Round 1 v Brisbane at Etihad, Saturday 30 March 2013

[Axe Man]

First match of the 2013 season is v Brisbane at Etihad on Easter Saturday 30 March. It is an afternoon game, although the exact time hasn't been confirmed.

Thoughts?

It could have been worse, I was expecting an Easter Sunday twilight home game v Gold Coast or something along those lines.

Link (http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/149898/default.aspx)

[Pickenitup]

Great news Home Game First up Win here Go Doggies!

[MrMahatma]

Means we'll play them in Bris later in the year which is good for me!

[BulldogBelle]

Belter of a fixture! Huddo vs Minson live round one. (providing he gets the gig over one of Leunberger and Longer)

A very tough game though, Brisbane have a fair bit of x-factor and pace over our fairly raw but valiant defence. A lot of midfield strength and clearance power too.

[bornadog]

Belter of a fixture! Huddo vs Minson live round one. (providing he gets the gig over one of Leunberger and Longer)

A very tough game though, Brisbane have a fair bit of x-factor and pace over our fairly raw but valiant defence. A lot of midfield strength and clearance power too.

I hope its not a belting like the one this year at Eithad.,

[Eastdog]

I hope its not a belting like the one this year at Eithad.,

Me too BAD. I didn't see that coming from the Lions last time we played them at Etihad. Lets hope we come out firing Round 1 2013. Come on Bulldogs!

[LostDoggy]

I'm happy with this. We're not playing Easter Sunday like we usually do and I love Saturday afternoon football. :)

[WB4Life]

Def going to try get to the opener. Next years goal is to get to more live games. support the dog's during the rebuild.

last year was a shocker made it to a big donut 0...

[1eyedog]

A great opportunity to get a good start and atone for last season's shocker against them.

Getting excited already.

[Mantis]

I find it strange that our last game this year was against the same team we play in rd 1 next year.

Bar a GF replay has this happened before?

[chef]

Damn, I'm going to be in Borneo then.............:p

[AndrewP6]

Just hope it's a decent time, not one of those ridiculous twilight things. Other than that, I'm not exactly bursting at the seams. I have until then to drum up some enthusiasm. :)

[craigsahibee]

I find it strange that our last game this year was against the same team we play in rd 1 next year.

Bar a GF replay has this happened before?

I think we might have played Collingwood in the final round of 2009 and the first round of 2010.

[Remi Moses]

Saturday arvo game?
Revolutionary idea that one!:eek:

[Throughandthrough]

And by then, we'll still be a mathematical chance to make the finals, if other results go our way!

[Eastdog]

Saturday arvo game?
Revolutionary idea that one!:eek:

A good thing we are playing Saturday afternoon. I'm hoping when the fixture comes out we don't get too many Sunday twilight games. I hope we get a few more matches at the MCG.

[LostDoggy]

And by then, we'll still be a mathematical chance to make the finals, if other results go our way!

Hahahaha!! :D

[DragzLS1]

Will def be attending this 1! 1 day before my Bday and Easter Sunday :D

[LostDoggy]

I'll either be lving in Melbourne or I'll be flying down from Darwin to support the boys in round 1

[Axe Man]

A tweet from Mark Stevens earlier:


Friday night freeze out: Melb and WB set to be missing completely from prime slot when fixture released next week. Coll will have 7

That's very disappointing if true, not a single Friday night game? Every side (except maybe Gold Coast and GWS) should get at least 1.:mad:

[Sedat]

That's very disappointing if true, not a single Friday night game? Every side (except maybe Gold Coast and GWS) should get at least 1.:mad:
To be fair, we were borderline unwatchable for large parts in 2012 and had a number of FTA games on Channel 7 (Sunday arvos mostly) that were complete blow-outs. From a commercial perspective, I don't blame Channel 7 at all for not wanting a bar of us next year.

[Ozza]

To be fair, we were borderline unwatchable for large parts in 2012 and had a number of FTA games on Channel 7 (Sunday arvos mostly) that were complete blow-outs. From a commercial perspective, I don't blame Channel 7 at all for not wanting a bar of us next year.

I don't agree Sedat. We may have fallen away badly at the end of the year - but our Friday night matches against Collingwood and Geelong were good games where we put in a good account of ourselves.

Having ZERO firday night games for us and Melbourne is not at all fair - and is bordering on discriminatory - in terms of putting us up in front of a wider audience to capture more exposure.

