

The AFL announced that Simonds Stadium won’t be a finals destination anytime soon, despite its recent capacity increase and four new light towers.



Geelong’s newly revamped stadium now holds 34,000 people which is 2,258 more than Adelaide’s AAMI Stadium, who were asked to host last year’s semi final between Fremantle and Adelaide.



However, the AFL have made it clear that finals hosted in Victoria will only be played at the MCG and Etihad Stadium to allow for a maximum crowd.



AFL spokesman, Patrick Keane, told News Limited that their decision to keep Victorian finals in Melbourne is based on capacity and increasing peoples chances of a seat, even if it’s not their team.



"It's just our view on capacity that the largest possible number of people should be able to attend matches during the finals, so therefore we use the MCG and, potentially, Etihad for one final in the first two weeks," Keane explained.



"Etihad has the right to host one final across the first two weeks if there are more than two finals in Victoria scheduled for those two weeks."



Although Geelong’s senior coach, Chris Scott, is less pessimistic and is confident that AFL finals will one day be held at Geelong’s newly revamped Simonds Stadium.



Scott said Geelong Cats knew they weren’t in the running for a home final this year, however he doesn’t believe it’s entirely out of the question.



“Does it completely take it off the table forever? I would be very surprised if that was the case, but no one at Geelong was thinking we’d be in the position to get a home final (this year),” Scott said.

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