Dogs to lose good Friday

[Bulldog Revolution]

Seems that the saints will replace us in this fixture

Disappointing outcome for the club

[bulldogtragic]

Winning not enough. Huge crowd not enough. Our families trying to create new traditions not enough. Happy to take increased revenue with selling our games to advertisers this year.

AFEL in every sense.

[Twodogs]

So what exactly were the KPIs we didn't meet that justifies taking the game away from us but letting North keep it?

[GVGjr]

I'd like to know why our claims on Good Friday games hasn't been successful? I think our promotion of the game was spot on and certainly the participation was a good number as well. I'd also like to know what playing other teams on the day offers the AFL and the AFL community? Perhaps a schedule that has 2 years on and one year off so that 3 teams can rotate through could be a decent compromise but purely on perception of that we've been shunted aside without an adequate explanation.

There need to be a significant level of transparency in what the AFL is doing here.

[chef]

Seems like they gave us one to shut us up. So AFL.

[azabob]

Winning not enough. Huge crowd not enough. Our families trying to create new traditions not enough. Happy to take increased revenue with selling our games to advertisers this year.

AFEL in every sense.

On the crowd point it was a dogs away game. I was at the game and crowd was support was 50/50, which means majority of dog fans had to put their hard earned over the counter and pay for entry and a reserved seat.

As a rule I don’t like 4pm - 4.40pm games but I went to support the club in the belief the AFL would do the right thing and give us the home game in 2018.

Clearly I was wrong.

[hujsh]

Lets see if the Saints come out for the game like we did.

North likely won't get a huge turnout since they look like big ole contenders for the spoon.

Could well be an awful game (Hello Essendon vs Carlton 2019?)

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Up yours McLaughlin!
Keep looking after the big Vic clubs although they have rorted the system for years. Keep giving the artificial teams drafting favours and bucketloads of money but do not give the Dogs Good Friday although it would acknowledge the club's honest and magnificent rise against the odds and it's fair claim on the event.

[GVGjr]

This smacks of a group of senior leaders in a corporation doing everything they can at any expense to achieve their incentive targets.
Its the sort of short term thinking that others pay for down the track.

[comrade]

I hope it's an utter shambles for the AFL this year.

North fans will stay away in droves throughout 2018.

[Flamethrower]

Not concerned by this at all.

From a selfish POV, it cost a fortune for family tickets thanks to Norf's "blockbuster" tax. Then had to put up with Melbourne's pathetic public transport system after the game - took over 2 hours, when it is normally a 25 minute trip.

It would not surprise me at all if AFL HQ are still experimenting with the format, and will continue to rotate the teams each year - Norf have been pushing for it for decades, so it is only fair they get the first couple. The only question now is will the tragic club from Royal Parade get a gig, or will we get to host the 27 time wooden spooners in 2019.

[Twodogs]

Not concerned by this at all.

From a selfish POV, it cost a fortune for family tickets thanks to Norf's "blockbuster" tax. Then had to put up with Melbourne's pathetic public transport system after the game - took over 2 hours, when it is normally a 25 minute trip.

It would not surprise me at all if AFL HQ are still experimenting with the format, and will continue to rotate the teams each year - Norf have been pushing for it for decades, so it is only fair they get the first couple. The only question now is will the tragic club from Royal Parade get a gig, or will we get to host the 27 time wooden spooners in 2019.

Yeah, thinking about it short of forming our entire membership into a human pyramid I literally don't know what else we were supposed to do to justify keeping it and frankly we can't control what the AFeL does what's the point of getting upset about it?

[bornadog]

The only question now is will the tragic club from Royal Parade get a gig, or will we get to host the 27 time wooden spooners in 2019.

This better not happen, they already get a number of blockbusters, why the hell should they get more. I really hate the AFL and their contrived fixture.

[Rocco Jones]

This better not happen, they already get a number of blockbusters, why the hell should they get more. I really hate the AFL and their contrived fixture.

Contrived everything. Control freaks.

[MrMahatma]

If it's a flop this year, that gives the AFL a chance to say "let's try it with a couple big clubs."

Reckon this is all part of a plan to just shut the small clubs up and enable them to put the blockbusters in the hands of the big clubs.

[bornadog]

If it's a flop this year, that gives the AFL a chance to say "let's try it with a couple big clubs."

Reckon this is all part of a plan to just shut the small clubs up and enable them to put the blockbusters in the hands of the big clubs.

Average all games at Etihad - 2017

WBulldogs: 37,969
Saints: 31,568
North: 29,089

[Twodogs]

Average all games at Etihad

WBulldogs: 37,969
Saints: 31,568
North: 29,089

Is that this year?

[bornadog]

Is that this year?

Yes 2017, I made the edit.

Includes 42,000 for Good Friday

[Bulldog4life]

For all their want to change teams playing on Good Friday why doesn't the AFEL change the teams on all the blockbuster matches yearly. They have now set a precedent so there is nothing stopping them now. We know it won't happen but it bloody well should.

[Hotdog60]

How much is it the AFL and how much say would the networks have in it.
It would be more about ratings than bums on seats I would think in this day and age of huge media rights.
Networks would be asking for the bigger supporter based clubs to get the cream to increase their potential ratings.
And not looking at members, the surveys would have gone out with the question what AFL club do you follow.
Collingwood would be a large portion of that. What ever their members are their followers would be triple or more.

[PedroArvy]

Why do Essendon Collingwood get the Anzac day game every year? Why????

[EasternWest]

Why do Essendon Collingwood get the Anzac day game every year? Why????

Tradi$hon.

I'm aware its not spelt like that.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

For all their want to change teams playing on Good Friday why doesn't the AFEL change the teams on all the blockbuster matches yearly. They have now set a precedent so there is nothing stopping them now. We know it won't happen but it bloody well should.

With tongue in cheek maybe we should have engaged Kevin Sheedy to retain our Good Friday presence. Hasn't he been the force behind most of the AFL blockbuster games? North appear to be the flavour of the month ATM with the AFL also wanting to replace Hawthorn to allow Norf to become the sole tenant in Tassie. You can quite understand PG's current war on the AFL.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

According to the Coodabeens Kevin Sheedy invented Anzac Day

[Twodogs]

According to the Coodabeens Kevin Sheedy invented Anzac Day


They mean Bruce Ruxton.

[Eastdog]

This better not happen, they already get a number of blockbusters, why the hell should they get more. I really hate the AFL and their contrived fixture.

Exactly. This Good Friday game was supposed help those clubs including ours that don't get those big 'blockbuster' games like the big clubs. If that's the case then it's very very dissapointing.

[Eastdog]

On the crowd point it was a dogs away game. I was at the game and crowd was support was 50/50, which means majority of dog fans had to put their hard earned over the counter and pay for entry and a reserved seat.

As a rule I don’t like 4pm - 4.40pm games but I went to support the club in the belief the AFL would do the right thing and give us the home game in 2018.

Clearly I was wrong.

Went along to the Good Friday game as well. Was a very good crowd of 42K. The AFL really need to clarify what is going on with this fixture.

[Hotdog60]

Give us time to build Good Friday: Roos
NORTH Melbourne is confident it can build Good Friday into a marquee game if given the necessary time by the AFL.

The Kangaroos played on Good Friday for the second time last week, beating St Kilda by 52 points before a crowd of 33,966.

That crowd was a significant drop from the 42,814 who watched North host the Western Bulldogs in the augural Good Friday game last season, while the standard of that match – a thriller the Dogs won by three points – was vastly better than last Friday's game, the first half of which was strewn with errors from both teams.

Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday the AFL would consider fixturing well-performed or bigger clubs to play on Good Friday in future in an effort to increase the crowd, television ratings and spectacle.

North coach Brad Scott told reporters on Wednesday the Kangaroos would "relish" the chance to remain part of the Good Friday game and believed they could eventually make the occasion an integral part of the AFL calendar.

"We've worked for about 30 years on building the opportunity to play on Good Friday. The club has done a power of work, both in campaigning for the game and then in doing a lot of work to make sure that we build our partnership with the Royal Children's Hospital, to make it a big event," Scott said.

"We'd certainly relish the opportunity to continue to build on that tradition and it takes time to build up a big marquee game.

"I know the quality of the football in the first half wasn't what either team would have liked, but I was really happy with our players' response in the second half and I'm sure all North Melbourne fans were really pleased with the standard of footy they saw in the second half from us."

Asked whether the crowd for last Friday's game had been disappointing, Scott noted that when North hosted St Kilda at Etihad Stadium in round 13 last year the game drew just 26,107 fans.

The North coach also said the fact the Bulldogs entered last year's inaugural game as reigning premiers had been a factor in its far larger crowd.

However, Scott was confident that, with time, North could condition its fans to view Good Friday as a must-see game.

"I know a lot of my family and friends went away on holiday on (Easter) Thursday night. They're either down the beach or interstate; they're on holidays on Good Friday," he said.

"We need time to indoctrinate North Melbourne people into the fact that you stay in Melbourne on Good Friday, you come to the footy and then you go away Friday night and have Easter Monday away, (you) take your kids away on school holidays.

"That sort of thing takes a bit of time for people to get used to."

Scott did not feel North needed to play the same opponent each Good Friday to create a tradition.

"I'm not overly concerned as long as there's one core team involved," he said.

"Who we play is completely up to the AFL. I think the AFL do what they do best, which is they always analyse what's happened and they try and make the best decision going forward.

"We certainly support them in that. We'd just like a seat at the table to help build this game into a real tradition."

LINK (http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-04/give-us-time-to-build-good-friday-roos)

[Twodogs]

We have to stand up and stop this bullshit treatment of our club.

The Kangaroos played on Good Friday for the second time last week, beating St Kilda by 52 points before a crowd of 33,966.

That crowd was a significant drop from the 42,814 who watched North host the Western Bulldogs in the augural Good Friday game last season


So they took it away from us after one game in order to try and build up to the sort of crowd we already had last year? Does tgat sound bat shit *!*!*!*!ing crazy to anyone else?

[Greystache]

Channel 7 are reporting the AFL are giving Good Friday football to Essendon starting next year.