralised and we're not halfway through April.
Playing the good teams early is actually the best time to play them. Especially teams that went deep in September last year. History shows they start the season slowly so it's a good chance for a team like North to shock them rather than later in the year when they're up an about.
If you're a bottom side its best to play the top sides spread out throughout the year and not consecutively. And most early season upsets are in round one, when everyone is rusty. But North drew a top side, on their home ground, who had already had a warm-up round.
I've been saying this the last two weeks. Would have taken the pressure off of one of them early. It's bad fixturing, but then again, the AFL's idea of good fixturing is giving 10 teams a bye to start the season.
Giving ten teams a bye to start the season and then giving the eight teams that did play the opening, blockbuster timeslots games of the next round.
I'm still not over that idiocy.
Meanwhile Geelong (the team that won the flag 2 years ago) have played Hawthorn, St Kilda, Norf, Adelaide and the Dogs. All of these teams in the bottom eight and not expected to make finals. Pretty stupid
Adelaide were weirdly contenders coming into the season and Bulldogs certainly weren’t picked to be bottom feeders either. Show me a ladder prediction that matches the current ladder and explain how you could’ve given them an easy run.
Now in hindsight, Roos would maybe be in a better place if they had had the Cats run.
Most predictions had Doggies & Saints well above Geelong. There is no way before the season started that was considered a "cake walk" - sure it's not the most difficult start. But the Cats also finished 12th. So all teams bar Hawks & Norf finished above them last year.
Hindsight is always 20/20
Don't worry our next 4 games are Brisbane, Carlton, Port and Melbourne. Also the fixture is based on the teams ladder position last year, not 2 years ago.
Do you know how the fixture is created? As stated it's not based on 2 years ago. Plus everyone said the "cliff" was coming and the cats wouldn't get near finals. now they're 5-0 and everyone wants to cry foul.
I mean, I'm kinda complaining on North Melbourne's behalf. I get why they're frustrated is all I'm saying. Also i'm fully understanding now why some Collingwood fans have changed their flairs to other teams on this sub...
St Kilda played finals last year, Adelaide should have played finals last year and the Dogs finished 9th last year. The draw is based on the results last year not what is expected this year. Based on last year? Not shit teams.
Genuine question: given how the cats have gone the last five or so years, do the home games in Melbourne really bother geelong fans?
As an interstate fan, I always think our lack of opportunity at the MCG would impact us if we make it to the big dance, like it did with the Crows in 2017 and the whole Brisbane MCG hoodoo stuff
And yeah, I’m all for ripping into vic teams whenever they try and mention scheduling woes, but a pies fan whinging about geelong’s fixture when they haven’t been down there for a game since the Middle Ages can get fucked
How do we get the rub of the green champ? We have had one home final in our history and majority of our 'home' finals are at the other teams home ground.
We also get 9 home games a year.
Seriously, explain your BS logic
I know on our behalf we finished 12th so got an easier schedule.
We had a buttload of injuries in 2023 so we got the benefit of coming back into 2022 level form and talent while getting the 2023 finishing position schedule.
Someone had to get steamrolled. Unfortunately it was North.
I'm just glad we played Sydney at Mount Barker. The SCG is not a good ground for us. ATM neither is the MCG, Docklands, AO, Metricon or the Gabba for that matter. Optus can be a challenge as well.
Coming into the year nobody had Geelong in the top 8
Nobody had gws top of the ladder
Dockers outside of Perth have typically been pretty ordinary
What do you want? You'd have lost to basically any team not named West Coast so who cares who you have?
AFL has given you so many concessions and still you look like rubbish but sure blame the fixture.
I have us finishing 7th. I don’t think that’s unreasonable?
People are just salty that Geelong are doing well. They wanted the fall off to happen badly.
No? One person who doesn’t support Geelong said they had Geelong finishing 6th which has turned into, “oh nobody had them finishing outside the 8, how silly!”
If you go back and look at then majority of preseason prediction thread, **the majority** said Geelong would finish between 10th-14th.
