<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Les Zigomanis for BackPageLead.com.au
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]I am going to be original and complain about the fixture<em style='font-size: 15px;]oneround into the season! How cool is that?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Round 1 began thusly:
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Friday, March 22,Adelaide v Essendon AAMI Stadium;Saturday, March 23,Fremantle v West Coast Patersons Stadium;Thursday, March 28,Carlton v Richmond MCG;Saturday, March 30,Western Bulldogs v Brisbane Etihad Stadium;GWS v Sydney ANZ Stadium,Gold Coast v St Kilda Metricon Stadium;Sunday, March 31,Melbourne v Port Adelaide MCG;North Melbourne v Collingwood Etihad Stadium,Monday, April 1,Hawthorn v Geelong MCG.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Nothing untoward there, really - other than the AFL bewilderingly deciding to stagger the round. Okay, there is something untoward then. Also, why inaugurate the season with Adelaide versus Essendon? No disrespect to those two teams, but the season should begin with a bang. 2012's second versus eleventh - two teams that really don't share any special rivalry or animosity or even a bad stare - doesn't exactly cut it.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Now that we have our platform, let's consider Round 2.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Friday, April 5,St Kilda v Richmond MCG;Saturday, April 6,Sydney v Gold Coast SCG;Western Bulldogs v Fremantle Etihad Stadium;Brisbane v Adelaide Gabba;Essendon v Melbourne MCG;Port Adelaide v GWS AAMI Stadium;Sunday, April 7,Geelong v North Melbourne Etihad Stadium;Collingwood v Carlton MCG;West Coast v Hawthorn Patersons Stadium.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Already, things are a little askew.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Collingwood, coming off a six-day break playing on the lush concrete of Etihad, plays Carlton, coming off a ten day break. Similarly, St Kilda has a five-day-break - and is coming back from interstate (where it was humid and sapping, which can be expected at this time of year) - to play Richmond, also off a ten-day-break. How does this work?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Then there's Hawthorn, who've had their traditional slugfest with Geelong on Easter Monday, expected to come off a five-day-break and fly to Western Australia to face the West Coast Eagles, who are coming off a fourteen-day-break.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Of course, the Hawks were a grand finalist, so maybe - just maybe - this is all part of some AFL attempt at hobbling teams expected to be superior back down to the pack. Let's head over to their fellow grand finalist - and premier - the Sydney Swans, to see how they fare.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Well, I don't know why I had any doubts. The Swans opened the season against Greater Western Sydney, and follow-up that slobberknocker by facing Gold Coast (at home).
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Those involved at Hawthorn are entitled to be bug-eyed. Actually, let's just apply that reaction to any contender, or up'n'comer. I imagine a club like Richmond would've killed for a similar start, instead of the horror draws they've been given over the years.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]I understand that as the season goes on and clubs are flung to all ends of the schedule, and all corners of the country, that it becomes difficult to ensure clubs are given the same recovery times and grace of rest and preparation. But, seriously, we're one round into the year. We could at least try.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Adelaide vs Essendon and West Coast vs Fremantle kicked off the season a week earlier than the rest of the competition. How about in Round 2, we have West Coast vs Adelaide and Essendon vs Fremantle? How simple is that? Now clubs with a similar lead-in get to face one another. Similarly, why not fixture Collingwood on a Saturday in Round 1 so that they get a seven-day-break leading into their game against Carlton, who've had the ten-day-break? Why not stick St Kilda on a Sunday, to give them the extra recovery time? These are just basic, commonsense examples.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]As far as the Swans go, I understand the AFL are attempting to introduce a derby and generate this rivalry to create some traction around the new franchise. I can actually channel the AFL response about my complaint, which would be something nonsensical like, 'In three years, the Swans may wish they didn't have this opening round fixture against the Giants'. But we're dealing with the now. Fine, let them open against the Giants, but following-up against the Suns? Really?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]The AFL want an even competition. They introduce salary caps and drafts, but when it comes to fixtures equalisation goes out the window. Even if the counter-argument is - in this case - that Sydney's fixture gets tougher later in the year, surely that's an easier challenge to face when the beginning of the season has provided such a cushion?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]The AFL compound inequalities by giving finalists harder draws. Why? Shouldn't the ladder be a reflection of each team's quality? If, hypothetically, Hawthorn faced Collingwood, West Coat, Geelong, and Adelaide over four rounds and came away 1-3, and Port Adelaide faced GWS, Gold Coast, Bulldogs, and Melbourne, and came away 3-1, who is the better team? Statistically, it would be Port. They would stand higher on the ladder. But realistically? Why do we want to skew the ladder?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Of course, we don't really complain about the fixture anymore. It's like the ruck raffle rule - you know the one, where two ruckman wrestle, the umpire blows his whistle, and everybody just stares quizzically, with absolutely no idea of which way the free kick is going to go. We understand the situation is stupid. We understand it doesn't work. But complaints have fallen on deaf ears so long we've given them up.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]This is where the fixture stands, and it's not really good enough. If you want to structure a competition on equalisation, then better - and balanced - thought has to be afforded to the draw. You'll never get it even, but at least let's have a stab at it. Let everybody on the redraw play a similar standard of opposition, e.g. teams from the top eight and the bottom ten. And, finally, let's apply some commonsense to the breaks we give each team leading into a round.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]It really isn't asking a lot to expect a little bit of fairness.