Essendon doesn’t need Good Friday football

[Greystache]

PETER Gordon is bemused.

The fury will come if his Western Bulldogs miss out on a Good Friday match, tipped to be in the 2015 fixture.
Already, Carlton reckon they’ve secured one of the spots, while North Melbourne is on war footing and, with the Blues, believe they are going to be the other Good Friday specialist.

Both clubs are so confident they’ve booked priests for the pre-match. However, it might be best they kneel down and pray for calmness.
Under their noses, it has emerged Essendon is one of the teams most likely. It is a staggering revelation. Every year, Essendon, one of the established powerhouses of the competition, have Anzac Day, Collingwood twice and Carlton twice. And this year it’s Richmond twice.

They don’t need or deserve Good Friday football. If they do get it, the AFL would stand accused of looking after their KPIs and bank balances, instead of looking after the greater good of its 18-team competition.

It is an accusation with merit.

The fixture has always been doctored by the AFL to facilitate maximum crowds, money and the TV audience.
With Good Friday, they have an opportunity to facilitate good faith in a competition needing as much as it can get.

Good faith in the sense that the clubs and the fans know the AFL is serious about equalisation.
The league instituted variable ticket pricing which forces the fans to cough up for blockbuster games, and it would appear they are trying to inject Essendon into another prime-time event.

It’s not right. Indeed, what becomes of a competition which continually ignores opportunities for clubs with moderate-sized fan bases?
The Western Bulldogs president stressed yesterday his club wanted the Good Friday fixture and said the AFL had an ‘’obligation’’ with the draw to execute it in the “best interests of the game as a whole”.

Gordon spoke of “structural inequities” in the draw, including existing blockbuster features “which lock out other teams”.
“One of the principles of equalisation is that clubs need to remain entrepreneurial and hungry,” Gordon said.
“We as a club are entrepreneurial and we are hungry. We want to showcase our product and show it to a whole new generation of supporters, particularly in the western region of Melbourne.

“But it doesn’t make it easy for us when every Friday night and every Saturday night, kids who we want to be influencing to become Bulldog members and supporters for the next decades to come, are watching the same old teams from the other side of town.
“Good Friday is a new product and I think the principle the AFL should use to decide this question (of who plays) is very much linked to equalisation.

“The AFL needs to measure itself not just against how much it grew the aggregate attendance from year to year, but also how much it’s doing to build the attendances of the smaller franchises.

“This a rolled gold opportunity for AFL to take a long-sighted vision.”

After all, Good Friday is a time of giving and sharing.

Link (http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-doesnt-need-good-friday-football-herald-sun-chief-football-writer-mark-robinson-says/story-fndv8rij-1226886957803)

[Greystache]

Essendon emerges as serious contender to play on Good Friday

ESSENDON has emerged as a serious contender to play in a historic Good Friday game as the AFL attempts to start the 2015 season with a bang.

The AFL seems determined to push back the season until the first week of April as a twilight Good Friday game looks increasingly likely.
Essendon ticks several boxes as a loyal Etihad Stadium tenant which pulls big crowds and is based in the inner northern suburbs near the Royal Children’s Hospital.

The return of the prodigal son James Hird will also have massive drawing power if the Bombers dodge infraction notices and he is the 2015 Essendon coach. Carlton-Richmond is a strong chance to go ahead as the season-opener on Thursday April 2, despite the Blues wanting to play a Good Friday game the following day against North Melbourne.
Carlton boss Greg Swann was this weekend extremely confident about the North Melbourne-Carlton proposal, saying of its chances: “Lock it in”.

But the AFL has made it clear that proposal has not been ticked off, with the AFL Commission not yet ruling on the game going ahead on the religious holiday.
North Melbourne has led the charge on playing on Good Friday, with Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon also launching an official request.
Roos chief executive Carl Dilena said the club’s first submission in 1992 was to play Carlton and little had changed.
“We are waiting to see what happens, but at least the AFL have done some due diligence around it and it is being seriously considered,’’ he told the Herald Sun.