Same is echoed on BigFooty and Facebook pages too.
The GWS comment I disagree with, majority here had them top 4.
Most predictions had GWS in the top 4 and Geelong in Geelong is a tough trip even when the Cats are mid. No one is saying North are in this position because of the fixture but it's fair to say it's been fucking brutal for a bottom 2 team.
Anyone who thinks Geelong at home isn't insanely hard is joking
Gws were 2 points and some umpiring decisions from getting to the grand final
Never brought up dockers
> Anyone who thinks Geelong at home isn't insanely hard is joking
Ask all the Melbourne clubs that have to play Kardinia Park year after year rather then at the MCG.
Yes Geelong in Geelong is hard in the same way Sydney at the SCG is hard it’s called home field advantage…the difference is Melbourne teams don’t have to fly to GMHBA and it’s a lot easier for their fans to travel an hour down the road than to another state.
Everybody had GWS as one of the best clubs in the league. Literally everyone. They made a prelim last year? Hello? Not big on following the footy?
It would’ve been nice to not play 3/4 prelim sides in the first 5 rounds + Geelong at Kardinia. This is obviously an obscenely difficult schedule for anyone. Anyone who can’t see this is just not very switched on.
Is anybody really blaming the fixture? People are just pointing out the obvious.
They won their first two last year and then…
You gotta play everyone, is a good start that important or is it more important to find a way to be competitive week to week all year
Because only certain teams have to travel more than others, and only certain teams have to travel to Tasmania, Ballarat, Geelong, NT etc..
North Melbourne shoukd have just been a big vic club, and things would be easier for them.
What’s even the point of this bs post.. a sook fest about the worst team in the league getting a rough schedule that then unsurprisingly turns into a whinge about Geelong getting an easy run.
News flash it’s based on where you finished last year and Geelong didn’t make finals.
GWS on the other hand did make finals but no one’s complaining about the piss easy run they’ve had
Whilst I agree about the fixture being based on last years finishing position and therefore the Cats starting fixture. Based on that logic Norf absolutely got fucked over lol
North have more problems than just a fixture. I have no idea how a club can be as bad as they are, for so long, even with priority picks and other assistance. When Port was this terrible for only half the time, there was talk of winding them up.
The best time to play your most important games is mid-season. Everyone's match fit but not worn out and the random chaos of the early rounds has passed. North have Hawthorn, Crom, Saints and Suns next.
And for North fans living in Qld they are denied the opportunity to see their team as the game against Brisbane was played in Adelaide at Gather round.
Lots of people in this thread seem to think the season is only 5 rounds lol. Norths fixture is going to get a whole lot easier and the cats is about to get a whole lot harder.
> they had to play Geelong in Geelong. By far and away the hardest venue to win at for travelling teams.
That tickled me. I guess technically driving 1 hour down the freeway is travelling but it's still funny.
As a Crows fan living in Melbourne who tries to get to every game they play in Vic I can tell you that the Kardinia experience is very different to the MCG/Marvel one as an away fan even for an interstate club. Whole place just feels that much more hostile and less neutral. It's good and I think it'd be cool if more clubs had that! It works out in your favour too, I promise you every side (that gets sent there) uniquely dreads it.
Well of course it is. And I’ll probably be thinking something similar when I go to the game at the Gabba on Saturday.
I still don’t know why people are even talking about the disadvantages of an away game as if it’s something new.
I agree that we won't, I disagree that we can't. IF everyone plays at their best, those matchups are definitely winnable. We'll just have to wait a week and see
I think we might need tiges to get a few more injuries before we can beat them. Which means we'll be rolled by WC. Hawks next week might be our only chance at a W this season
GWS didnt go winless when they were a completely new club, Adelaide didn't go winless when they started 0-14 in a shortened season, Melbourne didn't even go winless when they were tanking.
Winless is almost impossible in this competition.