Every team - whether its us, Greater Western Sydney, North Melbourne or Collingwood - deserve some exposure to Friday night games on free to air. There's 22 opportunities to show a range of different clubs - and I find it boring watching the same handful of sides play every Friday.

[AndrewP6]

A tweet from Mark Stevens earlier:



That's very disappointing if true, not a single Friday night game? Every side (except maybe Gold Coast and GWS) should get at least 1.:mad:

We don't deserve it any more than either of them. Friday nights would be a big financial consideration for the AFL and we're a hell of a way off being blockbuster material.

[LostDoggy]

I honestly don't mind the concept of reserving Friday night matches for contending teams.

There's nothing worse than relaxing on a Friday night and seeing a boring game where Melbourne is getting slaughtered by Hawthorn for example.

As long as this remains a consistent theme, clubs like us will get our chance when we are up there again.

I guess the issue is how do you know who will be a contender when planning the fixture? Can never be sure what may happen, West Coast 2011 for example.

[AndrewP6]

I honestly don't mind the concept of reserving Friday night matches for contending teams.

There's nothing worse than relaxing on a Friday night and seeing a boring game where Melbourne is getting slaughtered by Hawthorn for example.

As long as this remains a consistent theme, clubs like us will get our chance when we are up there again.

I guess the issue is how do you know who will be a contender when planning the fixture? Can never be sure what may happen, West Coast 2011 for example.

They ask the supercomputer, it tells them. It knows everything :D

[bornadog]

I honestly don't mind the concept of reserving Friday night matches for contending teams.

endless Collingwood, Essendon, matches, no thanks

[Throughandthrough]

So do the Power, GC and GWS have friday night matches?

[wimberga]

When I spent time in the US, I believed that ESPN has one of the best systems around for college football.

I'm not completely sure how the fixturing works, but essentially each team knows who they are playing on what day or weekend throughout the year. Then, as the season goes on, ESPN basically gets to determine who plays at what time a few weeks out. Got two teams that you thought were gonna struggle but are suddenly playing fantastic? Schedule them in for the 7pm kick off. Got two underachieving teams? kick them down to the 11am spot.

In some ways I think the AFL could follow this example. If say, Channel 7 had the total rights and were showing every game live, I would have no problem with the league saying "here is the fixture so you know who is playing who on what weekend and where. Now you look at how those teams are going and adjust the start times accordingly".

The college system is not directly transferable as just about each div 1 college has at least 100k fans and their own 80k+ capacity stadiums. food for thought though.

With all that said, I dont mind us playing at crap times when we are crap as long as we get good times when we are good. 1 friday wouldn't hurt though if playing a team of similar skill

[Sedat]

I don't agree Sedat. We may have fallen away badly at the end of the year - but our Friday night matches against Collingwood and Geelong were good games where we put in a good account of ourselves.

Having ZERO firday night games for us and Melbourne is not at all fair - and is bordering on discriminatory - in terms of putting us up in front of a wider audience to capture more exposure.

Every team - whether its us, Greater Western Sydney, North Melbourne or Collingwood - deserve some exposure to Friday night games on free to air. There's 22 opportunities to show a range of different clubs - and I find it boring watching the same handful of sides play every Friday.
I was talking about the decision from the broadcaster's perspective, not mine. From my perspective, it is manifestly unfair that the likes of Collingwood are exposed on Friday nights 7 times compared to our zero, but then I'm not paying $1bn+ for the TV rights and wanting to maximise every cent of ad revenue and higher ratings in order to recoup on the sizable investment.

[Maddog37]

THe clubs get equalisation payments which offsets the lack of Friday night games but that will not account for the greater membership, sponsorship, merchandise sales etc etc that flow on from having greater profiles.

The clubs with more money can spend more on football departments outside of the salary cap and history is showing the teams that spend more win more. Therefore it becomes a self fulfilling cycle.

An absolute joke in my opinion. AFL is focussing too much on the macro at the expense of the smaller clubs. Their agenda should be to treat all clubs equally first and profit second.

[bornadog]

THe clubs get equalisation payments which offsets the lack of Friday night games but that will not account for the greater membership, sponsorship, merchandise sales etc etc that flow on from having greater profiles.

The clubs with more money can spend more on football departments outside of the salary cap and history is showing the teams that spend more win more. Therefore it becomes a self fulfilling cycle.

An absolute joke in my opinion. AFL is focussing too much on the macro at the expense of the smaller clubs. Their agenda should be to treat all clubs equally first and profit second.

