"Ive never really understood the 'home ground advantage' side of things"
Well it depends whether you want an easy answer or a more complex one. Lets go with the more complex one it will test us both. Lets start with last night's game Freo new ground - playing on an unfamiliar ground even though freo had only trained there once they could have worked out a game plan to beat essendon who hadn't set foot on it before but after a period of time playing regularly on there the dockers will work out which side of the ground works best for them - wind, surface etc and also if there are any factors to take into consideration when kicking for goal at either end and how a specific breeze will affect kicking in general play.
But the obvious one is the crowd - when you have your own fans cheering you on it's like riding the crest of a wave at times - your fans drown out everything else - they can also influence umpiring decisions the other thing is that opposition teams may have to travel long distances to even get to your home ground.
Also is that it offers up a ready excuse when you lose etc essendon were beaten by a more committed team who were full of run - but on the other hand you could say essendon at home kicked the crows and away they got kicked by the dockers AND that away at Port the dockers got smacked but at home they whacked essendon. crows away got thumped but at home they thump the tigers.
Some will say - good teams can and do win anywhere - it's too early in the season to use the home ground excuse - melb lost in melb and won in bris also some teams get overwhelmed by the occasion no matter where it's played - crows in last year's gf, melb in 2000 gf interstate teams always bring out the travel excuse when they're losing but you don't hear about it when they're winning - the medics etc have the travel thing worked out to a fine detail from a physical point of view but who could possibly know the psychological part of it at an individual level.
