Just thought I'd go through a few things about the grand final.
Exciting game. Even though goals were scare in the 2nd half, still enjoyed the tight tough football that was played. Good to see Mark Williams rewarded after struggling to get the score on the board at Northern.
Thought Colin Sylvia was very good at a time when Sandringham spilt the game open. Rod Crowe was also good after struggling the last couple of years while on North Melbourne's list. Jeremy Clayton was very good for Port and no doubt he would have won the medal if Port had have won.
Felt that Sandy had nothing more to give, they just seemed to want it a little more than some of Port's players. Thought that some of the North Melbourne listed players were average, imparticular Shane Clayton and Eddie Sainsbury who just didn't attack the ball hard enough for a grand final.
Have to wonder about the venue. I think by playing at an AFL ground, the best features of the VFL are lost. Spectators being harassed by "goons" isn't apart of the VFL for 23 weeks of the season, but is a reality of playing the grand final at optus oval.
The crowd is probably one of talking points of the weekend, it was pathetic and hopefully the VFL look closely at it.
But I guess the options are to go back to a suburban ground like Port which could be a tight squeeze if 8,000 turn up or see if Telstra Dome want to host it which removes all the suburban feel completely. There's not much other option. Unless Whitten Oval, Windy Hill or Moorabbin can be brought back up to scratch. But the VFA/VFL has done that before.
I have no doubt this Sunday of AFL Prelim weekend is the wrong day for the game, given it is the start of school holidays, clashes with 20-30 suburban/country league Grand Finals on that Sat/Sun, is up against the Melbourne show and an increasingly popular race meeting at Caulfield which kicks off the Spring Carnival. And next year possibly an AFL Brownlow Medal on that night. The VFL Grand Final gets bumped out of the spotlight too much.
Like a few of us discussed in another thread, can the VFL find another day? I still believe the day after the AFL GF could work, the Goulburn Valley League has used it for years now with success. Or do the VFL put it forward a week so it clashes with AFL Semi Finals?
I don't have a problem with Optus Oval, but I think that was the fifth Grand Final I've been to in a row and apart from that day at Waverley which was a fizzer, this year had the worst atmosphere. The overpriced food and not being allowed on the ground is unfortunate though.
Phil Cleary in "Inside Football" suggests that its time to move the game away from Optus Oval back to a smaller venue. When we played a Grand Final at TEAC oval about 5 years ago, I thought the game had great atmosphere.
I agree with Footyman, the game on Sunday had no atmosphere, which is to be expected when the ground is 3/4 empty.
How would you feel about the two Preliminary finals being played on the same day as a double-header?
Agree on the ground issue. One thing that the VFL (and other local leagues) are known for is being able to go on the field, listen to your favourite coach and have a kick.
But no - we must not harm the pristine turf of OO...
I wish I had an idea for a solution.
Would be good as an observer and might attract bigger crowds due to 2 games being played, but would it be feasible primarily in terms of changerooms?
I guess matchday facilities and possibly TV coverage might make it difficult.
Sorry , posted this in another thread by mistake............
I reckon this is one of the biggest issues facing the VFL in the next decade or so.
On the surface , Princes Park SHOULD be the perfect venue in relation to parking , facilities and geography but as onslaugt said , how long can we go on with crowds of under 10,000 at our showpiece game of the year.
The main questions we have to ask ourselves are ;
Is the venue right ?
Is the timing right
Is the product right....in other words , are we overating our game ??
Obviously I , like most of you a guess , wouldn't see the last point as being at issue but that shouldn't stop us from at least considering it as a possibility. We probably average about 1,000 people a game during the season ( wild guess here) so perhaps 10 times that IS a fair figure to expect on GF day. If that were to be the case then we can still look at ways of exagerating our crowds on that final day.
Personally , I'd prefer to look at issue No2 before making too many changes to No 1. I'm with a few others on this in that I reckon the day AFTER the AFL GF is perfect for our comp. Use the whole AFL promotion as a leg up and get so much more publicity for what could be a real 'carnival' weekend of footy in Melbourne. All your local leagus are well and truly finished - use it as a day to attract many more suburban footballers apart from anything else.
Also , find a way to get back to the things that make our comp as attractive as we think it is.......forget the money for a few years ( is this possible ??) , invite kids for free , club members get a discount , get clubs to man food stalls , involve community groups and most of all........LET THE BLOODY PUBLIC ONTO THE GROUND like they are during the year.
Lets have a go at some of these issues and see if we can attract larger crowds to PP. If none of this works , then I agree , maybe we do have to look at taking out GF back to a suburban ground even with lesser facilities in order to create the atmosphere so sadly lacking at PP at the moment.
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Dont think..........Dooooooooooooo !!!!
Logic says if they can sort out the poarking at the Western Oval, then after the upgrade it really has to be used for the VFL Finals.
Otherwise, what is the point in doing anything at all with it?
Maybe Footscray can use it when they return to the VFL. (Cheeky, but not unreasonable??)
The VFL website has a poll up on when the Grand Final should be played:
[url]http://vfl.goal.com.au/[/url]
It's been well over a month now since the Grand Final, and according to the Poll over at the VFL site, only 26% of those who voted, wanted the game kept on AFL Preliminary final weekend.
Can anyone tell me when the VFL is likely to release the fixture for next year?
Also in reply to Ricos post in this thread (some time back) the security staff at OO this year weren't too switched on, as supporters were able to go out and listen to the coaches during 1/4 time in the Reserves Grand Final. They tightened up on it after that, however the small crowd that is there for the reserves game behaved fine, and maybe they could consider allowing people on the ground in the Reserves Grand Final next year?
On that pristine godly faultless corporate turf? Whatta you think this is - a football game or something? :wink: