Round 23 Fixture

We have been given the Friday night.

Think will be huge and a win will secure a finals spot.

BLOCKBUSTER!!

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Surprising…I thought the Blues would have.

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Terrible result. Means we have less of a break than had we been scheduled on Saturday or Sunday.

And once again, the need to have a floating fixture when there’s a bye the next week is… what exactly?

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So channel 7 can pick which games they want to show?

Fark Carlton still got a night slot. Surely they are better suited to a 2am start time so no one needs to watch their trash footy.

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I love it.

Sydney, Saints, Richmond and Port all Friday nights.

Hawthorn Saturday arvo at the G.

Feels like we have returned!

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I reckon a win will see us into the 8 on that Friday then we will be watching all the other games to hope we remain in the finals.

You always did speak sense @redbull.

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Could also put port top 2 or 4. The game will be huge.

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We play Friday night the week before so who cares?
Port have 1 less day break than us

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I guess to maintain interest so that any game which might shut the door on another team’s chances is scheduled later…

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Yes, Port fans will be rabid. SA press during the week will be intense with the spotlight firmly planted on the club. Port players will get a huge boost. Essendon will be up against it big time. Not too dissimilar to Eagles round 14. Would be nice if the boys can blow Port away in the first and take their supporters right out of the equation.

But first, the Hawks

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The other reason why I think it’s inappropriate to have a floating fixture, given the bye week, is that the AFL essentially picks which teams will play late in the round and have clearer picture of exactly what they need to do to make finals / top 4 etc.

On Friday night; we might not know if a win will get us in, or by how much we need to win by.

Sydney and Hawthorn play Saturday night and will have the benefit of knowing the result of our game.

Melbourne and North play (in different games) on Sunday and will have an even greater benefit.

Now I can accept all this if the fixture is actually set at the start of the year, because its unknown at that point which teams will be in contention and would benefit from playing last. But here that is clear and the AFL are playing god with who gets that advantage and who doesn’t. That’s bullsh/t in my view

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The AFL need to feel in control. They should be the only one doing any rigging.

P.S. Return flights Friday + Saturday available $100 TigerAir currently ($138 JetStar). Wait to see if that’s changed by the end of the day!

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I agree that there is no longer a need for the floating fixture for the last round.

It was brought in so that there could be some equality in the break between the last round and the first week of the finals for the teams playing finals.

But then the AFL brought in the ‘gap week’ meaning the the break issue wasn’t an issue. But in typical AFL style they didn’t undo the thing they brought in to fix a problem when the problem was no longer there.

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Does it matter whether or not we (or anyone else) know the results of other games? Everyone needs to win regardless.

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I think we’ll be out of contention by Round 23, so it will be a nice task to ■■■■ up Port, on the way to their finals campaign.

Of course it matters. We might need to win by a particular amount, for example.

Floating fixture = maximising TV viewing. Could see the AFL doing something like this more regularly throughout the season proper, maybe every 4-6 weeks? When looking at some of the snore fests this season it might not be such a bad idea.

Floating fixtures are a great way to annoy the keenest of attendees. Those kind of people need to be removed from the game.