Bad timing, good luck or good opportunity?

[***MH***]

In what is undoubtedly the match of the round next weekend, the 2nd placed Bulldogs who originally had this game scheduled for Adelaide will be playing against 1st placed Melbourne up in Mackay, Queensland.

What luck for the little regional city to receive one of the biggest games of the year. If Canterbury knew that this game would be 1 vs 2, I'm sure they would have anticipated a 27k+ home game at ANZ. Pity for Adelaide as well for missing out on this game as well, they've hosted this match previously and it has seemed to be well supported.

I believe this is a great opportunity for the Mackay region to promote their CQ NRL bid, and having their stadium sold out for this is going to look great.

Some sour points on this is that the game is on Fox instead of being shown on Nine. Bad timing to have Sydney v Manly on the same weekend though. With North Queensland's fine form this year, I would have thought that Canterbury would have had better marketing success in the Mackay region to play against a Queensland team instead of Melbourne. Instead, Bulldogs will play the Cowboys at Homebush in Round 21 which will be lucky to get a crowd of 17k+.

In any case, I hope Mackay enjoy the big 1 vs 2 game.

 

[Evenflow]

While it might be 1 v 2 i highly doubt they'd get 27k+ in Sydney given the biggest crowd between the sides up there was 23,750 for a final, while the next biggest was 21,756 and another 2 finals at 20,075 and 19,367 (both finals) Regardless of how well Melbourne are going and how other Sydney teams are going, for the most part we'll never draw massive crowds up there being an interstate team.

 

[Paullyboy]

The dogs are number 2 on the ladder, but they are far from the 2nd best side, the storm will pants them.

But yes it is a good game for the people of mackay to get.

 

[Timmah]

While it might be 1 v 2 i highly doubt they'd get 27k+ in Sydney given the biggest crowd between the sides up there was 23,750 for a final, while the next biggest was 21,756 and another 2 finals at 20,075 and 19,367 (both finals) Regardless of how well Melbourne are going and how other Sydney teams are going, for the most part we'll never draw massive crowds up there being an interstate team.

Given the fixture hasn't been played at ANZ in about four years, how you could make any sort of current educated guess is beyond me.

The Bulldogs' average home crowd has increased to over 20,000 per game each year since that time for starters.

The dogs are number 2 on the ladder, but they are far from the 2nd best side, the storm will pants them.

But yes it is a good game for the people of mackay to get.

I think we're probably about 4th best in the comp at the moment - Manly and Brisbane marginally ahead of us.

That said, "Storm will pants us"?

They're missing Slater, and in Round 7 we held them to 12-6 with Slater IN. It's best to actually follow the sport and watch games if you're going to make an assessment.

 

[BranVan3000]

The dogs are number 2 on the ladder, but they are far from the 2nd best side, the storm will pants them.

But yes it is a good game for the people of mackay to get.

Who are the second best side then?

 

[Timmah]

A full strength Manly and also Brisbane are probably second to Melbourne.

Behind them, Canterbury, Cronulla and probably the Tigers, then Souths.

 

[BranVan3000]

A full strength Manly and also Brisbane are probably second to Melbourne.

Behind them, Canterbury, Cronulla and probably the Tigers, then Souths.

Disagree completely. Brisbane haven't even beaten a team that was in the top 8 when they played them.

Dogs have put together some of the most convincing performances I've seen this year

Manly are sporadic as hell, completely unconvincing one week, then decent the next but never reaching the heights of last year

Brisbane will finish the season in 7th or 8th while the Dogs will be 2nd or 3rd

 

[Evenflow]

Given the fixture hasn't been played at ANZ in about four years, how you could make any sort of current educated guess is beyond me.

The Bulldogs' average home crowd has increased to over 20,000 per game each year since that time for starters.

So f**king what? Are you saying you think the game would have drawn over 27k? Obviously both of our opinions would be guesses but if you honestly think it would all of a sudden given the 15 year history of crowd averages between the 2 sides then you're an bigger dickhead than I thought you were.

The Dogs home crowds may have increased to over 20k since that time "for starters" but how much of an increase have they had against interstate sides? I think you can attribute the vast majority of the rise to the Sydney teams you play and also the fact that they're bringing more people as well.

It's also no coincidence your crowds have gone up since moving to ANZ when teams like Parra, Tigers and Penrith are much closer to the venue and can fit much more in not to mention the Rabbits playing out of the ground as well so they're more than likely to travel there also. Now get back in your box.

 

[Timmah]

Our run of outs between R6 and R10 concerned me, that's why I'm confident quite yet on how we're travelling. A win against Melbourne will tell us what we need to know I think, but until then I'm still not sold. I'm bloody excited by what I'm seeing but there's still plenty of room left for improvement.

 

[The.X.Factor9]

OP the ground in Mackay only holds 10k and I read somewhere last week that there were only 800 seats left.

I don't think the opposition is going to change the amount of support coming to the game, however I would have loved for us to play them on our turf.