“We haven’t had any guidance from them about whether it will go ahead and who the participants will be. “Carlton have said they would forgo that opening round with Richmond and they are keen to play against us.“ ”People are becoming more tolerant of playing (on Good Friday) as generations change and society becomes more multicultural. The theme of a twilight match would be marrying it into the Good Friday telethon with crosses into the game, some interviews and then the coaches and players would head up to the Appeal after the game and donate money.”

The AFL will closely monitor the A-League final on Good Friday final between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC this Friday night at Etihad Stadium. Essendon already has two marquee games — the April 25 Anzac Day clash against Collingwood and the Dreamtime at the ‘G fixture against Richmond. But as much as the AFL wants to help develop marquee games for struggling clubs, it also believes maximising revenue through blockbusters will allow it to raise money to distribute across the 18 teams.

The AFL executive is working on all options, with AFL football operations manager Mark Evans saying on Tuesday no one was locked in.
“There hasn’t been a decision to play on Good Friday. I noticed some clubs are jockeying and there are about 15 who think they were the first two write in proposing a match on Good Friday. It’s not relevant unless a decision has been made,’’ he said.
“Next year is tricky with the fixturing around the World Cup. of cricket. We won’t have access to the cricket venues for a couple of those weeks, so it will be tricky for us at the start of the year.”

Link (http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-emerges-as-serious-contender-to-play-on-good-friday/story-fndv8gad-1226886971312)

[Remi Moses]

Norf and Carlton
Just Wow!

[Hotdog60]

If they give the Essendon's, Collingwood and Carlton's the good Friday I will personally not watch any football on good Friday in protest. Is the AFL looking at making the bombers the showcase of the AFL so all the kiddies can be like them.
Supplements at Auskick aren't they glowing examples for the competition. Sanction them one year glorify them the next what a joke.

[bornadog]

If this happens, we need to kick up the biggest stink of all time. How dare Essendon even contemplate this and how dare the AFL even consider this.

I am sick and tired of the SO CALLED big clubs taking advantage and just building up their membership and long term stability. They think they are so smart when they say other teams can't attract a crowd, yet they have all the advantages in the world, and just keep growing and growing.

So far this season, we have played (or about to play) 5 games and only one has been at a reasonable time and the others are all 4.40pm. How can we attract crowds to matches with those ridiculous hours of the day.

I hope this reporting is just BS and thankyou Robbo for sticking up for us.

[jeemak]

Potentially provides a bit of an insight into why EFC rolled over at the height of the supplements scandal and have put a leash on Golden Boy Hird.

It wouldn't surprise me if a deal's been cut.

[Murphy'sLore]

If that's true, it is a freaking joke!

If this scenario plays out, it will destroy any remaining shreds of credibility or integrity that the AFL might be clinging to. Can they not see that this is the kind of nonsense that turns people off the game?

[LostDoggy]

Sounds fair. Poor Essendon need the assistance now that we have taken away their illegal substances. They should get a Christmas Day game too.

[bornadog]

Sounds fair. Poor Essendon need the assistance now that we have taken away their illegal substances. They should get a Christmas Day game too.

Why doesn't Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton and Richmond play each other every week and the rest can play together interstate, Sunday night, Manuka, Darwin, Cairns, Launceston, Koo-wee-rup, Ballarat, Kalgoorlie. That will increase revenue and really help the AFL grow.

No wonder soccer is growing as is NRL etc.

[The Pie Man]

If there was the potential for 2 games, then us playing Essendon would be ideal - doesn't sound like it though does it?

If any of North or WB miss out to Essendon.......

[KT31]

So much for equalisation, might be drawing a long bow but what if the AFL has just floated the idea of the Bombers to make us all more congenial to Blue's v North.
Love Peters enthusiasm but can't see us even getting close to this one.
With the inequalities in the draw we could have a case for equalisation or restrictive trade.

