To Geelong's surprise, even if some late-season musical chairs in the ladder's upper reaches was to end with the ''perfect storm'' of four Victorian-based games in the first week of September, it's highly unlikely to prompt a repeat of last year's historic first final at Simonds Stadium.
The AFL on Tuesday virtually ruled out Geelong playing another genuine home final due to a desire to avoid the contractual millstone of fixturing two additional home-and-away games at Etihad Stadium the following season should the Docklands venue not see a slice of September action. The stance perplexed Cats chief executive Brian Cook.
''If the perfect storm happens again, and Melbourne sides finished one, two, five and six, you would have to have a look at Simonds again,'' Cook said. ''We would love for the AFL to think Simonds Stadium could be a possible venue.''
A Hawthorn win over Sydney this Saturday night would leave the Hawks, Swans and Cats on 13 wins each, with a Hawthorn-Geelong top-two finish eminently possible. Port Adelaide is currently two games clear in fifth, but has lost three of its past four and meets Collingwood, Gold Coast and Fremantle away and Sydney and Carlton at home before season's end. Essendon and North Melbourne finishing fifth and sixth remains a distinct possibility.
With five-and-a-half rounds to play and the floating round-23 draw still to be tackled, AFL fixturing boss Simon Lethlean did not wish to be drawn on potential finals scenarios. The league maintains it's first rule of finals fixturing is to draw the biggest crowd possible, yet it is keen to avoid adding the complication of scheduling another two games at Etihad to the already labyrinthine task of framing the home-and-away draw.
While the Cats would clearly prefer to play a final at Simonds than Docklands, they reflect on last year's landmark game as a bittersweet affair. The economic benefit to the region was estimated at $5 million, but one of its eight 2014 home games went to Etihad as a result. Geelong assesses the difference in profit between a Simonds and Etihad home game as $500,000.
And, of course, the historic occasion will forever carry the dark asterisk of Fremantle defeating the Cats by 15 points enroute to reaching its first grand final.
While the finals are still five-and-a-half rounds away, Geelong would not be overjoyed to finish in the top two and be asked to play its first final at Etihad rather than the MCG should it draw an interstate team (the Dockers again, for example) and the other three week-one games are deemed to have greater pulling power.