Yep, the bigger clubs get bigger and bigger and us minnows continually struggle. Short term thinking by the AFL

[Mantis]

Yep, the bigger clubs get bigger and bigger and us minnows continually struggle. Short term thinking by the AFL

How so?

During a successful period (for us anyway) from 2008-2010 we played in our fair share of Friday & Saturday night games, played an exciting brand of footy, but did this translate to extra sponsorship $$'s or increased membership numbers?... No.

In the same time 'big' clubs like Collingwood & Hawthorn have grown their membership numbers by 20, 30 even 40% and have signed multi-million $ sponsorship deals.

We only have ourselves to blame by not being able to cash in on our brand.

And as per Sedat's post we were dead-set boring to watch for most of this year, even I turned it off.

[bornadog]

How so?

During a successful period (for us anyway) from 2008-2010 we played in our fair share of Friday & Saturday night games, played an exciting brand of footy, but did this translate to extra sponsorship $$'s or increased membership numbers?... No.

and while we were successful, who got the blockbusters on TV? who played more on FTA and who got raped at Eithad. We had the highest attendance of any tenant club at Eithad in 2008/2009 and got nothing for it. We were also stuck with more interstate trips than any big clubs (excluding sold home games)

As for membership numbers, it was the biggest growth in our history during the 2006 through to 2011 period, but, it could have been bigger in the future, when kids grow up when they have been watching us.

The more exposure the big clubs get the bigger their membership. Don't under estimate the influence the ANZAC days, Friday Nights, Indigenous game, Queens birthday etc have on little kids watching.

Yes we are boring at the moment, but the more we don't get exposure the further behind we get.

[Sedat]

And as per Sedat's post we were dead-set boring to watch for most of this year, even I turned it off.
I've been a footy tragic since the late 70's and I willingly didn't bother watching quite a few games late in the season - probably the first games I've willingly missed in my adult life, but we were just putrid to watch and utterly non-competitive.

I couldn't imagine we could possibly be worse in 2013 than we were in the 2nd half of 2012.

[bornadog]

I've been a footy tragic since the late 70's and I willingly didn't bother watching quite a few games late in the season - probably the first games I've willingly missed in my adult life, but we were just putrid to watch and utterly non-competitive.

I couldn't imagine we could possibly be worse in 2013 than we were in the 2nd half of 2012.

Very similar to the last 6 or 7 games in 2007, very hard to watch

[Maddog37]

I've been a footy tragic since the late 70's and I willingly didn't bother watching quite a few games late in the season - probably the first games I've willingly missed in my adult life, but we were just putrid to watch and utterly non-competitive.

I couldn't imagine we could possibly be worse in 2013 than we were in the 2nd half of 2012.


Same for me. It was a weird feeling knowing the game was on Tv and consciously finding other things to do instead.

[Mantis]

and while we were successful, who got the blockbusters on TV? who played more on FTA and who got raped at Eithad. We had the highest attendance of any tenant club at Eithad in 2008/2009 and got nothing for it. We were also stuck with more interstate trips than any big clubs (excluding sold home games)

As for membership numbers, it was the biggest growth in our history during the 2006 through to 2011 period, but, it could have been bigger in the future, when kids grow up when they have been watching us.

The more exposure the big clubs get the bigger their membership. Don't under estimate the influence the ANZAC days, Friday Nights, Indigenous game, Queens birthday etc have on little kids watching.

Yes we are boring at the moment, but the more we don't get exposure the further behind we get.

In 2009 we got 5 Friday night games which I think is pretty good for a top 4 team.

Membership numbers: (From wiki)

Us:

2006: 26,042
2010: 34,842
2012: 30,007

Collingwood:

2006: 38,038
2010: 57,617
2012: 72,668

Hawthorn:

2006: 28,003
2010: 53,951
2012: 60,867

Yep, they have won a flag in this time, but it's depressing reading.

[bornadog]

In 2009 we got 5 Friday night games which I think is pretty good for a top 4 team.

Membership numbers: (From wiki)

Us:

2006: 26,042
2010: 34,842
2012: 30,007

Collingwood:

2006: 38,038
2010: 57,617
2012: 72,668

Hawthorn:

2006: 28,003
2010: 53,951
2012: 60,867

Yep, they have won a flag in this time, but it's depressing reading.

You proved my point how they are getting bigger and bigger.