[bornadog]

Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon says AFL must use Good Friday in order to promote equalisation

DateApril 17, 2014 - 11:52AM

http://images.theage.com.au/2014/04/17/5356361/1397698437590.jpg-620x349.jpg
Bulldogs president Peter Gordon Photo: Pat Scala


The AFL must resist the temptation to simply re-place an existing blockbuster on Good Friday, and should instead utilise the opportunity to schedule financially weaker clubs as a method of equalisation.

That's the the view of Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon, who hit back on Thursday morning over speculation that powerful Essendon would be part of an inaugural Good Friday game next year.

http://images.theage.com.au/2014/04/17/5356365/art-353-mcg-empty-300x0.jpg
Bad Friday. Photo: Craig Sillitoe


With confidence increasing across the football community that the AFL Commission will ratify a proposal to fixture a game on the public holiday for the first time, Gordon argued that the league needed to be innovative if the concept were to materialise.
"You wouldn't fixture Carlton and Collingwood to play that day because it's a blockbuster no matter when you play it," Gordon told SEN.

"This is an opportunity over a three to five year period to start providing some free-to-air opportunity and some real opportunity to some of the smaller clubs.
"If we were hypothetically in a situation where the Demons and GWS for example (were fixtured) and built a rivalry betyween two teams over the next five years whereby you don't pack it out in year one, but by year five you have done something great, then you achieved something greater for the game than you would by fixturing two clubs, or even one club that was guaranteed to pack out Etihad Stadium anyway."

Gordon indicated that his club was putting up its hand to be involved in a match on Good Friday.
"We'd love to do it, we think that it's been done in other sports. I think a lot of attitudes have changed in relation to this and we'd be thrilled to do it."
The Bulldogs boss contended that handing the game to some of the smaller clubs would be in line with the AFL's recent moves towards equalisation.
"I think we ought to be bold and we ought to be creative and we ought to use the opportunity so that in ten or twenty years time one of these debates about equalisation which is that these clubs aren't using opportunities themselves, they aren't getting off their butts, goes away."


if Andrew Demetriou, who has opposed a Good Friday game, won’t play a role in putting together the 2015 draw as he’s stepping down later this year. Former Hawthorn champion and SEN host was Dermott Brereton skeptical however about whether the chance that two weaker clubs could capture the wider imagination on Good Friday.

"If you take the Easter break, you've got Thursday night football, Saturday, Sunday, Monday you plop in Friday football, even a one-off game, that's five days of football in a row, unless it is a sexy game it'll get lost in there and people will just say 'so what' and won't turn up," Brereton said.

Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney says he has turned the corner in accepting there’s a place for football on the religious holiday.
"We’d love to be involved in a game like that. Clubs seem to be queuing up," McCartney told reporters on the eve of Good Friday."Probably for a long time I have agreed with no playing on Good Friday.'
"As a kid I grew up with the Good Friday Appeal. It was something that was always on in our house.
"It’s a Victorian institution.

"But it’s time for a game of footy now. We can probably do both."
North Melbourne and Carlton have long pushed their claims for playing on Good Friday.
"We don’t mind who we play, if the AFL would like us in that game," McCartney added.
"We’ll play anyone."

League chief Andrew Demetriou, who has opposed a Good Friday game, won’t play a role in putting together the 2015 draw as he’s stepping down later this year.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-president-peter-gordon-says-afl-must-use-good-friday-in-order-to-promote-equalisation-20140417-zqvrj.html#ixzz2z6adHa2f


Listen on SEN h (https://soundcloud.com/sen1116/peter-gordon-on-the-morning-glory)ere

[bulldogtragic]

I think we are seen as a rotational opposition for the big teams to play.

[The bulldog tragician]

This genuinely makes me sick.

[WBFC4FFC]

Firstly, love the weekly write-up Bulldog Tragician. Keep up the good work.

As for the scheduling/fixtures, it has to be the most inequitable in the world, with the dollars put way ahead of fairness.

With such a lop-sided fixture, the AFL should have greater direct access to the revenue and then be in a position to redistribute it. This is not happening and no club is going to give-up the revenue they are making (due to the fixture as opposed to good management). Like anything, to rectify the status quo now is going to see a lot of squalling by the "alleged" big clubs. I doubt the AFL has the stomach for the fight.

