2020 Fixture (revamped)

[bloodspirit]

If you had to guess what teams had the least travel for the remainder of the season, would it be the 3 Victorian powerhouses

Richmond: 3 games at Metricon plus 1 bye
Collingwood: 3 at Gabba plus 1 bye
Carlton: 3 at Metricon plus 1 at Gabba

Some things never change!

Crikey! Is that a coincidence? I really hope it is. Sounds like quite a few coincidences though. ??

[Mountain Man]

If you had to guess what teams had the least travel for the remainder of the season, would it be the 3 Victorian powerhouses

Richmond: 3 games at Metricon plus 1 bye
Collingwood: 3 at Gabba plus 1 bye
Carlton: 3 at Metricon plus 1 at Gabba

Some things never change!

[Meg]

Helps tighten the bonds within the list. Pity about E Taylor testosterone driven stupidity!

Agree with both parts of your comment.

The young players with no family responsibilities seem to be thriving in the hub life (excluding ET). And we have a majority of players like this.

Must be more difficult for the players (and coaches) who have left partners and small children behind - eg Buddy (6 month-old baby), Sam Reid (one year-old) Josh Kennedy (two small children).

[Mel_C]

The balance of our fixture, except for R18, has been posted: https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/795086/afl-unveils-next-block-of-fixture.

Not as kind to us as the last one was. Over the coming rounds we play change venues every week from Perth, to Adelaide, to Cairns, to Gold Coast and back to Cairns. We have 5 day breaks between 4 consecutive rounds from R14-R17. Still, I'm not complaining. I imagine everyone is in pretty much the same boat. Anyway, not a critical season for us since we're not contenders.

I'm disappointed because I thought once we were in the Cairns hub that we wouldn't have to travel and that we would play all games in Cairns. It feels like we are travelling more than other teams...but I'm probably being biased.

[707]

Helps tighten the bonds within the list. Pity about E Taylor testosterone driven stupidity!

[bloodspirit]

The balance of our fixture, except for R18, has been posted: https://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/795086/afl-unveils-next-block-of-fixture.

Not as kind to us as the last one was. Over the coming rounds we play change venues every week from Perth, to Adelaide, to Cairns, to Gold Coast and back to Cairns. We have 5 day breaks between 4 consecutive rounds from R14-R17. Still, I'm not complaining. I imagine everyone is in pretty much the same boat. Anyway, not a critical season for us since we're not contenders.

[Markwebbos]

Swans are in the best position of any team in 2020, because all we need is game time. We dont care too much on the result. So game time, plus team building is our objectives.

its not so good for teams in the "window" like Geelong, Collingwood, Giants, who can easily go from contenders to nobodies based on a few injuries (due to compressed seasons), mental well being of players (due to hub/uncertainties), covid infection, or just bad luck. The window doesnt stay open forever.
Richmond are also in the window, but probably dont care as much as they have a few flags in the bag already.

We have a couple of disadvantages under the current arrangements (1) no NEAFL | second tier comp means we have less opportunity to get non-AFL games into those not in the side, although we appear to be using the AFL to get game time into our younger players that might not happen if they could still play NEAFL (2) we've lost a lot of coaching and development staff around the club, meaning the young side is potentially learning less during the week than in a normal year.

There's also the danger that we may have to jettison some developing players if they cut list sizes, which seems likely.

[barry]

Yes, for better or worse, it's just human nature. At the end of the day we aren't much different from people in other countries. Even without
Covid there are hundreds of laws and rules to protect people from themselves and other people (drink driving, speeding, wearing
seatbelts, using your phone while driving etc) and they are broken by someone about every five minutes and people often die because of it.
Fortunately most footy fans have realised even any kind of remotely balanced draw is impossible to put together this year. Let's face it,
there hasn't been a balanced draw since the VFL days, and there probably wasn't one then either come to think of it. From the Swans
perspective the best thing that will come out of this year is that we'll get some more games into the likes of McCartin, Rowbottom, E Taylor
and the other very young guys. Theoretically there are ten H & A games to go. If we could somehow win three or four of them that would
be a great result. Besides, we don't really want to win an asterisk premiership.

Swans are in the best position of any team in 2020, because all we need is game time. We dont care too much on the result. So game time, plus team building is our objectives.

its not so good for teams in the "window" like Geelong, Collingwood, Giants, who can easily go from contenders to nobodies based on a few injuries (due to compressed seasons), mental well being of players (due to hub/uncertainties), covid infection, or just bad luck. The window doesnt stay open forever.
Richmond are also in the window, but probably dont care as much as they have a few flags in the bag already.

