Sunday games blow chunks
Give me Friday night footy.
We are fast becoming irrelevant. Better get some at the back end of the year
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Tasmanian cops âCrap AFL Fixturesâ
Got to love this
âThe AFLâs decision to schedule a series of eight potentially low-drawing matches for Tasmania in 2023 has been described as âcrapâ by a former premier, as talks over the stateâs own licence drag on.â
Of course itâs low drawing its â â â â â â â North Melbourne and Hawthorn 
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I donât think anyone has mentioned this, but including that weird South Australian round we only travel interstate 5 times, which would be just about the bare minimum (when a single SA round is included).
Definitely some big pros and cons to this draw.
Havenât seen this mentioned on here (unless i missed it), but my old man told me today he saw on the news the other day that they have created a new blockbuster game for Essendon and Carlton, to be played Queens birthday eve each year.
Now unless he misheard it, i didnât know this was going to become a annual blockbuster timeslot for us?
I think so Kings Birthday Eve blockbuster
Not bad, good timeslot the night before a public holiday. Big crowd and ratings Iâd imagine.
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Lansberger in the Herald Sun makes a fair point.
Surely the fairest way to do the fixture is like this.
TOP SIX: Three v top six, two v middle six, one v bottom six
MIDDLE SIX: Two v top six, two v middle six, two v bottom six
BOTTOM SIX: One v top six, two v middle six, three v bottom six
You can still get all your blockbuster/derby games this way regardless of ladder position.
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AFL Fixture 2023: Champion Dataâs in-depth analysis for every team
New Essendon coach Brad Scott has been handed an early Christmas present, with the Bombers receiving the easiest fixture of any side.
An in-depth fixture analysis by Champion Data reveals Essendon also has the easiest final five games of the season and has been scheduled to play just six interstate matches â the equal-fewest of any team.
Only two of the Bombersâ double-up games next year are set to come against 2022 finalists, reigning premier Geelong and preliminary finalist Collingwood.
The other four double-up opponents for Scottâs side are Port Adelaide (11th this year), Greater Western Sydney (16th), West Coast (17th) and North Melbourne (18th).
Essendon finished 15th on the ladder with just seven wins this year, but the Bombers are bullish that they can improve quickly under Scott next season.
While Scott has hit the jackpot, the same canât be said for out-of-contract Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, who faces an uphill battle to push his team back up the ladder.
The Bulldogs â who finished eighth this year before losing an elimination final to Fremantle â copped the second-hardest fixture of any team as well as the hardest first six rounds.
Beveridgeâs side starts the year with matches against Melbourne, St Kilda, Brisbane, Richmond, Port Adelaide and Fremantle.
The Bulldogsâ six double-up opponents are fellow 2022 finalists Geelong, Richmond and Fremantle, along with Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Greater Western Sydney.
The difficult fixture adds salt to the wounds for the Bulldogs, who were also disappointed to be shafted from their marquee Good Friday clash against North Melbourne.
Only this yearâs runner-up Sydney is judged to have a harder fixture than the Bulldogs.
The team the Swans beat in this yearâs preliminary final â Collingwood â has the third-hardest fixture, with Port Adelaide ranking fourth ina contract year for Power coach Ken Hinkley.
Carlton has the second-easiest fixture behind Essendon, facing only two finalists from this year twice, with those being Melbourne and Collingwood.
The Bluesâ other double-up games are against Gold Coast (12th this year), St Kilda (10th), GWS (16th) and West Coast (17th).
HOME AND AWAY
Victorian sides Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs will all play only six interstate matches next year â less than half as many as some interstate teams.
With the extraGather Round in South Australiabeing added to the fixture next year, the Gold Coast Suns will play 13 of their 23 games outside of Queensland.
Two of those are home games which the club will play at Darwinâs TIO Stadium in May and June.
Fellow expansion side GWS will play only eight games at Giants Stadium next season among a total of nine games in Sydney.
The Giants have three other home games scheduled for Canberraâs Manuka Oval as part of a deal with the ACT government which was recently extended for 10 years.
SHORT BREAKS
Collingwood is set to face fresher opponents in a whopping 10 of its first 13 games next year, in what is an interesting fixture quirk.
The Magpies will have had one day fewer than their opponents to prepare for eight of those matches and two fewer days than their opponents in two other matches.
Collingwood will have a longer break than its opponent for just two matches in the early part of the year, while it will be coming off the same break as an opponent just once.
Richmond, St Kilda, Hawthorn and Essendon each face seven opponents who will be coming off a longer break in their first 13 games.
On the flip side, Carlton will enter eight of its first 13 games having enjoyed a longer break than its opponent.
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Ummm, we arrived at that destination years ago.
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Think the clubs media team is awesome, I mean the latest Christmas article on the website has the following:
- Interviews with Brad Scott, Zach Merrit and Sam Draper
Canât even spell the possible future captains name right!!
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I wonder if geelong, or sydney or richmond sit there and goâŚ
geez this draw is a bit tough, I donât think itâs fair, oh noâs the sky is falling cos we have to play a couple of tougher opponents twice.
altho i guess clubs who generally donât need a softer draw to help scrap them into finals every second odd year pay minimal attention to stuff like this and back themselves in that they can win anytime, anyplace and anywhere.
I live in hope one day this club gets back to that thinking, instead of being scared of a bit of paper that says who you have to play.
Some wacky way to fix it all would be to have a 20 team competition and play 19 fixtures each year on an away/home alternating basis and have some sort of finals playoff/draft pick round robin to account for the additional weeks of games.
There are arguments for further diluting the talent pool across the country by adding in a further two teams but another wacky way to combat this could be reduce list sizes and play with 16 on the field.
P.S. Nino isnât the club.
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WowâŚthatâs not just a long bow youâve drawnâŚthatâs one of the longest bows ever.
You post as if the club has been moaning about the draw when, in fact, it appears your evidence is the moanings of a number of posters in a thread on a fan forum.
I know you have a propensity to drink from the half empty cupâŚbut this is really taking it to the extreme.
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How have these preseason predictions of tough/easy compared to the end of season results?
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The fairest way of doing it is each âblockbuster/derbyâ double up is locked in for 18 years, and everything else is random. Once you randomly draw the double ups, you then figure out how to fit it all in across the season, working around any blockbusters you have.
Anything else is effectively deliberately skewing the results to favour some teams. Its creating a deliberate bias. We should call AFL the âhandicapâ football league.
The current system screws everyone except those who missed the eight last year and think they can challenge this year.
Is this the first time we havenât had an interstate trip in the first 2 rounds, for 20 years?
You mean other than 2022, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2005 and 2002? If so, yes.
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we didnt play interstate till round 9 in 2022
Well they do. Richmond burst into tears when forced to play a home game at Marvel. Geelong burst into tears if no final at Cattery⌠So yes, they doâŚ
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