[chef]

We're sadly irrelevant to the AFL. No GF game for us.

[Rocco Jones]

Why doesn't Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton and Richmond play each other every week and the rest can play together interstate, Sunday night, Manuka, Darwin, Cairns, Launceston, Koo-wee-rup, Ballarat, Kalgoorlie. That will increase revenue and really help the AFL grow.

No wonder soccer is growing as is NRL etc.

Maybe just give us experimental 5am Tuesday timeslot.

Also, why waste an AFL team as our opponent? Perhaps we can play Altona just in case the big clubs get bored with their opponents at half time and want something different for their fans.

[G-Mo77]

I'm not that fussed about it TBH. Sure it would be great for our club to get at least one live guaranteed game on FTA TV but wouldn't be devastated if we did not get it. To me it'll be just another Friday night game, it'll be between a Thursday game and a Saturday game. I'd rather push to open the season up, everyone watches game 1, round 1. But they should probably save that for Essendon or Collingwood. :p

[lemmon]

The idea that Carlton gets it is as equally reprehensible. Time the AFL shows how serious it is about equalisation, so far it's been nothing but bluster and bullshit without any action.

[jeemak]

The idea that Carlton gets it is as equally reprehensible. Time the AFL shows how serious it is about equalisation, so far it's been nothing but bluster and bullshit without any action.

I think a marginally fair and realistic outcome would be either one of North and ourselves getting Good Friday, with Carlton or Hawthorn filling the other spot. Let's not forget St Kilda probably deserve a chance as well.

The offset would have to be whichever the bigger clubs ends up landing it losing some prime time exposure or a blockbuster.

Carlton - Losing two blockbuster games, one against Collingwood and the other against Essendon
Hawthorn - Losing one game against Essendon and or one game against Geelong

Essendon, irrespective of my previous post about securing a deal as an outcome of settling the supplements scandal shouldn't even be part of the equation due to their already overly generous prime exposure and the fact they get Dreamtime and ANZAC day.

Whichever of North and the Bulldogs missing out should secure two more prime time slots.

It just sickens and perplexes me that we have to worry about the prospect of fighting for a public holiday game when Melbourne get gifted Queens Birthday in a fixture that gives Collingwood a second public holiday fixture on top of the once again overly generous prime time exposure they get.

What perplexes and sickens me even more, is that there's such a huge disparity in parity per head in gate takings our club gets compared to these clubs and others around the country.

A bit like G-Mo77 I think if we don't nail Good Friday we should continue to lobby for the clearly major issue with the draw and prime time slotting.

I'm not holding my breath for a positive outcome.

[Remi Moses]

Good old Eddie, banging on about the need for it to be a blockbuster game between the big boys to create revenue for the smaller clubs. The AFL's created an epic monster in this blockbuster contrived fixture.

[jeemak]

I don't actually mind that too much, on the proviso the gate receipts are equalised and there's an offset in prime time exposure.

Right now there's a situation where the spoils of gate receipts and exposure goes to the participating clubs only, which is just ridiculous.

Geelong at home makes a massive profit from games at their home ground for games we play at Etihnd and draw similar or larger crowds and break even at best. It's so plainly stupid I'm glad I'm not eating cornflakes or drinking coffee right now as my laptop would be covered in it.

Eddie's comments provide an insight into a change in mindset. I think there's a burgeoning acceptance that gate receipts are doomed to equalisation.

[Remi Moses]

I guess the gate receipts issue is my biggest bugbear.
You can't have all the riches of exposure time slot, and then tell the rest of us to eat pie.

[Ghost Dog]

Sorry to ignore the lot of you but I only need to read the title of this thread to agree. Essendon f** off.

[G-Mo77]

Sorry to ignore the lot of you but I only need to read the title of this thread to agree. Essendon f** off.

No that's fair. We're all thinking the same.

[Ghost Dog]

'you lot' said with great affection. The arrogance of Essendon football club cannot be measured by any instrument known to man.