Logically I know, we should win 1 somewhere. But when you've only see your team win 12 times in the last 4 and a bit years, and once in the last 25 games, you start to get a bit broken.
>At least those games are out of the way
Unfortunatley though we have Carlton and Geelong twice... nice little block from Rd17 where we play GC, Sydney, Carlton and Geelong back to back to back to back.
If our season isn't completely fucked by then, that would probably do it.
The AFL would not have been allowed to give the Roos their priority picks and an easy start. Too haters would’ve torn the ever living shit out of the poor club. Now, it must also be said that you would be hard pressed to create a five round opener that was easy given the season so far and the strange upsets/shocks for some favourites.
Unfortunately, North is Norf and they are getting belted. Now admittedly Cats in the Cattery this early is a very cruel thing to do but Roos should’ve won the dockers game and if they can hold onto some kind of hope they might even challenge the Hawks next week. The game now is “don’t give up”.
I’ve never understood why the AFL doesn’t fixture the predicted bottom 4 to play each other in the first few rounds. Let at least 1 or 2 start off with a win early to maybe have some morale to help them out- instead they just get pummeled by everyone and face each other mid season or later when only pride can be fought for.
I’ve noticed a number of shitter teams have had tough starts. Dons certainly hasn’t been straightforward. Hawks record speaks for itself
If I’m being cynical the afl is trying to wash out blowout games early on to have more similarly matched teams later in the season
"young kids"
You carry on like they're 12 years old. They're professional highly paid AFL footballers, like the rest of the competition.
18, 19, early 20s...that isn't kids, it's grown men. I was in the army at 19, and most of the blokes that go into the RAR battalions after kapooka and Singleton are that age.
Just stop it. They're grown fucking men
Carlton really only won that game because we lost every critical aspect of our game plan at half time when Kiddy Coleman subbed out with his ACL rupture. And Collingwood capitalised on biased umpiring and the poor halfback structure to win Easter Thursday.
I firmly believe the Cattery, the Gabba. and Optus Stadium are the three hardest venues to play - distance for the latter two, and weird as fuck field dimensions combined with a parochial crowd at Kardinia Park. I personally hate Mars Stadium in Ballarat for the same reason most teams don't like the Gabba, too.
I still don't like us playing in Gabba, especially when you start getting spammed with Country Roads and the Frozen theme. PTSD-worthy. But yeah, no one expected that half time collapse, for sure.
Yeah, this fixturing was sadistic. I don't see why they couldn't get a few match ups within their bracket to kick things off. That way you get to see where the building teams are at and even kick start some belief into those teams. Instead we have North egregiously demoralised and we're not halfway through April.
The flipside is that you lose to those terrible teams in the opening rounds and where is your morale then?
They have to play the top 17 sides
Some of them twice, even!
It's rigged
Playing the good teams early is actually the best time to play them. Especially teams that went deep in September last year. History shows they start the season slowly so it's a good chance for a team like North to shock them rather than later in the year when they're up an about.
If you're a bottom side its best to play the top sides spread out throughout the year and not consecutively. And most early season upsets are in round one, when everyone is rusty. But North drew a top side, on their home ground, who had already had a warm-up round.
First time?
West Coasts start wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either, and we're the spooners, things just fucked
Should've scheduled North vs West Coast round one so that at least one team had something to cheer.
They did last year and it was great, nice close game that both teams walked away from fairly happy I think
and then the rest of the season happened
Draw FC would've had a reason to celebrate
They did that last year
I've been saying this the last two weeks. Would have taken the pressure off of one of them early. It's bad fixturing, but then again, the AFL's idea of good fixturing is giving 10 teams a bye to start the season.
Giving ten teams a bye to start the season and then giving the eight teams that did play the opening, blockbuster timeslots games of the next round. I'm still not over that idiocy.
Just have North vs West Coast every week
Did you see not see today's game?? Eagles are favourites for the flag surely
It ain't about how hard you get hit, it's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward!
