AFL finals ticket sales meltdown leaves Geelong and Melbourne fans outraged

Ben Jensen 28 August 2018 #TicketekFail GEELONG Cats and MELBOURNE Demons fans have been outraged today due to Ticketek’s latest meltdown on the day finals tickets went on sale. The Geelong Football Club sent out texts to membesr and made the following statement: “Tickets for week one finals at the MCG and SCG are set to go back on sale for members of competing clubs at staggered times beginning Tuesday afternoon. Earlier on Tuesday ticket agency Ticketek, which only recently signed a new deal with the MCG and also manages ticket sales at the SCG, was forced to shut down sales after major technical issues. Public ticket sales will now be delayed. New timings are expected to released soon.” UPDATE: At 5:15PM the Geelong Football Club announced the pre-sale for members has been rescheduled to 1PM Wednesday 29 August.

(Source: http://www.geelongcats.com.au/news/2018-08-28/finals-ticketing-update)

The two sides play an elimination final against Melbourne on Friday 7 September at 7:50PM, the Demons defeating GWS today to earn fifth spot and the right to host the final. Note there are no finals played this weekend, with the focus on the VFL, VFLW and the EJ Whitten Legends game. Tickets went on sale for competing club members Tuesday morning (today) at 9am closing at 1pm. General public tickets were to go on sale the same day at 2pm. AFL members have to wait until Wednesday, tickets on sale from 9am to 1pm. More ticket information here: http://www.afl.com.au/tickets/finals/finals-ticket-on-sale-dates

Hopefully there’s no repeat of the crowd violence the last time these two sides play, being a Friday night you’d expect a lot to have been on the drink beforehand. In the VFL the men play Casey Demons in a qualifying final on Saturday 1 September at Casey Fields at 2:10PM and the women play their second semi final the same week as the AFL final, Sunday 9 September at North Port Oval against NT Thunder at a time to be determined. Keep your eye on this page for the finals details as they develop: http://vfl.com.au/finals/

On Sunday Geelong as expected delivered the Gold Coast Suns a belting, winning by 102 points on a sunny afternoon at GMHBA Stadium. The poor old Suns were never in the contest but put up a little bit better effort than the Dockers did last weekend. Tom Hawkins was restricted to two goals but did also score three behinds; the leading goalkickers on the day were Patrick Dangerfield with four, Tim Kelly with three while Gary Ablett, Dan Menzel, Jordan Murdoch and Sam Menegola like Hawkins kicked two.

The Cats got through largely unscathed although Cameron Guthrie was forced from the ground late in the game, recently re-appointed coach Chris Scott saying he would definitely be all right for the Cats’ first final in two weeks (there’s now a week off) and if they played next Friday night in theory he’d be OK. Defender Jake Kolodjashnij wasn’t included in the injury list but suffered a cut to his head after ploughing into fellow tall defender Lachie Henderson’s midriff in the opening minute of the game. Henderson was heavily winded and in the third quarter was heavily bumped but again OK. Gold Coast made one late change with Ben Ainsworth left out with a hip injury, replaced by emergency Josh Schoenfeld.

Unfortunately both VFL sides lost at Box Hill on Saturday, the VFL Women losing to a Hawthorn side and the men losing to Box Hill. Both finish in the top four; the men third and women fourth. It was the mens’ first loss since round 6 against Collingwood in May and cost the Cats a home final. The women have only lost three games for the season and today was their first loss since round 9 against NT Thunder in early July.