The Dees came 17th in 2019. I know its over a season ago but 17th! That’s so bad!
Why did they not cop more heat for that coming off their best season ever that counted?
- I'm a visionary - Only here to confirm my biases -
Surely we can sell the prime real estate on the back of our jumpers with plenty of prime time fixtures likely to come our way?
AFL 2021 fixture: Blues, Bombers out of favour, with Bulldogs, Sydney Swans potential winners
The AFL’s flexible fixture has been delayed, but already there’s two clubs set to benefit from the league’s ability to schedule prime time slots on the fly.
Sydney and the Western Bulldogs could be the big winners out of the AFL’s new flexible fixture as the COVID scare pushes back an expected update beyond Round 6 until next week.
But Essendon and Carlton will have to rapidly gain momentum so they are not shut out of marquee contests.
The league was set to reveal another two or three weeks of its new flexible fixture on Tuesday after initially only locking in six weeks.
Teams know their direct rival and venue after Round 6 but not the timeslot or day the game will be played.
AFL fixture boss Travis Auld said yesterday the league had structured the fixture that way to allow the them to navigate COVID.
It also allows them freedom to “flex” games into Thursday and Friday night slots that had not seemed appealing in the pre-season.
Sydney has become a must-watch team given its fleet of exciting young kids and the return of Lance Franklin.
And the Western Bulldogs play a high-octane, freewheeling game that is also particularly attractive to watch.
But clubs such as Carlton – which had hoped to jump from the blocks – could quickly be shut out of marquee contests unless they can show they have the wins to match their traditional pulling power for TV broadcasters.
Essendon has an away Friday night encounter against Sydney in Round 4 but also faces the prospect of an off-Broadway finish to the year given its expected struggles.
Auld admitted the Brisbane COVID cluster had affected the league’s fixture release plans.
“It might. I think it’s a good question. We had planned to release the next two or three weeks of fixture this week,” he said.
“I asked (second in charge) Marcus King to have a look at the knock-on impacts of this. We will hold it off for a few days but I am not sure if that means next week.
“Certainly (better marquee contests) is the upside of building flexibility into the fixture.
“There is no better reminder of why we released six weeks of the schedule than what happened in the last 24 hours.
“The secondary benefit is we can respond to form and we have seen some upsets early on.
“We have more options on Thursday and Friday nights than what we might have realised going into the season.”
Round 7’s Essendon-Carlton clash might have been a perfect Friday night contest if the Dons agreed to play off five days break but suddenly Sydney-Geelong looks an enticing clash.
I don't get why we can't. I realise covid has put a strain on business but the candidates for that prime placing probably didn't take a massive hit.
I'm hoping there's something major brewing and we are just holding off until it's finalised.
Slight concern though.
We've been everywhere this week - all over AFL 360, front page of the HS sports section, Bont's goal was the #1 moment of the week on AFL.com.au. Perfect opportunity for a sponsor to get some air time.
I was hoping for a good start so we'd get those prime time TV slots and it's working out nicely - if our commercial team can't spin this into a sponsor announcement, it's a worry.
Our 1954 premiership players are our heroes, and it has to be said that Charlie was their hero.
Liverpool are trendy. People flock to what's trendy. Remember when we were trendy late in 2016? People who weren't into footy suddenly told me they were dogs fans (these people are now tiger fans by the way. I'm not kidding.).
For whatever reason, Carlton and Essendon are still trendy. I assume because of the effect of the masses. It feeds itself. Whilst I hated hearing how everyone was suddenly a bulldogs fan in 2016 (our bandwagon got pretty big), our immediate decline failed to hold these newbies which would have gone a long way to establishing our club as 'trendy' which = $$$$, which in the AFL means a better chance of sustained success. Just see Carlton and Essen.....hang on a sec
Tigers set to host Bulldogs in round seven Friday night blockbuster
The Western Bulldogs’ early-season form has them set to meet defending premiers Richmond in a Friday night blockbuster at the MCG in round seven.
The Bulldogs are unbeaten after three rounds for the first time since 2009 and are considered top-four aspirants, while the Tigers remain premiership contenders despite their loss to Sydney in round three.
Richmond’s golden era, during which they have won three of the past four flags, began the year after the Bulldogs broke a 62-year premiership drought in 2016.
Industry sources indicated the Tigers were likely to host the Bulldogs in what would be Richmond’s first Friday night match in Melbourne since the 2019 preliminary final against Geelong.
The AFL is hoping to have rounds seven and eight locked in before the end of this week after holding off on the announcement when a COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Queensland on the eve of round two, forcing the Brisbane Lions to play their clash against Collingwood last Thursday in Melbourne.
The new flexible approach allows the AFL to place the best match-ups in the best timeslots, depending on performance with Essendon versus Carlton at the MCG and Sydney versus Geelong at the SCG shaping up as exciting round seven contests after their respective winning performances in round three.
Essendon and Carlton have met in the Saturday afternoon slot more often than not in the past decade, although with Anzac Day falling on a Sunday this year and the Bombers playing Collingwood in that traditional fixture, they would only get a six-day break heading into their match against the Blues if it were to be fixtured on a Saturday.
Brisbane host Port Adelaide in a crucial match, with the two teams playing Saturday evenings at the Gabba over the past four seasons, while the western derby works on either Saturday night or Sunday at Optus Stadium.
ROUND 5 FIXTURE UPDATE:
vs Gold Coast Suns
Saturday, April 17
4.35pm (prev 1:40pm AEST)
Marvel Stadium
Don't miss it The BONT plays his 150th
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
It's probably just dumb people having dumb kids who they say dumb shit to that will keep them popular.
I get we're by and large products of parents and relatives or friends filling our minds with stories about what it means to be Bulldogs. But I think about the 12-16 year old supporters of Essendon and Carlton who should have been told their team used to be successful when it was easier to cheat and now that it's harder to cheat they can't compete at the highest level and wonder what is actually said to them to keep them enthusiastic about following their clubs.
Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate.