The fixture is out.
Footy fans are already planning their year.
How did you go?
And who have the AFL anointed with a cosy opening?
See full fixture HERE
About John Harms
JTH is a writer, publisher, speaker, historian. He is publisher and contributing editor of The Footy Almanac and footyalmanac.com.au. He has written columns and features for numerous publications. His books include Confessions of a Thirteenth Man, Memoirs of a Mug Punter, Loose Men Everywhere, Play On, The Pearl: Steve Renouf's Story and Life As I Know It (with Michelle Payne). He appears (appeared?) on ABCTV's Offsiders. He can be contacted [email protected] He is married to The Handicapper and has three school-age kids - Theo, Anna, Evie. He might not be the worst putter in the world but he's in the worst four. His ambition was to lunch for Australia but it clashed with his other ambition - to shoot his age.
looks like the Blues have the same draw as last year – apart from not playing the easybeat Tigers twice!! Same ridiculous Monday night v saints, same Friday night v Hawks (although at the G) and a Friday night game v North in July … very very similar to last year… Haven’t checked yet but if North have an easy draw they are overs to finish top 4.
I guess the AFL are reminding the rest of the competition that they’ll let the Bulldogs play in their big competition but will only allow mainly Sunday games at the arse -end of each round! So Bulldogs, start off on the other side of the continent on a Sunday to avoid showing off your promising new recruits to your fans at home that could have helped with memberships.
While I’m dripping with sarcasm, the Bulldogs are probably lucky there aren’t too many games at Ethiad since they make a loss every time they play at ‘home’ on that concrete car-park roof.
Looking at the fixture I think the Hawks have done really well – they are only going to play teams that finished below them on the ladder for the entire season.
Seriously though, the fixture looks very similar to last year, only a few minor adjustments.
Hawthorn are the only club to play 3 top 4 sides twice and have 9 6-day breaks so will have the toughest draw for the 4th time in 6 years but I have no issues with that as I prefer big games to Sunday twilight fixtures.
11 mostly very good games at the MCG, 8 of which are virtual blockbusters.
The only downside is the clash against Essendon is again at Etihad – this would have been huge at the MCG. It wasn’t actually the Kennett Curse it was the Chapman Curse and as Chappy has crossed to Essendon this is now the big game.
Overall I am very happy with Hawthorn’s draw, but at present I am still at peace with the world and am not looking out for icebergs on the good ship S.S. Glenferrie.
Bring it on.
Oh, just noticed that Sydney again have the easiest fixture with only one game against Geelong, Fremantle and their nemesis Collingwood. Were only given 2 against Hawthorn as AFL want to cash in on Buddy issues.
Apart from Hawks, they play Essendon, Giants, Richmond and Port twice.
Hands up if you smell something.
From an Adelaide perspective the draw is as even I could hope for. If we’re good enough we’ll do alright, but if we roll out the same trash as this year we’ll get found out.
First 3 rounds the concern, away to Geelong, Showdown, Sydney. 0-3 start a very real possibility.
Looking very good for Freo – for the first time since football has been played we dont have to play in Tasmania, and we have 22 winnable games.
My thoughts on the draw are as , Neil expressed as a doggies man is it’s inequality .
For people to complain about hand outs to the so called poor clubs have a good look at the draw there must be a equalization tax .
From a , Ad Uni FC perspective we need the lights up ready for night footy at , Uni
Oval for round , 1 there are a host of challenges for us with our ovals so close to
Adelaide oval with parking a problem but a lot of opportunities and hard work awaits
Not sure about our round 11 Thursday night at the SCG against the Cats but at least we didn’t land any Sunday night games. And ANZ still hasn’t been given the flick.
Adelaide has one Friday night game and North has five. Long live the VFL!
So glad Virgin Australia are the AFL’s national carrier (not)!! Received email from Virgin today advising all the footy package details available for the season. Shame they have packages from Perth to Melbourne return for Round 16 clash Melbourne V’s Freo. Hope no one has booked as the game is in Darwin!! Only a few kilometres and time zone out!!! Obviously something the AFL failed to advise Virgin Airlines!!!
Draw OK from a Vic Freo member/banner crew point of view. Looking forward to going to the game against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. Should be special. Not thrilled about Darwin – impossible to get cheap flights!!
Happy about Adelaide coming to Hobart.
Hawks will be on the Gold Coast for some Suns this year. Nice.
Seems weird to be saying this, but the AFL seem to have done a really good job with this fixture given their constraints. They’ve put some thought into a system, said what they were going to do, and done it. The result looks fair to from a football perspective across the draw. Return games based on 3 tiers of 6, but without the anomalies and edge cases of containing all your return games in the group. Looking at RoCo’s weighted draw, the only outliers relative to last year’s final order seem to be Brisbane, Richmond, and maybe Adelaide.
Commercially, looks like Melbourne and Footscray are hard done by, and we’ll have to wait and see whether the league stays true to “win a few (or be worth watching) and get a better draw”, as seems to have happened with North.
From a North POV, couldn’t be happier. Well, actually maybe I could. One more gimme game in the first 5 or 6 would be nice, and we have all 3 of the toughest road trips (WC, Freo, Sydney), but that’s just minor quibbling over a good overall draw. And we’re back on Fridays baby!
I have a bit of sympathy for interstate teams complaining about lack of Friday nights, but only a bit given all the other advantages they get in their home states.
It’s weird when you know that your fixture isn’t only determined by AFL House, but also by the First Council of Nicea. This year the two have co-ordinated well, and created a fixture that doesn’t start out like the Footy Grounds of Oz Contiki tour for our young Giants.
Not only do we have two, yes, two games at our real home ground, but we also have some games where we can be reasonably competitive so our drought may be broken early enough to start generating interest in going to see games from the winner-loving crowds of Sydney.
The Round 1 game at Skoda should be a sell-out and I am really looking forward to it.
From a kid wrangling perspective, it’s pretty good too – a good chunk of Saturday afternoon and twilight games. If junior footy stays on Sundays, it will work well.
Poor form by AFL to have Brisbane play in Tassie, NZ and Adelaide before their first Melbourne game in round 9.
There is a silver lining to having so many Sunday games, I may be able to attend more. I am happy though with the game in Canberra on April 12 for I plan to run the Canberra Marathon the next day anyway!