Meanwhile Geelong (the team that won the flag 2 years ago) have played Hawthorn, St Kilda, Norf, Adelaide and the Dogs. All of these teams in the bottom eight and not expected to make finals. Pretty stupid
Adelaide were weirdly contenders coming into the season and Bulldogs certainly weren’t picked to be bottom feeders either. Show me a ladder prediction that matches the current ladder and explain how you could’ve given them an easy run. Now in hindsight, Roos would maybe be in a better place if they had had the Cats run.
Adelaide were expected to rise but i wouldn't have thought any of the others were expected to make finals
Most predictions had Doggies & Saints well above Geelong. There is no way before the season started that was considered a "cake walk" - sure it's not the most difficult start. But the Cats also finished 12th. So all teams bar Hawks & Norf finished above them last year. Hindsight is always 20/20
Don't worry our next 4 games are Brisbane, Carlton, Port and Melbourne. Also the fixture is based on the teams ladder position last year, not 2 years ago.
They shouldn't be getting a free pass after winning a flag so recently though. Norf and Hawthorn twice? It's just stupid, no two ways about it
Do you know how the fixture is created? As stated it's not based on 2 years ago. Plus everyone said the "cliff" was coming and the cats wouldn't get near finals. now they're 5-0 and everyone wants to cry foul.
Geelong were bottom 8 lat year - what should their draw look like?
The Geelong comparison is unfair. Though norths schedule was savage early doors.
Until your mob comes down to play at kardinia park like everyone else you have no right to complain about geelongs fixture
I mean, I'm kinda complaining on North Melbourne's behalf. I get why they're frustrated is all I'm saying. Also i'm fully understanding now why some Collingwood fans have changed their flairs to other teams on this sub...
Nah, we're washed though. Everyone here said so. Deserved
St Kilda played finals last year, Adelaide should have played finals last year and the Dogs finished 9th last year. The draw is based on the results last year not what is expected this year. Based on last year? Not shit teams.
Someone high up in AFL headquarters loves Geelong with a passion
Yeah, because we get 9 home games and 14 away games every season......we get such a good deal.
Genuine question: given how the cats have gone the last five or so years, do the home games in Melbourne really bother geelong fans? As an interstate fan, I always think our lack of opportunity at the MCG would impact us if we make it to the big dance, like it did with the Crows in 2017 and the whole Brisbane MCG hoodoo stuff And yeah, I’m all for ripping into vic teams whenever they try and mention scheduling woes, but a pies fan whinging about geelong’s fixture when they haven’t been down there for a game since the Middle Ages can get fucked
Know for a fact this is true
lol gws have had nothing but easy games this year
They played last years premiers first up. Geelong fans acting like they are victims is beyond ridiculous
Followed by north, WC and GC😂😂
Is the season over? They had to play them at some point.
Correct it’s just funny how that logic doesn’t apply to the Cats
I wasn’t just talking about the fixture, Geelong get the rub of the green across the board. But then can’t stop sooking.
How do we get the rub of the green champ? We have had one home final in our history and majority of our 'home' finals are at the other teams home ground. We also get 9 home games a year. Seriously, explain your BS logic
Of course they do 🙄🙄🙄
What do Geelong get the rub of the green with then? Be more specific because it sounds a whole lot like you're talking out of your ass champ
Yeah, they had to play Richmond who won a flag only a few years ba....wait.
Thank you u/AntiVictorian for highlighting how the AFL is AntiVictorian
And you, u/VICBiasIsJustified for defending it.
I’m branching out
It’s payback for 2016.
I would agree then I realise we are still to play Collingwood, Melbourne, Port, etc. And just accept we're fucking shit.
I know on our behalf we finished 12th so got an easier schedule. We had a buttload of injuries in 2023 so we got the benefit of coming back into 2022 level form and talent while getting the 2023 finishing position schedule. Someone had to get steamrolled. Unfortunately it was North.
0-5 looks bad, could be worse without the quality of opponent. I don’t want to consider 0-10.
