Home Ground Advantage - It's time to move back to the MCG

It’s time for us to begin moving back to the MCG. Watching Richmond dominate at the MCG while being fairly average elsewhere renews my believe that home ground advantage is crucial for success.

Home ground advantage is a fundamental aspect of sports all around the world. Establishing a brand that is designed for a specific ground enables teams to capitalise on good form (eg Brisbane). Splitting our Melbourne games between MCG and Marvel isn’t sustainable. We don’t have any continuity to establish consistency, especially considering the MCG and Marvel play very differently. Dominating at Marvel doesn’t earn us anything. Dominating at the MCG doesn’t earn us anything. Teams like Richmond, Collingwood or even West Coast/Adelaide only need to really dominate one ground and snag a couple of wins elsewhere to host a final.

Sides that do split home grounds (Geelong, Hawthorn, GWS) get significant advantage at the second venue because it’s their own unique ground. They usually win 75% or more of their games at those venues.

We along with Carlton are in a position where we end up playing MCG tenants at the MCG, Marvel tenants at Marvel and intestate sides on the most neutral ground in the competition.

It’s absurd how we’ve come to this arrangement in a professional competition. We allow our rivals to play home games at the venue of the grand final or see them establish significant home ground advantage at their own venue.

It’s no wonder we haven’t hosted a final since 2002. We haven’t finished with a percentage above 112% since 2001. Brisbane have literally leap frogged us because they only lost one of eleven home and away games at the Gabba all year.

For a team that has struggled with consistency for almost two decades, maybe a consistent home ground would be a good start.

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I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but I still cant believe the short-sightedness of the board.

We gave Collingwood FREE reigns to take over our spot as key tenant at that place, when we were the ones drawing the biggest crowds!! Bigger than ■■■■■■ Richmond, the greatest supporter base in the history of world sport.

Sums up most of the decisions governing this club the past 20 years.

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Didn’t we play better this year on the MCG than Colonial stadium?

Was that McMahon?

Yep, and Peter Jackson.

That Peter Jackson is the worst thing to happen to the EFC. That includes the hiring of the weapon, dank and Evans.

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The MCG should be no ones home ground.

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It was ridiculously short-sighted. Definitely not a football decision. $$$ is the reason, which in itself lacks foresight.

Don’t even get me started on stunting the growth of the club. What’s in the past is in the past I guess. Surely the club considers this as a solution.

Yes it was. The board in 1997 thought it a great idea to lock us into a 25 year arrangement at Docklands. It was all about money. But don’t blame the board, ultimately the members voted for it as was required by the constitution. Any thought of a return to the G is a pipe dream as Collingwood have an arrangement that lasts until the end of 2022 that basically prevents anyone from coming in. There’s also the small matter of a contract with Docklands until 2025.

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Did we not renegotiate our contract with Docklands after the AFL acquired it? I’ve always wondered why we did not get an update on the status of our initial contract and how the AFL’s acquisition of Docklands impacted us.

There was a brief article about Essendon pushing for an extra MCG home game, but we haven’t heard anything about it since.

Jeezuz wept, … this again??

How many back to MCG thread B Blitz have?? :thinking:

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Richmond was poor to mediocre for a good 15 of the past 20 years with their home at the G.

Become a great club first.

Then maybe revisit.

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The reason we can’t get it is because of the Collingwood deal that we paved the way for by moving our “home” to Docklands. There’s been question marks over the 2025 deal given the AFL now owns the venue but it’s irrelevant given the Collingwood deal.

There’s no question the original deal was money related. The powerhouse clubs of that time were Adelaide and west coast who had bursting membership and waiting lists. My own (some may say cynical) view was the board wanted us to fill up our membership at the smaller venue and introduce a waiting list. A premiership in the first year was an ideal start but it’s been crapp ever since which hurt what I feel the original plan for moving there was.

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Well its come to that point this year without any success, the crowd v Sydney at the MCG of 60k would have hit them right between the fkn eyes.

That game would have got 42k TOPS had it been at Marvel, thats 18k fans turned away.

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That doesn’t disprove the need to establish a proper home ground. Once they established a gameplan tailored to the MCG, they’ve gone on to win 42 of the last 50 games there.

All the top teams are strong at a particular ground.

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I can’t believe people actually thought it was a good idea.

The Collingwood deal may prevent us from becoming an MCG tenant, but surely it doesn’t actually impact on increasing MCG home games? Carlton fluctuate the number of home games at the MCG.

My feeling is that we won’t due to either the initial Docklands contract we signed or the AFL’s requirement to schedule a certain number of blockbusters at Marvel for the $$$ considering we’re Marvel’s anchor tenants.

How about we redevelop docklands stadium so it bigger than the MCG and then all Victorian finals are played there.

Only half joking.

Build our own 60k ■■■■■■■ stadium at Tullamarine.

I’m deadly seriously

No i mean deadly deadly serious.

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Yuck

Give my likes back, WE’RE DONE.

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Get on board!

Our own stadium would be pure home ground advantage and would make a ■■■■ ton of money for the club.