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

[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

[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

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.

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-new...#ixzz2z6adHa2f


Listen on SEN here

[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.