I think part of the problem is it’s struggling with the theme/identity. Hopefully over the years the Good Friday Appeal thing takes hold and helps make it something bigger.
All the other big games generally have a theme, probably the only exception is Queen’s Birthday, but that one has had some crowd problems over the years whenever Melbourne wasn’t travelling well also.
Unfortunately trying to have a “blockbuster” match between 2 teams with low memberships/supporter bases is always going to be a struggle.
Wouldn’t be feasible because there are times when Round 1 falls on Easter weekend. Fark Carlton and Richmond always kick the season off on the Thursday night. Give it time. That’s the problem with the AFL, they didn’t give North and St.Kilda/Dogs a chance over multiple years to build it up, so they then brought in a big club to ensure the game would be played in front of a packed house. I’m happy for us to be involved in it.
Barely. He compliments them well in that he is an outside ball user and they have some inside mids. However he is too slow as an outside player. He’s similar to Hep in pace.