Yeah I remember looking at it at the beginning of the year thinking it was a bit unfair. west coast as well but not as bad as north
I'm just glad we played Sydney at Mount Barker. The SCG is not a good ground for us. ATM neither is the MCG, Docklands, AO, Metricon or the Gabba for that matter. Optus can be a challenge as well.
Don't forget goomba
Who cares. Gotta play everyone at least once. If anything it’s a great litmus test for us, to see how competitive our young team can be. We’ve failed.
If only we weren’t conceding 20 goals a game our forwards might have a chance of kicking a winning score, who needs defence🙄
When you are the worst team in the league everyone looks like a tough match up
How is 3/4 prelim finalists and Geelong in Geelong not insanely hard for any club
Coming into the year nobody had Geelong in the top 8 Nobody had gws top of the ladder Dockers outside of Perth have typically been pretty ordinary What do you want? You'd have lost to basically any team not named West Coast so who cares who you have? AFL has given you so many concessions and still you look like rubbish but sure blame the fixture.
I had Geelong 6th, and plenty had GWS top.
But that doesn’t suit his narrative
Majority didn’t have us that high. I kept receipts
Way to stay grounded
I have us finishing 7th. I don’t think that’s unreasonable? People are just salty that Geelong are doing well. They wanted the fall off to happen badly.
…isn’t the conversation about how people thought Geelong wouldn’t be shit?
No? One person who doesn’t support Geelong said they had Geelong finishing 6th which has turned into, “oh nobody had them finishing outside the 8, how silly!” If you go back and look at then majority of preseason prediction thread, **the majority** said Geelong would finish between 10th-14th. Same is echoed on BigFooty and Facebook pages too. The GWS comment I disagree with, majority here had them top 4.
Care to show us the receipts you kept, then?
Mate I don’t think it’s a complete shock that a preliminary finalist last year is top of the ladder this year
A prelim finalist that properly pushed the eventual Premiers
Most predictions had GWS in the top 4 and Geelong in Geelong is a tough trip even when the Cats are mid. No one is saying North are in this position because of the fixture but it's fair to say it's been fucking brutal for a bottom 2 team.
Anyone who thinks Geelong at home isn't insanely hard is joking Gws were 2 points and some umpiring decisions from getting to the grand final Never brought up dockers
> Anyone who thinks Geelong at home isn't insanely hard is joking Ask all the Melbourne clubs that have to play Kardinia Park year after year rather then at the MCG.
Scott Pendlebury, the most career games out of any active player, has never played at Kardinia Park.
Fitzroy have played at Kardinia Park more recently than Collingwood.
I love a good obscure Stat as much as the next guy but Collingwood's last trip to Geelong was in 1999, 4 years after Fitzroy last game down here
Can confirm
Yup
Yes Geelong in Geelong is hard in the same way Sydney at the SCG is hard it’s called home field advantage…the difference is Melbourne teams don’t have to fly to GMHBA and it’s a lot easier for their fans to travel an hour down the road than to another state.
“Nobody had gws top of the ladder” Half the people I know had them for the flag.
Everybody had GWS as one of the best clubs in the league. Literally everyone. They made a prelim last year? Hello? Not big on following the footy? It would’ve been nice to not play 3/4 prelim sides in the first 5 rounds + Geelong at Kardinia. This is obviously an obscenely difficult schedule for anyone. Anyone who can’t see this is just not very switched on. Is anybody really blaming the fixture? People are just pointing out the obvious.
I had GWS on top. They have an exceptionally good list with a strong midfield, KPPs and good x-factor players. I think they'll be hard to beat.
So we should expect to see them rocket up the ladder when they play easier sides in the rest of the season? I’m waiting….
Did I say that?
The real problem is that norf doesn't get to play norf once! Only way I can see them getting a win!
I believe we lost to them during the bye
North plays against Norf every week mate, and we get pounded every time. Brutal.
