CATS HOME FINAL HOPE

How Cook thinks it could still happen:

GEELONG remains hopeful of hosting a final at GMHBA Stadium this year, but is not expecting a decision to be made by the AFL before the end of the season.

The Cats have played one final at their true home ground — a qualifying final loss to Fremantle in 2013.

They have held first spot on the ladder since Round 2.

While the final positions of other Victorian teams and the AFL’s contractual obligations with venues will play a key role in determining where the Cats play in week one, club chief executive Brian Cook said yesterday he was anticipating a positive outcome should all the cards fall Geelong’s way.

“My own feeling is if we play Richmond, Essendon or Collingwood, even if we qualify as the home team, I am sure we will be playing those games at the MCG,” Cook said.

“But if we play an interstate side, that is when there will be — I would hope — some serious consideration given for any of those games to be played at GMHBA stadium.

“I am not sure how the AFL will see that, what I have just said, but I do feel there is a chance that it would work our way.”

The issue of where finals should be played has been a hot topic all year on the back of Geelong’s ability to defy the pre-season doubters and remain a force to be reckoned with after dropping out of the premiership race in stunning fashion last season.

One of the issues the AFL faces is how to schedule four Victorian finals should, for example, the Cats, Collingwood, Richmond and Essendon all qualify as the home team.

That is the best-case scenario for Geelong, given the league could play three of those matches at the MCG.

But Cook said there could be other factors.

“I think what they will do is probably play it on a week-byweek basis,” he said.

“I don’t think they will come out with a definite policy and I think there are so many variables that it would be difficult to actually develop a policy unless it was a broad brushed one.

“The issues the AFL has to deal with are quite varied. The MCG contract is one issue, there are contracts with government and with other stadiums interstate and on top of that the AFL has a leading key performance indicator around attendance, not necessarily around finances.

“We think we can prove that a 33,000 crowd at GMHBA Stadium is equivalent to a 50,000 crowd at the MCG, but it is not a financial issue, it is an attendance issue, so we have got to get over those things first.”