Blight spills Cat secrets

Home ground advantage worth four goals, says ex-coach

FORMER Adelaide and Geelong coach Malcolm Blight says the reasons Geelong has such a strong home-ground advantage at Simonds Stadium are plain and hidden.

Estimating the venue gave the Cats a four-goal advantage, Blight said it was like other venues that heavily favour home teams — with extras.

The most obvious reason Simonds Stadium is different is its shape.

At 117m wide, it is the narrowest AFL ground despite being longer (170m) than most — including the MCG (160m) and Adelaide Oval (167m).

It has contributed to making Geelong unique in the way it plays and the club that has won the most games in the modern era.

But Blight said other factors had played a part in it becoming a fortress, some obvious, others not.

Among them were: GEELONG has been an outstanding team for more than a decade, which makes going to the ground a challenge in itself; INTERSTATE teams are faced with two trips when they visit — to Melbourne by air and Geelong by road; GEELONG players get to stay in their own beds, arrive rested and to familiar surroundings, much like other teams with home-ground advantage; GEELONG is one of the few teams that trains at its home venue. Teams who call Adelaide Oval, the MCG, Subiaco Oval or Etihad home are restricted in how much they can train at the venues and have headquarters elsewhere; OPPOSITION supporters do not tend to travel to Geelong en masse the way they do to games at the MCG, SCG or Subiaco Oval.

“Part of it is the ground, because you just don’t get the space like you do on every other ground,” Blight said.

“Secondly, I think the history of Geelong, in the last 35 years ... they’ve been very, very good teams.

“And what happens, and I’m a still a big believer in this, is that there’s about a four-goal advantage when you play at home.”

Adelaide assistant coach Scott Camporeale recognised the challenge in the lead-up to tonight’s match.

“It’s obviously narrower, by pure dimensions, but they structure up really well defensively and particularly there,” Camporeale said.

“It’s a field position game. It’s very hard to score, to get it out of your back half if you get locked in there.”