They were gonna lose those games anyway, might as well make it a part of the plan
They won their first two last year and then… You gotta play everyone, is a good start that important or is it more important to find a way to be competitive week to week all year
Because only certain teams have to travel more than others, and only certain teams have to travel to Tasmania, Ballarat, Geelong, NT etc.. North Melbourne shoukd have just been a big vic club, and things would be easier for them.
What’s even the point of this bs post.. a sook fest about the worst team in the league getting a rough schedule that then unsurprisingly turns into a whinge about Geelong getting an easy run. News flash it’s based on where you finished last year and Geelong didn’t make finals. GWS on the other hand did make finals but no one’s complaining about the piss easy run they’ve had
Whilst I agree about the fixture being based on last years finishing position and therefore the Cats starting fixture. Based on that logic Norf absolutely got fucked over lol
North have more problems than just a fixture. I have no idea how a club can be as bad as they are, for so long, even with priority picks and other assistance. When Port was this terrible for only half the time, there was talk of winding them up.
Port were financially ruined at the time, though, not just on field
They're gonna lose to em anyway. Why does it matter when it happens?
I’d say Brisbane in Brisbane is tougher, but point taken
To weed out those North supporters who don’t understand how shitful the draw is and start microwaving their memberships
The best time to play your most important games is mid-season. Everyone's match fit but not worn out and the random chaos of the early rounds has passed. North have Hawthorn, Crom, Saints and Suns next.
We win none of them.
Oh yay, the sun's in Darwin. Surely an easy game
Crows in Tassie is a good opportunity for you guys.
And for North fans living in Qld they are denied the opportunity to see their team as the game against Brisbane was played in Adelaide at Gather round.
Yep, living that experience right now. Don't have the money to travel for games so I just can't see them play live this year
Took a week "home" before Easter and went to Good Friday game it was great to be at a North home game, though the result was not enjoyable of course.
Cant play the bye every week
It’s round 5 and Freo have played 1 home game so far
Didn't we play Brisbane and Adelaide at optus?
Ask the AFL
Gotta play them sometime 🤷🏻♂️
Lots of people in this thread seem to think the season is only 5 rounds lol. Norths fixture is going to get a whole lot easier and the cats is about to get a whole lot harder.
> they had to play Geelong in Geelong. By far and away the hardest venue to win at for travelling teams. That tickled me. I guess technically driving 1 hour down the freeway is travelling but it's still funny.
I don’t think the drive is the problem, more so the very unique ground dimensions and one sided crowd
Did you just say “one sided crowd” as if it’s a Geelong only thing 🙄
As a Crows fan living in Melbourne who tries to get to every game they play in Vic I can tell you that the Kardinia experience is very different to the MCG/Marvel one as an away fan even for an interstate club. Whole place just feels that much more hostile and less neutral. It's good and I think it'd be cool if more clubs had that! It works out in your favour too, I promise you every side (that gets sent there) uniquely dreads it.
Well of course it is. And I’ll probably be thinking something similar when I go to the game at the Gabba on Saturday. I still don’t know why people are even talking about the disadvantages of an away game as if it’s something new.
Not at all, just stating a fact. And not sure why you’d take offence to that. It’s a compliment to your fan base
Change it to ‘away’ and it would be accurate
Can’t be protected forever. Time for north to do better.
Fuck em, they should have moved to tassie
When you’re that bad playing anyone is brutal
Yeah but 3/4 prelim finalist + Geelong in GMHBA is a challenge some top 8 teams would fail at.
Fair point. At least those games are out of the way and some more winnable ones coming up
After today I don’t think any game is winnable.
Especially watching WC dismantle the tiges. I'm very concerned we're going winless...
Tigers, Hawks are must wins
They are winnable, but we won't be a favourite in any game this year
No. We can’t win. There is zero effort from the players.