 

[Timmah]

So f**king what? Are you saying you think the game would have drawn over 27k? Obviously both of our opinions would be guesses but if you honestly think it would all of a sudden given the 15 year history of crowd averages between the 2 sides then you're an bigger dickhead than I thought you were.

The Dogs home crowds may have increased to over 20k since that time "for starters" but how much of an increase have they had against interstate sides? I think you can attribute the vast majority of the rise to the Sydney teams you play and also the fact that they're bringing more people as well.

It's also no coincidence your crowds have gone up since moving to ANZ when teams like Parra, Tigers and Penrith are much closer to the venue, not to mention the Rabbits playing out of the ground as well so they're more than likely to travel there also. Now get back in your box.

Good to see a simple post disagreeing with you based on some evidence draws insults instead of a well reasoned argument.

As for 27k, it would be pushing the upper reaches of possibility if the game was played at ANZ, but it certainly wouldn't be out of the question given a fine Sunday afternoon - 1 v 2 would draw neutrals IMO.

As for increase against interstate sides - yes. Only ONE sub-10k crowd vs ANY team at ANZ since 2008, that was v Cowboys late last year when we were effectively out of the finals race (and so were the Cowboys).

Since moving to ANZ?

We've been played there all bar a couple of seasons since 1999 - it's only in the last two seasons our average has jumped significantly after a couple of relatively poor seasons late last decade.

 

[BranVan3000]

Our run of outs between R6 and R10 concerned me, that's why I'm confident quite yet on how we're travelling. A win against Melbourne will tell us what we need to know I think, but until then I'm still not sold. I'm bloody excited by what I'm seeing but there's still plenty of room left for improvement.

We beat you in rd. 6, and your team improved considerably since then for mine.

 

[typicalfan]

Bulldogs don't have the spine to win imo. Pretenders imo.

Storm, Sea Eagles, Broncos stand out in that department. Tigers and Bulldogs seem to be still short of a premiership winning formula imo.

Manly and Brisbane might not be hitting their straps yet but you don't win comps in June. I think Manly are building nicely, been hit by injury early in the season. Brisbane have a lot of youth, could be the downfall. Sharks have a decent spine but fullback and wingers are a major concern, Souths still yet to put in a good 80 minute performance against a good side.

 

[BranVan3000]

Bulldogs don't have the spine to win imo. Pretenders imo.

Storm, Sea Eagles, Broncos stand out in that department. Tigers and Bulldogs seem to be still short of a premiership winning formula imo.

Manly and Brisbane might not be hitting their straps yet but you don't win comps in June. I think Manly are building nicely, been hit by injury early in the season. Brisbane have a lot of youth, could be the downfall. Sharks have a decent spine but fullback and wingers are a major concern, Souths still yet to put in a good 80 minute performance against a good side.

I fail to see how the Broncos spine is better than the Dogs.

Manly has a great spine, but an average coach. They are basically the Dragons with a better squad. The coach is living in the shadow of his predecessor and can't get the team properly prepared half the time so they show up and put in a poor performance. Occasionally you'll see a glimpse of what they used to be though. Warriors are in the same boat too.

As for Souths; Cronulla, Cowboys, first Dogs game, Tigers.

 

[Evenflow]

Good to see a simple post disagreeing with you based on some evidence

What evidence? The only evidence provided was 15 years of crowd data that clearly shows that the Dogs v Storm just dont draw any sort of decent crowd besides a few games. There's a blatantly obvious reason why the Dogs have taken their last 3 home games Against the Storm to Adelaide and this year to Mackay Tim, do I have to spell out to you why? I'll give you a clue and tell you it's not because the 2 teams trouble Ticketek employees with a massive workload printing out tickets when these 2 teams meet up there.

 

[Usain Bolt]

Storm are a myth without Slater

 

[Evenflow]

Storm are a myth without Slater

Storm are just a myth period.

 

[typicalfan]

Wallace is better than Keating or Hodkinson. Hoffman as good as Barba. McCullough is getting better all the time. Ennis down on form.

Josh Reynolds has been very good but so has Corey Norman.

The Broncos were good enough to get within a game of the Grand Final last year, not much has changed. While Lockyer has moved on the rest of the team has lifted.

Manly have missed Kieran Foran a lot this year, Glenn Stewart missed the first few rounds, Tony Williams now. And they have been there before.

 

[beave]

The myth is that Mackay is being considered as CQ...........

 

[BranVan3000]

Wallace is better than Keating or Hodkinson. Hoffman as good as Barba. McCullough is getting better all the time. Ennis down on form.

Josh Reynolds has been very good but so has Corey Norman.

The Broncos were good enough to get within a game of the Grand Final last year, not much has changed. While Lockyer has moved on the rest of the team has lifted.

Manly have missed Kieran Foran a lot this year, Glenn Stewart missed the first few rounds, Tony Williams now. And they have been there before.

Wallace is better, Hoffman is worse than Barba, Reynolds is better than Norman and Ennis is better than McCullough for mine.

Overall, they both have serviceable spines that are more than achieving their jobs. There is no way you can say one is Premiership material and the other is not.

I've not seen Broncos beat a quality side since arguably the Tigers in rd 6, who started the year very poorly.