[bornadog]

I don't actually mind that too much, on the proviso the gate receipts are equalised and there's an offset in prime time exposure.

Right now there's a situation where the spoils of gate receipts and exposure goes to the participating clubs only, which is just ridiculous.

Geelong at home makes a massive profit from games at their home ground for games we play at Etihnd and draw similar or larger crowds and break even at best. It's so plainly stupid I'm glad I'm not eating cornflakes or drinking coffee right now as my laptop would be covered in it.

Eddie's comments provide an insight into a change in mindset. I think there's a burgeoning acceptance that gate receipts are doomed to equalisation.

By doing what Eddie says leads us back to where we are now. It's not just the money but it's the ability to grow our club and membership. All the current situation does is make the big clubs bigger through exposure to young viewers.

It has to stop so the smaller clubs can grow or end up disappearing.

[Greystache]

I don't actually mind that too much, on the proviso the gate receipts are equalised and there's an offset in prime time exposure.

But it won't be will it? And that's what gets lost on your average factory worker fan isn't it? The two competing "big" clubs will get $1million worth of exposure each, we'll get thrown $15,000 and we'll hear "you get compensated so what's your problem". It's dickhead economics.

Basically we're going to burn down your house which is worth $2 million if your could afford to renovate it, but you can't, so here's $400,000 insurance money and we'll build 12 apartments on it and sell them for $6 million. Why are you complaining, you did well out of the deal!

[jeemak]

BAD, I was saying there needs to be more prime time exposure for our club plus equalisation in gate receipts if a club like Collingwood is going to end up with Good Friday.

'Stache, don't disagree with anything you're saying. I just have trouble believing the AFL and its bigger clubs will surrender the revenue that easily, and that parity in exposure will ever exist.

[Eastdog]

By doing what Eddie says leads us back to where we are now. It's not just the money but it's the ability to grow our club and membership. All the current situation does is make the big clubs bigger through exposure to young viewers.

It has to stop so the smaller bus can grow or end up disappearing.

Absolutely BAD. We want to be able to grow our support and membership not just in the traditional western region heartland but to a much wider audience in greater Melbourne and beyond. No wonder Essendon who are based in the north west not too far from us have healthy support around greater Melbourne.

[Remi Moses]

Interesting hearing Benny Gale's proposal for an Anzac Day eve game.
Wants a game with Melbourne, due to the two clubs numbers in the wars!
Staggered!! It's getting a little silly now.

[Twodogs]

Interesting hearing Benny Gale's proposal for an Anzac Day eve game.
Wants a game with Melbourne, due to the two clubs numbers in the wars!
Staggered!! It's getting a little silly now.


I hadnt heard Gale talk about it but I was just thinking tonight that we should try and get a ANZAC Day eve game slot. A game tonight would have been great.

[The Underdog]

I hadnt heard Gale talk about it but I was just thinking tonight that we should try and get a ANZAC Day eve game slot. A game tonight would have been great.

I think we should go for a dawn service game. Have the dawn service, march everyone to the G, play at 7am. Pioneering is what that is.

*Sorry, I'd love us to play Good Friday but I think I'm already tired of footy talk and it's only round 6. I've possibly gotten to the point of mostly enjoying the game and disliking 95% of the bullshit press around it. Especially when the AFL will just do what it wants anyway and then try to spin it how they want.

[Happy Days]

But it won't be will it? And that's what gets lost on your average factory worker fan isn't it? The two competing "big" clubs will get $1million worth of exposure each, we'll get thrown $15,000 and we'll hear "you get compensated so what's your problem". It's dickhead economics.

Basically we're going to burn down your house which is worth $2 million if your could afford to renovate it, but you can't, so here's $400,000 insurance money and we'll build 12 apartments on it and sell them for $6 million. Why are you complaining, you did well out of the deal!

Amazing.

Seriously what is the thinking on this? "You can't have blockbuster games because you don't draw because no one ever sees you play because you have no blockbuster games"?