Just a thought - bears no relevance

[Sainter_Dad]

The FIXture for this year was supposed to be based on us (as a middle 6 team last year) playing a minimum of one and maximum of two return meetings with clubs ranked 1-6 on the ladder, a minimum of two and maximum of three return meetings with other middle six clubs and a minimum of one and maximum of two return meetings with clubs ranked 13-18.

The results of the year (assuming no movement into and out of the eight, paints a different picture.
We had:
4 return games against the top 8 teams; and
1 return game against a mid tier team (NM)

In fact we have the worst ratio of games against top 8 teams:
12 - St Kilda
11 - Adelaide
11 - Brisbane Lions
11 - Essendon
11 - Geelong
11 - Sydney
10 - Fremantle
10 - Gold Coast
10 - Western Bulldogs
9 - Carlton
9 - Greater Western Sydney
9 - Hawthorn
9 - North Melbourne
9 - Port Adelaide
9 - Richmond
9 - West Coast
8 - Collingwood
8 - Melbourne

Now it makes sense that the Top 8 teams would have a slightly lower percentage of Top 8 games because they cannot play themselves, and that by losing to the Top 8 teams, teams like Brisbane and St Kilda make those teams Top 8, but it seems that the FIXture has had more of an impact this year than I have noted in the past, ie GWS, Haw, Rich, WCE only played 2 extra games against fellow Top 8 teams and Coll and Melb 1 extra game.

St Kilda played 4, Brisbane 3 and Carlton a measly 1

Brisbane should feel most aggrieved - finishing last but getting 3 against the top 8
Adelaide, Geelong and Sydney all finished in the top 6 teams and got their right whack, but FFS - 4 return games against eventual Top 8 teams and one Top 8 aspirant leaves me wishing for the days of two games against each team.

This also tells me that from the teams outside the top 4 - Discount Melbourne, Fear Geelong.

This is also borne out by the following quote:

If you use the NFL-style Strength of Schedule (SOS) calculations, this is how it looks.

The higher the decimal, the harder the schedule. This does not factor in travel or anything else other than W/L records.

St Kilda .549
Geelong .533
Adelaide .530
Essendon .524
Sydney .514
Brisbane .511
West Coast .509
Carlton .501
Fremantle .501
Port Adelaide .497
Western Bulldogs .492
Richmond .491
Gold Coast .490
GWS .481
Collingwood .476
North Melbourne .474
Hawthorn .471
Melbourne .458

[perfectionist]

It's the jinx!

[Toy Saint]

It's not a jinx it's fixed, that's why it's called a fixture.

It used to be called the draw, because it was drawn from a hat.

[Premium89]

Is that looking at top 8 teams from last years ladder?
Or the top 8 teams heading into this years finals series?

Would be a bit of a furphy if you're saying we played 12 against this years top 8, as they couldn't possibly know that when they put the draw together.
Though I guess it would show that we've had the hardest 2018 draw, given how teams have ACTUALLY played, versus where they finished last year.

[Sainter_Dad]

Is that looking at top 8 teams from last years ladder?
Or the top 8 teams heading into this years finals series?

Would be a bit of a furphy if you're saying we played 12 against this years top 8, as they couldn't possibly know that when they put the draw together.
Though I guess it would show that we've had the hardest 2018 draw, given how teams have ACTUALLY played, versus where they finished last year.

This years top 8 (assumed).

I think that I said it was not a design flaw - just a happenstance. It was to show that just the 5% difference can change a lot of things - and that we had played (on average) significantly harder games this year to last.

As I said - Just a thought - bears no relevance - and certainly not a conspiracy. I also said that by losing to these teams, we have in fact made it so that they were further up the ladder.

Of more interest is say Melbourne, who had only 1 extra game against fellow top 8 teams v Geelong who also had 4.

Although - having said that - we still had 3 against 2017's eventual Top 8 in that year - but the spread seemed a bit more even:
12 - Fremantle
11 - Brisbane Lions
11 - Carlton
11 - Collingwood
11 - Greater Western Sydney
11 - Hawthorn
11 - St Kilda
11 - Western Bulldogs
10 - Adelaide
9 - Geelong
9 - Gold Coast
9 - Melbourne
9 - Port Adelaide
9 - West Coast
8 - Essendon
8 - North Melbourne
8 - Richmond
8 - Sydney

Furthermore:
It looks worse for some and much better for others if you take the past two years into consideration:
Top 8 Return Matches
2017 2018 Total
3 - - - 4 - - - 7 - St Kilda
3 - - - 3 - - - 6 - Adelaide
3 - - - 3 - - - 6 - Brisbane Lions
4 - - - 2 - - - 6 - Fremantle
2 - - - 4 - - - 6 - Geelong
4 - - - 2 - - - 6 - Greater Western Sydney
3 - - - 2 - - - 5 - Hawthorn
1 - - - 4 - - - 5 - Sydney
3 - - - 2 - - - 5 - Western Bulldogs
3 - - - 1 - - - 4 - Carlton
3 - - - 1 - - - 4 - Collingwood
1 - - - 3 - - - 4 - Essendon
2 - - - 2 - - - 4 - West Coast
1 - - - 2 - - - 3 - Gold Coast
2 - - - 1 - - - 3 - Port Adelaide
1 - - - 2 - - - 3 - Richmond
1 - - - 1 - - - 2 - Melbourne
0 - - - 1 - - - 1 - North Melbourne

[stevie]

How the hell did Geebung get 2 games v the Suns? Easy 8 pts ffs

[The Fireman]

we are still $hit

[Sainter_Dad]

But to use Firey's eloquence - If we played more s*** teams - we may not have been as s***!

[The Fireman]

But to use Firey's eloquence - If we played more s*** teams - we may not have been as s***!

haha..good in theory

[Otiman]

I'd rather play higher quality sides during a rebuild phase. Sets a much higher standard and exposes us to high performance weekly.

[The Fireman]

I'd rather play higher quality sides during a rebuild phase. Sets a much higher standard and exposes us to high performance weekly.

+1

[saintbob]

Yep we had a s*** draw, but we still should’ve won more than 4.5 games!!

Richmond on the other hand had the best draw of any premiership team in the last 10yrs, but that was put in place so the AFL could fill their own pockets.

It comes down to the fact that they’ve got 100k members and their average crowd probably beats ours by 30k every week they play @ the G.

[St Loxton]

Interesting perspective Sainter Dad.
As well as injuries and retirements not a lot was going in our favour this season.

[saintspremiers]

Yep we had a s*** draw, but we still should’ve won more than 4.5 games!!

Richmond on the other hand had the best draw of any premiership team in the last 10yrs, but that was put in place so the AFL could fill their own pockets.

It comes down to the fact that they’ve got 100k members and their average crowd probably beats ours by 30k every week they play @ the G.

It’s a FIXture not a draw.

Hasn’t been a draw for donkeys years.

Steven not Stevens.

Safeway not Safeways.

FFS stingerrollyeyes todgertokerbarks4eva

[kosifantutti]

We were premiers of the s*** teams this year.

Unbeaten against Brisbane, Suns and Blues but only got to play each of them once. The Suns had five games against bottom four teams.

1.5/19 against the half decent teams.

[Scollop]

Ladder posistions are fairly spot on. Brisbane deserve to be above us

Lucky we played Brisbane in round 1 rather than round 20.

Lucky we played them before they realsied how well they could play and before every oppo team realsied how bad we were.

They lost about 5 games by under 2 goals.

[David-Lee]

I'm not going praise or bag USA sports but some codes do drafting very well and fixtures are fair year after year.
We need total reform to allow fixture fairness.