MCG final will always mean a free kick for Melbourne teamsMichelangelo Rucci,
The Advertiser
1 Aug 2019West Coast’s win in last year’s AFL grand final spared the league executive from any awkward questions about locking the premiership play-off to the MCG until 2057. But it might be just a short-lived reprieve.
The Eagles’ dramatic win against the MCG-based Collingwood took away — for the moment — the concern for how the national competition’s most-important game of the year is played to the advantage of a large group of Melbourne-based clubs.
Richmond this weekend will play at the MCG for the fourth consecutive week, albeit as the “away” team to the venue’s original tenant, Melbourne. The Tigers then finish the home-and-away fixture with another three games at the so-called “home of football” — to complete a pre-finals run of seven in a row at the MCG.
It is an inevitable fall-out of a national competition overloaded with half of its 18 teams based in Melbourne and the ground-rationalisation era leaving just two AFL venues (MCG and Docklands) in Melbourne. Where else would the Demons and Tigers play but at the G?
The ironical twist in the MCG debate will be if Richmond ranks fourth at the end of the home-and-away series — and is tied to a qualifying final against top-ranked Geelong, a Victorian rival that calls the MCG home every so often.
Geelong, as the minor premier, would be returning to the MCG for the first time in six weeks and the sixth time this season (while Richmond would be playing its 14th game of the year at the G).
No wonder Geelong is more and more adamant that any home final it earns should be played at its home at Kardinia Park where the capacity of 36,000 is far less than the 100,000 seats at the MCG.
But this is an AFL built on the dollar — and even Geelong has fallen into this commercial trap of chasing cash. The Cats’ 160th anniversary game on July 21 was not at Kardinia Park but at the MCG. It was not against its first opponent of Melbourne but its modern rival in Hawthorn … clearly for commercial reasons.
AFL rules refer to “home state” rather than “home field” in determining where a final is played. Geelong v Richmond has a stronger commercial fit at the MCG than at Kardinia Park. The compelling argument from AFL House will be about choosing the venue that offers more seats to the 70,000 fans who want to attend the final.
Of the past 10 Geelong-Richmond games, only two have been played at Kardinia Park — in 2017 and 2012 with crowds of 32,266 and 21,952 respectively. The eight at the MCG have been split 5-3 in Geelong’s favour and drawn no less than 34,377 fans (in 2014).
The MCG debate will not go away while there is the perception it significantly favours a powerful group of Melbourne-based teams. Thankfully, the AFL no long demands at least one of the two preliminary finals be played at the MCG — a contractual theme that clearly worked against non-Victorian teams.
The AFL top-eight for September’s finals does appear almost a lock with no credible rival to unseat an under-performing Adelaide from eighth spot.
The AFL’s best-case scenario is for the final rankings to be — 1. Geelong, 2. West Coast, 3. Richmond, 4. Brisbane, 5. Collingwood, 6. GWS, 7. Essendon and 8. Adelaide. Then the first weekend of the finals would deliver Geelong v Brisbane at Kardinia Park; West Coast v Richmond at Perth Stadium; Collingwood v Adelaide at the MCG and GWS v Essendon in Sydney.
And, as with West Coast’s grand final win last year, the MCG debate would come off the boil … for a short moment again.
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