Agreed. I’m firmly of the belief we opened the door to the now powerhouse clubs by vacating the MCG. Dumb move IMO.
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You know, way back in time when we were a successful club on the field, we managed to win 56 out of 66 regular season games (you guessed it, 1999-2001)
Not having “home ground advantage” at The MCG didn’t seem to hurt us then.
I would like to put forward a strange concept:
Somehow become a good team again and I think that where we base ourselves will be just as relevant as it was back then.
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Fujitsu Stadium!!
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It’s all of that TBH. Carlton actually tried to increase their split between the two venues. They were unsuccessful.
We were MCG tenants in 1999. We arguably built consistency and the foundation of the 2000 side by playing at the MCG in the 90s. No side has dominated like we had in 2000 for decades so we can’t expect us to return to those heights.
We still had the 2000 squad fairly intact albeit with a lot of injuries in 2001.
No matter how bad we are, not hosting a final since 2002 is a pretty big deal. Other than GC, every other side has done it this decade. Considering we struggle with different weather conditions and consistency, perhaps this is one of the reasons.
Pete Lazer or Craig Willis?
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It is NOT hindsight. Many of us were saying this at the time.
Also that a major reason MacMahon and PJ wanted the move to Docklands was so they could easily get capacity crowds and lock fans out.
They should do us all a favour and start these lockouts then. I can go to EDFL division three if I want to see a team kick 21 goals in a row.
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It’s amazing the sht people dream up to avoid accepting we’re just a bad team/club at the moment.
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We’re not bad. We made the finals amid injuries and a ■■■■ game plan that does nothing in finals. There are plenty of teams in a way worse position then us both in list, gamestyle and off-field stuff.
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Here we go again.
Wasn’t Peter Jackson instrumental in opting for Matthew Knight(mare)s over Dimma Hardwick as coach? FFS
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I remember 1992 when the MCG became our home ground. It was so cool to go there most weeks. We started bringing in 88,000 crowds on a regular basis against Collingwood before the dreaded Anzac Day game. We played exciting footy and had so many memorable moments. The move to Colonial Stadium only looked good on the field because we were at the height of our dominance for two years. I remember seeing the renders in the late 1990s and that it would only hold 55,000 and being so disappointed. How on earth could you tear down a 75,000 seat stadium and replace it with a 55,000 seat one? With the population almost doubling in the last 20 years it’s so dumb. I used to memorise the crowd numbers we’d get at the MCG. 1993 we had the biggest crowd numbers, twice breaking the 87000 against an average Collingwood team. I used to love getting there early against Collingwood or Carlton and watching the crowd build in the Ponsford stand until they had to open sections resevered for AFL members. Those were the greatest years. Colonial Stadium/Telstra Dome/Etihad turned us into an indoor playing soft footy club. The MCG is 1000 times better than Docklands. We’d be even richer today if we’d stuck with the MCG. If we don’t plan on going back there don’t expect any premierships. How many Docklands tenants have won premierships since it’s opening? 1 - Bulldogs. That says it all.
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Make that 2. Essendon. 2000 But we’d have won that year if we played on the moon.
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The MCG crowd figure for grand final day is such bullshit. Every year now there’s about 10 people differential. It’s either 100,012, 100,016, 100,021, 100,022. If you go back to previous years the numbers would be dramatically different from year to year. Now they’ve gotten better and ensuring tickets are sold and people turn up, however, I believe they don’t even count it properly anymore. They just quote those numbers whether it’s a GWS vs Richmond or two Victorian sides. And of course the preliminary final struggles to get with 5,000 of capacity even though it looks almost full.
Brian Taylor interviewed the guy who runs it on GF day. He asked exactly how many seats there are at the ground. They guy said there is exactly 100,000 seats. What a total moron. There’s approx 95,000 or less with the remaining numbers in standing room. What also ■■■■■ me is that there are always empty seats behind the players dugout because the roof obstructs the view. They should just replace it with curved glass roof and there would be good viability and people would sit in those seats.
Please add another row of seats and make the capacity 101,000+ so we can be sure we break the 100,000 mark each year instead of adding 16 or 22 people to make it look good on paper. I can’t wait until they redevelop the great southern stand and make the top deck go back as far as the newer stand and bring capacity up to 105,000+ That would be awesome. Then we could break 100,000 during a home and away match for the first time.
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The top sides are good anywhere.
Richmond beat Brisbane in Brisbane on that single occasion where they left the MCG over the past two months or so.
See, good teams win anywhere…
Just out of interest, how many Teams have won GF’s over the past 40 years or so, who had the MCG as a home ground?
And what does that number represent as a percentage compared to those that don’t? 
It’s ridiculous if that ground is locked in as where the GF will be played for forever & a day, that any side in a competition that tries to be as even, fair, & equal as possible with it’s many expansion forced inequities already, can have it as their HG.
I think we should argue more that Colonial/Telstra Dome/Etihad/Marvel is a crap place to play AFL. We will forever be Richmond and Collingwoods bitche.s while we never get to play them at our home ground.
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And we smashed the premiers in Perth last year.
Doesn’t mean anything when we don’t win enough Melbourne games to host a final.
Last year we went 5-1 interstate. We also lost 7 out of 8 at the MCG.
Take Richmond as an example.
2017 - They win a total of 18 games. 12 of those were at the MCG. They lost 7 games in total. 2 were at the MCG. Outside of MCG, their record is an average 6 wins and 5 losses. At the MCG, it’s 12-2. Are you telling me that home ground advantage isn’t a factor?
2018 - They win 19 and lose 5. 15 wins were at the MCG. Lost 1 game there.
Outside of the MCG, they went an average 4-4. Had an interstate record of 1-5. Again, doesn’t home ground play a factor here?
2019 - They win 19 and lose 6. 13 came at the MCG. 2 losses. Outside of the MCG, they went an average 6-4
Brisbane won 16 games during H&A. 10 came at the Gabba. Only 1 loss.
Outside the Gabba, they went an average 5-5.
West Coast this year went 10-3 in Perth. They went an average 6-5 outside of Perth.
Home ground advantage is a basic thing. Not having any isn’t sustainable.
Geelong get a guaranteed 7-9 wins at KP. West Coast will win about 9-11 games in Perth. Collingwood win about 10 games at the MCG. We don’t even play that much at a single ground.
Meanwhile, we played 8 at Docklands and 8 at the MCG. That’s only two more than the 6 times we travelled interstate. Records of 5-3 and 4-4 respectively. West Coast literally played half the amount of MCG games as us.
Even in 2013, we had 8 losses in total. 5 of them were at Docklands for a record of 5-5 there. Our record at the MCG was 4-2. We did however go 5-1 interstate. It’s preventing us from mounting any decent charge up the ladder.
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