I wonder when the poor form of both the Dockers and the Eagles will result in a drop in attendances at Subiaco?... Both clubs seem to be a write-off for this season already.

The crowds have already started falling.

Fremantle's home attendances so far:

38,022
37,541
38,022
35,624
34,236

Noticeable drop for the last 2 games. The ground was half empty when the match finished on Sunday.

West Coast's home attendances so far:

39,591
39,027
38,302
41,254 (Carlton game with Chris Judd factor)
35,348

Alarming drop for most recent game.

I think those are fantastic crowds for teams in such poor form. We're talking of a drop of around only 10%.
I guess the high proportion of memberships which AFL tends to have make it less likely that clubs suffer 50% attendance slumps in hard times as we see in other codes.

Ahead of Monday's traditional Queen's Birthday "blockbuster" between Melbourne and Collingwood, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has warned Melbourne supporters that, if they don't turn up for the game, the fixture may be taken away from them next year:

"It's only really from the kindness of the Collingwood Football Club that they've allowed Melbourne to keep this a as home game where Melbourne keep the gate. It could easily be Collingwood-Melbourne, but it's always been Melbourne-Collingwood."

There's speculation in the media that 90% of Monday's crowd will be supporting the away team.

Vlad strikes again!

Round 11
St Kilda 79 Western Bulldogs 106
Crowd 38,914

More of the same shite. Another good first quarter, another total collapse thereafter. The Bulldogs best player on the day, Jason Akermanis, said in his post match interview that St Kilda are the best first quarter team in the AFL – it’s got to the stage now where I’m absolutely dreading second quarters (third quarters aren’t much better. The final quarter usually shows an improvement because the game is over and the opposition have eased off).

At quarter time today, St Kilda led 24-12. It should have been much more. The kicking for goal was a joke with Nick Riewoldt, who is clearly playing with a dodgy knee, the worst culprit. There’s no point in Riewoldt taking spectacular marks anymore because the resulting kick at goal is never going to hit the target. If St Kilda should have had at least 3 goals more, the Bulldogs should have been sitting on just 7 points after benefitting from one of the worst umpiring blunders of all time. A Bulldog kick for goal was clearly put through for a behind by St Kilda defender Leigh Fisher. Amazingly, the goal umpire, who was just a few metres away, signalled a goal. Even watching it live, everyone could see it been touched. When it was replayed on the big screen, we saw Fisher punch it convincingly through with both fists. A young boy (aged about 10) screamed “you bastard” as the replay was shown. His angry Dad ought to have shown more understanding.

The game was effectively over by half time and was definitely dead by three quarter time. 46 of St Kilda’s 79 points came in the final quarter when nobody cared and half the crowd had gone home many, I suspect, not to return this season (or next). After we get thrashed at Sydney next week, we are at home to Fremantle on a Friday night – unattractive opposition without a travelling support. It could be the worst crowd for a very long time.

St Kilda actually had only 1 less inside 50 than the Bulldogs (58-57), dominated the centre clearances and stoppages (mainly down to a fine display by ruckman Michael Gardiner) but still managed to be outclassed.
The real difference was that when the Bulldogs went inside 50 it was quick and precise. St Kilda simply bombed long, hopeful balls to nobody in particular. It’s all very well winning the clearances but if your skills are so bad you can’t find a teammate you’re not going to achieve much.
Unfortunately, with 5 wins on the board, tanking for the rest of the season might still not get us a better draft pick than 4 or 5 when we really need 1 or 2.

Those average attendance figures aren't bad, MA. I've not got the stats to hand, but I would guess that there are only around 10 or so Premiership football clubs who consistently average around 35,000, and I thought that was the best-supported (soccer) league in the world.

I think the Bundesliga has the highest average crowds of any soccer league, Rogin.

According to Wikipedia, the running order is NFL, IPL, AFL, Bundesliga, EPL, MLB, Canadian Football League, La Liga, Japanese Baseball.

yeah, I remember the thread we had while back (heavens, I might even have started it) about average attendances across the various world leagues, but for you to highlight 2 supposedly failing teams in the AFL (out of 14? 16?) that are getting those crowds, amazed me. Like I said, you don't have to go very far down the EPL to find teams who'd kill for 35,000 in every week, come rain or shine.

Newcastle have been getting them in every week in the pissing rain since 1955, but they're a funny lot, the Geordies.