PS: They are big numbers but there are lots of 3 game memberships and Tassie memberships which are not full memberships. If you look at average attendances Collingwood games, 17 at the MCG with a capacity of 100,000, no wonder they can grow the club.

[F'scary]

Def going to try get to the opener. Next years goal is to get to more live games. support the dog's during the rebuild.

last year was a shocker made it to a big donut 0...

Remember to look out for the silver gumby.

[Sedat]

You proved my point how they are getting bigger and bigger.

PS: They are big numbers but there are lots of 3 game memberships and Tassie memberships which are not full memberships. If you look at average attendances Collingwood games, 17 at the MCG with a capacity of 100,000, no wonder they can grow the club.
We were less than 2k short of Hawthorn back in 2006 and only 12k short of Collingwood. Our form (until this year at least) was as consistent as both these clubs in that time and yet we've added a paltry 4k members to the list since 2006 and Hawthorn have increased their number by 32k and Collingwood by 34k. We got a decent enough share of FTA TV coverage during 2008-2011 and we had good crowd attendances in that time, so clearly something is significantly amiss to have such a meagre increase on club memberships. Whatever we are doing internally just 'aint working - we aren't capturing the western region and we aren't growing our catchment.

[bornadog]

We were less than 2k short of Hawthorn back in 2006 and only 12k short of Collingwood. Our form (until this year at least) was as consistent as both these clubs in that time and yet we've added a paltry 4k members to the list since 2006 and Hawthorn have increased their number by 32k and Collingwood by 34k. We got a decent enough share of FTA TV coverage during 2008-2011 and we had good crowd attendances in that time, so clearly something is significantly amiss to have such a meagre increase on club memberships. Whatever we are doing internally just 'aint working - we aren't capturing the western region and we aren't growing our catchment.

I agree we didn't convert, a nd perhaps we aren't doing the right thing internally, but you are missing the point. We are limited to the numbers that can attend at Eithad compared to the MCG where Collingwood and the Hawks play. We don't get the exposure on TV they do. How many ANZAC days have there been, how many big blockbusters at the MCG.

[Maddog37]

We need a Buddy Franklin type. A big part of the Hawks popularity.

[w3design]

Actually I would not be surprised to find the AFL and Ch. 7 might just shoot themselves in the foot with this idea of playing only the same handful of teams over and over on Friday nights.
The vast majority of viewers are in fact neutral supporters, rather than those of either participating team, but just enthusiastic football fans.
There is therefore the chance many will become heartily sick of watching the same teams they do not follow, week in and week out.
I know I for one would be heartilly bored watching the Collywobbles, Blue bags, Essendungs and Tiggers every Friday night.
Unless you get to see all the teams play, you get no real idea what is going on in the comp.

Dare I suggest Foxtel might be more than a little pissed over this arrangement as well.

As for our round 1 clash with the Leos... is there any chance that we might allocate a tagger to Rich at all? He had the run of the ground last time, and beat us off his own boot.

[gohardorgohome]

I get how we miss out on Fridays now we are in development mode. I hope the same will happen to all other clubs when they are rebuilding.

[LostDoggy]

I get how we miss out on Fridays now we are in development mode. I hope the same will happen to all other clubs when they are rebuilding.
I would like to see how Collingwood games were covered when they were down the bottom, not that long ago

[Mantis]

I would like to see how Collingwood games were covered when they were down the bottom, not that long ago

The last time they finished out of the top 8 was in 2005 when they finished 15th.

The following year they played 4 Friday night games against us, Haw, Ess & Port - they won 3 of these games and ended the year in 5th place - we beat them in the elimination final.

Collingwood do get preferential treatment, but they are the biggest club in the game, draw the biggest crowds and their games rate well which is why the TV networks want them to play in prime time almost regardless of how they are performing on the field.

[LostDoggy]

The last time they finished out of the top 8 was in 2005 when they finished 15th.

The following year they played 4 Friday night games against us, Haw, Ess & Port - they won 3 of these games and ended the year in 5th place - we beat them in the elimination final.

Collingwood do get preferential treatment, but they are the biggest club in the game, draw the biggest crowds and their games rate well which is why the TV networks want them to play in prime time almost regardless of how they are performing on the field.
I know that and realise it makes commercial sense to have the biggest clubs on prime time.
What I don't like is the AFL hiding behind the line if you finish in the top 4 you will get better TV times, instead of just saying the bigger clubs will always be looked after with regard to Tv coverage, no matter where they finish on the ladder.