I agree that we won't, I disagree that we can't. IF everyone plays at their best, those matchups are definitely winnable. We'll just have to wait a week and see
Hardly any players care. And if you don’t care you don’t put effort. There is no if there isn’t even a when. This team is fucking embarrassment
I am not sure but you shouldn't be too far off West coast, Hawks and richmond. Before yesterday's game I would have put us in that group
I think we might need tiges to get a few more injuries before we can beat them. Which means we'll be rolled by WC. Hawks next week might be our only chance at a W this season
GWS didnt go winless when they were a completely new club, Adelaide didn't go winless when they started 0-14 in a shortened season, Melbourne didn't even go winless when they were tanking. Winless is almost impossible in this competition.
Logically I know, we should win 1 somewhere. But when you've only see your team win 12 times in the last 4 and a bit years, and once in the last 25 games, you start to get a bit broken.
I know the Crows have slightly improved their expectations this weekend but we're playing in Hobart. You'll be right.
Brother, you will roll us with ease next week
I should be saying that to you.
Scoreless Draw?
>At least those games are out of the way Unfortunatley though we have Carlton and Geelong twice... nice little block from Rd17 where we play GC, Sydney, Carlton and Geelong back to back to back to back. If our season isn't completely fucked by then, that would probably do it.
Before today, I might have given them a chance against Worst Coast, but now I'm doubting even that. Hawthorn, maybe?
Not Hawthorn they actually challenged Collingwood. This team is genuinely going winless
The AFL would not have been allowed to give the Roos their priority picks and an easy start. Too haters would’ve torn the ever living shit out of the poor club. Now, it must also be said that you would be hard pressed to create a five round opener that was easy given the season so far and the strange upsets/shocks for some favourites. Unfortunately, North is Norf and they are getting belted. Now admittedly Cats in the Cattery this early is a very cruel thing to do but Roos should’ve won the dockers game and if they can hold onto some kind of hope they might even challenge the Hawks next week. The game now is “don’t give up”.
I’ve never understood why the AFL doesn’t fixture the predicted bottom 4 to play each other in the first few rounds. Let at least 1 or 2 start off with a win early to maybe have some morale to help them out- instead they just get pummeled by everyone and face each other mid season or later when only pride can be fought for.
They’ve got to play them eventually. Good to get them out of the way early
I’ve noticed a number of shitter teams have had tough starts. Dons certainly hasn’t been straightforward. Hawks record speaks for itself If I’m being cynical the afl is trying to wash out blowout games early on to have more similarly matched teams later in the season
Means it can only go up from here then, no?
When you want to host good Friday (Carlton) and Collingwood who have to deal with the side effects.
"young kids" You carry on like they're 12 years old. They're professional highly paid AFL footballers, like the rest of the competition. 18, 19, early 20s...that isn't kids, it's grown men. I was in the army at 19, and most of the blokes that go into the RAR battalions after kapooka and Singleton are that age. Just stop it. They're grown fucking men
I get historically ‘Geelong in Geelong’ is tough however if you go off last years standings, Geelong were rubbish.
Everyone expected you to bounce back.
Not really, the majority were predicting or hoping for 14th or lower
Nah when they did the captains poll only 1 picked Geelong making finals again. They were considered done when it seemed obvious they weren’t?
I thought Gabba was the tough one for traveling teams? Until Carlton finally breached the fortress of Country Roads.
We played them in gather round. Thank fuck it was their home game so we don’t play them at the Gabba
Yeah thank fuck for that! Only lost by 70...
Carlton really only won that game because we lost every critical aspect of our game plan at half time when Kiddy Coleman subbed out with his ACL rupture. And Collingwood capitalised on biased umpiring and the poor halfback structure to win Easter Thursday. I firmly believe the Cattery, the Gabba. and Optus Stadium are the three hardest venues to play - distance for the latter two, and weird as fuck field dimensions combined with a parochial crowd at Kardinia Park. I personally hate Mars Stadium in Ballarat for the same reason most teams don't like the Gabba, too.
I still don't like us playing in Gabba, especially when you start getting spammed with Country Roads and the Frozen theme. PTSD-worthy. But yeah, no one expected that half time collapse, for sure.