Talking Footy

Herald Sun wrote:

Carrara 'home' game for Demons
07 September 2005 Herald Sun
Damian Barrett
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/ ... 22,00.html

MELBOURNE will be scheduled two "home" matches in Queensland next season, with the addition of a Carrara match to its fixture.

The move will leave the Demons with just nine home matches in Victoria, as a long-standing arrangement to play the Lions at the Gabba will also be scheduled.

It is believed Melbourne will play Adelaide at Carrara on Easter Sunday next year.

A second premiership season match at the Gold Coast stadium will also be fixtured in 2006, with Hawthorn to be given hosting rights against Brisbane Lions.

The scheduling of that match will mean the Lions will have 13 matches in Queensland, a situation that is sure to rile some Victorian clubs, particularly Collingwood.

The Carrara matches are believed to have been pencilled in on consecutive weekends, April 16 (Melbourne-Adelaide) and April 23 (Hawthorn-Brisbane).

Melbourne chairman Paul Gardner said the MCG's unavailability, because of Commonwealth Games requirements, meant the club had no choice but to seek a lucrative deal outside Victoria.

Melbourne and Hawthorn will reap almost $400,000 each for the Carrara matches.

"There are six weeks where you can't play at the MCG, and we get a backlash if we play on a Sunday, we get a backlash if we play at Telstra Dome, we get a backlash if we play Carrara," Gardner said. "We don't take these decisions lightly.

"We are a business that will make money this year, but operationally we are still losing half a million dollars.

"There is another element people tend to forget with that Brisbane game, and that is that in the past five years we have only played Brisbane once each year.

"I am more than happy to have not played them twice a year.

"They beat us at the Gabba this year, they would have beaten us in my backyard even with the pool covered.

"In terms of Carrara, we have looked at it, we have looked at Launceston, Sydney, Cairns, Adelaide.

"It's an opportunity for the club. We cannot physically be where we would like to be, so what do we do to benefit the club the best and it is up to the AFL to ratify that decision."

Carrara is being used for dual purposes -- one, to help the AFL cover the unavailability of the MCG and two, to foster growth of the game in the crucial Gold Coast area.

In another significant change to the AFL fixture next year, Brisbane and St Kilda are likely to play at Telstra Dome on Easter Thursday.

The 2006 fixture will not be released until the week after the Grand Final.