Another last quarter collapse by Port Power saw them lose to Carlton- after leading by five goals at three-quarter time! Carlton, who had only kicked three goals in the first three quarters, banged in seven unanswered goals in the last quarter.

And this was after a lot of sledging during the week, with both camps calling the other "soft". I didn't catch Mark Williams post match press conference- would have been interesting....

Melbourne Arab wrote:

QUOTE:
Ahead of Monday's traditional Queen's Birthday "blockbuster" between Melbourne and Collingwood, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has warned Melbourne supporters that, if they don't turn up for the game, the fixture may be taken away from them next year:

"It's only really from the kindness of the Collingwood Football Club that they've allowed Melbourne to keep this a as home game where Melbourne keep the gate. It could easily be Collingwood-Melbourne, but it's always been Melbourne-Collingwood."

There's speculation in the media that 90% of Monday's crowd will be supporting the away team.

The crowd was 59,548 after Demetriou said that 60,000 was the minimum acceptable. The Melbourne support actually looked pretty reasonable.

Half way through the season, the general concensus seems to be that the top 8 is locked away. With North Melbourne only 2 points clear of 9th and 10th, I think that's a bit premature. Then again, look at the teams who are 9th and 10th and you can see why people might think it's all over.

1 Hawthorn 40 – there's not much to like about this mob. Their president is Jeff Kennett, former Liberal premier of Victoria; their coach, Alistair Clarkson, is an obnoxious bully; their playing group, on the field, are a bunch of thugs; off the field, they are even worse but, for legal reasons, nobody's allowed to talk about it even though we all know about it. Oh, and they play in brown. Will not win this year's premiership; in fact, I'm not convinced they'll even make the grand final.

2 Geelong 40 – 10 wins out of 11 despite rarely reaching the heights of last season. Should make it 2 in a row.

3 Western Bulldogs 38 – if we forget about the horrible Jason Akermanis, there's a lot to like here. This is where they were expected to be last season but they finished 4th bottom. Players have returned from injury, a couple of big men have been added and some skinny players have put some beef on. I think they will fall just short of a first flag since 1954.

4 Adelaide 32 – very surprised they're 4th after a big turnover of personnel before the season. Have a much tougher fixture list in the second half of the season so will slip a bit.

5 Sydney 30 – as with Adelaide, I foolishly wrote them off as ageing has beens. Should finish 4th. Will beat Hawthorn if they meet in September.

6 Collingwood 28- have developed a habit of playing well against Geelong. Will not win the flag.

7 Brisbane 28 – an impressive young defence, a talented and experienced midfield and 2 of the best forwards in the AFL. An outside chance of top 4.

8 North Melbourne 22 – have developed a habit of playing well against Hawthorn but nothing the top 4 need to worry too much about.

9 St Kilda 20 – have fooled even more people than Fremantle – I tipped us to finish second on the old board! Now everyone knows we're shite.

10 Carlton 20 – who'd have thought it – just 2 points out of the top 8. The way St Kilda and Port are going, could finish 9th.

11 Port Adelaide 16 – really should be in the top 8 but disastrous final quarter collapses (or "chokes") have blown their finals chances.

12 Richmond 14 – a handful of decent performances but still basically crap.

13 West Coast 8 – I tipped them for the finals! Not in as bad shape as other struggling teams, though, as they do have some younger players emerging.

14 Essendon 8 – a decent pre-season cup and 2 wins in the first 3 games. It's all gone horribly wrong since. Haven't missed out on the finals 4 years in a row since the 70s. They could miss out for a few more years yet as rebuilding will be difficult with the new teams getting all the top draft picks.

15 Fremantle 4 – facing massive problems for the same reasons as Essendon but they also have the oldest list in the competition.

16 Melbourne 4 – I tipped them for the wooden spoon but so did everybody else so I'm not really clever.

Thanks as always for the overview, Malbourne Arab. I'd like to see the Bulldogs win. The lack of glamour or hype about the club is refreshing in the modern world. Also, my wife's aunty lives just down the road from the EJ Whitten Oval.

Any chance of a PM on the Hawthorn misdemeanours? In Sydney we don't get a lot of water cooler discussion on AFL.

Rory Bunk wrote:

QUOTE:

Any chance of a PM on the Hawthorn misdemeanours? In Sydney we don't get a lot of water cooler discussion on AFL.

Done!