Richmond coach Terry Wallace says it is about time his team got the opportunity to have home-ground advantage when playing non-Victorian clubs.
Wallace, speaking on Tuesday ahead of his side's trip to face Port Adelaide on Saturday, says he cannot understand why his team consistently seems to face the non-Victorian teams away from home more often than in Victoria.
The Tigers meet Port for the 16th time on Saturday since the Power joined the competition in 1997, yet it will be the 11th time they have met at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide.
It is the only time the teams meet this year and the Tigers find themselves in a similar predicament in two weeks when they meet West Coast for the only time this season - at Subiaco.
"I hope it won't go on for year after year," Wallace said of his club's fixture imbalance against Port Adelaide.
"We are hoping for a better run than that."
Wallace pointed out that his team enjoys less home games against non-Victorian clubs this year than any of the other 10Victorian clubs.
Such games are vital for the Victorian clubs because unlike the non-Victorian clubs they only get a handful of genuine home games each year due to the high number of all-Victorian matches during the season.
"We were the 16th side in the competition (last year) and yet we play less games against interstate sides in Victoria than any other side in the competition," Wallace said.
"The premiers (Geelong) play five games against interstate teams in Victoria this year versus our three yet they won it last year and we came last so you would think it would be the other way around."
"You would think if there were any favours they would go to the 16th side so there seems to be a little bit of an imbalance there."
Richmond's upcoming interstate trips also come at a time when the club is fighting to stay in touch with the top eight. Last week's win over Melbourne keeps the club just six points adrift of eighth-placed Carlton, the Tigers' opponent after this weekend's clash with Port.
And with other winnable games to come against the Eagles and Essendon in the next four weeks, Wallace says the next month will decide the Tigers' fate in 2008.
"If we want to have any say in having a strong second half of the year, the next month is really important to our footy club," he said.
But Wallace - whose side will again be without injured defenders Will Thursfield and Jake King and skipper Kane Johnson this week - says the club's immediate challenge is to win successive games for the first time since late 2006.
"One in a row is not a platform for anything at all," he said.