I heard Ballas during the week say they had had a run last week on the new oval. I hope that wasn’t the first?!!
But talking about homeground advantage, I saw an article on the AwFL website this week mention that we would play our 50th game on the MCG when we meet Richmond there in round 7.
So in 24 years and after 522 games - we don’t even average one game in ten at the ground the GF is played on. If you take out the 3 finals we’ve played there, it translates to less than one per season or 3 every two seasons.
Compare that to the reigning premiers who will play 16 H&A games on the ‘G this year. So in effect, if this were repeated for a few years - Richmond would play as many games on the MCG in 3 seasons that we have in 24.
With all the talk around compromised draws, etc. it is a complete sham that interstate sides are so significantly disadvantaged in terms of games played on the GF stage.
Probably why they’ve designed the new stadium here to be very close to the MCG in size (5m longer and 11m narrower than the ‘G) and they use the same synthetic/grass hybrid turf.
If you can’t beat ‘em...