[KTigers]

Thats a very interesting view of the pandemic, and I tend to agree with you. If I paraphrase, in the long term, society cannot stop the spread of the disease, just down to human nature. Countries like Australia will follow europe. Countries like NZ who initially eradicated it (or WA, SA, TAS, NT) will eventually end up like Australia and Europe. They cant hold out forever.

I think the AFL has admitted as much by trying to condense the season while we can still play.

I hope the AFL doesnt give up once its in QLD, but rides ahead of the wave by moving to SA/WA until it has no where to go.

An interesting cross comparison is with our old friend Peter V'Landy's and the NRL. They arent moving, but will be operating tight hubs in effected areas. So if NSW and QLD go like Victoria, they will stay, but players isolated.

Yes, for better or worse, it's just human nature. At the end of the day we aren't much different from people in other countries. Even without
Covid there are hundreds of laws and rules to protect people from themselves and other people (drink driving, speeding, wearing
seatbelts, using your phone while driving etc) and they are broken by someone about every five minutes and people often die because of it.
Fortunately most footy fans have realised even any kind of remotely balanced draw is impossible to put together this year. Let's face it,
there hasn't been a balanced draw since the VFL days, and there probably wasn't one then either come to think of it. From the Swans
perspective the best thing that will come out of this year is that we'll get some more games into the likes of McCartin, Rowbottom, E Taylor
and the other very young guys. Theoretically there are ten H & A games to go. If we could somehow win three or four of them that would
be a great result. Besides, we don't really want to win an asterisk premiership.

[barry]

Yes, we will have only played three games at the SCG by Round 12. I'd think there are a few Melbourne teams that might be in a
similar boat. It seems to me the AFL is anticipating the virus numbers in Sydney to follow what has happened in Melbourne by
not playing any games here for the next month or so. I think if it blows up in Qld, which you would have to think is likely they
might call the whole season off. To the AFL's credit they have given it a go, and they had to for money reasons. Most people
who follow footy pretty closely like we all do are probably pretty glad it's been on. I've been enjoying it and by the end of this
weekend would have been to six games (three Swans, three GWS) all up and that has been good. It just seems to me the bug
is just super contagious and it's just beyond society collectively to do what is necessary (and no one really quite knows what
that is despite the millions of "informed opinions" and guidelines floating around) to stop it's spread. A bridge too far as the
saying goes. I guess we'll see.

Thats a very interesting view of the pandemic, and I tend to agree with you. If I paraphrase, in the long term, society cannot stop the spread of the disease, just down to human nature. Countries like Australia will follow europe. Countries like NZ who initially eradicated it (or WA, SA, TAS, NT) will eventually end up like Australia and Europe. They cant hold out forever.

I think the AFL has admitted as much by trying to condense the season while we can still play.

I hope the AFL doesnt give up once its in QLD, but rides ahead of the wave by moving to SA/WA until it has no where to go.

An interesting cross comparison is with our old friend Peter V'Landy's and the NRL. They arent moving, but will be operating tight hubs in effected areas. So if NSW and QLD go like Victoria, they will stay, but players isolated.

[KTigers]

Yes, we will have only played three games at the SCG by Round 12. I'd think there are a few Melbourne teams that might be in a
similar boat. It seems to me the AFL is anticipating the virus numbers in Sydney to follow what has happened in Melbourne by
not playing any games here for the next month or so. I think if it blows up in Qld, which you would have to think is likely they
might call the whole season off. To the AFL's credit they have given it a go, and they had to for money reasons. Most people
who follow footy pretty closely like we all do are probably pretty glad it's been on. I've been enjoying it and by the end of this
weekend would have been to six games (three Swans, three GWS) all up and that has been good. It just seems to me the bug
is just super contagious and it's just beyond society collectively to do what is necessary (and no one really quite knows what
that is despite the millions of "informed opinions" and guidelines floating around) to stop it's spread. A bridge too far as the
saying goes. I guess we'll see.

[giant]

Will any team have played [I]less[I] home games than us after round 12? Seems very strange.

[barry]

It's a TV draw, not a fan friendly draw. Swans v giants should be in Sydney and probably should have been last week.

[cherub]

The room cleaning, sheet washing would be common to hotel quarantine all around Australia, so there should be set protocols for that ( hopefully not involving staff sourced from WhatsApp). The ushers/security at the ground wore masks and gloves, and changed gloves if ever they had to touch a ball. If the ball was considered a potential risk, they haven't covered crowd contact, but it would be fleeting.

[Meg]

They don't have contact with the public for 2 weeks, starting from when they first reach Perth. I'm not sure what they do about food.

Or cleaning their rooms. Or washing their sheets etc. Or driving the bus to the ground (assuming they have to use a bus).

But I suppose these contacts are very minimal risks.