AFL’s Round 22 fixture gets a pass mark

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By Michael DiFabrizio, 13 Jul 2010 Michael DiFabrizio is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: AFL, afl draw, AFL fixture, Carlton Blues, Fremantle Dockers, Geelong Cats, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Round 22 fixture

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Ben Warren of the Kangaroos during the AFL Round 01 match between Port Adelaide Power and the North Melbourne Kangaroos at AAMI Stadium, Adelaide.

The AFL yesterday announced the Round 22 fixture, after the decision last year to adopt a “floating fixture” for the final round of the home and away season. The allocations went as expected and, although they don’t guarantee there won’t be headaches, the AFL seem to have got this one right.

The reasoning behind changing the way the round was fixtured was to avoid situations like last year, where a number of finals-bound sides were all scheduled to play on the Sunday of Round 22. This made it hard to fixture the first week of finals at the same time as ensuring clubs get a decent break between matches.

In terms of avoiding the same situation this year, what the AFL have done can definitely be described as a success. But that’s not to say the system is perfect.

So let’s trawl through yesterday’s announcement.

The first game of the round will be Fremantle hosting Carlton at Subiaco. Leaving aside the fact Freo play in Launceston the week before, this makes a fair bit of sense.

Both these sides are almost certain to play finals – something you can only really say about one other game – and given you have to factor in Carlton will travelling back from Perth, it’s almost a no-brainer.

The next day, fans will be treated to a non-stop footy feast and the return of five games on a Saturday, sort of.

Geelong will host West Coast at Skilled Stadium in an early Saturday game. The only real complaints with this fixture would come from Dream Team coaches who suspect the Cats might rest a few stars the week before finals.

Then it’s Hawthorn and Collingwood at the MCG in another Saturday afternoon blockbuster, Adelaide and St Kilda in a twilight AAMI Stadium meeting and two night matches – the Western Bulldogs and Essendon at Etihad and Brisbane and Sydney at the Gabba.

All those matches feature at least one side in September calculations, so you can understand having them on the Saturday.

The most intriguing two games were always going to be the Sunday games, however. This is because, well, it’s almost as if the AFL expect these teams to not feature in September.

Richmond and Port Adelaide both sit in the bottom four presently and it is incredibly unlikely they’ll rise up to make the eight (although you could make a joke about the Tigers finishing ninth at this point). Holding their clash on the Sunday is the logical choice.

Having said that, though, the AFL have slotted them in for the 2pm game. North Melbourne, who currently sit ninth on the ladder, play Melbourne in a twilight fixture after that.

So, basically, the final game of the round – the game that should really have no bearing on finals at all – features a team that right now is a legitimate chance to make the finals.

If there is a fault in the fixture announced yesterday, having North play in a Sunday twilight game is it.

Although that’s not the end of the world. Should North make the finals, you could conceivably slot them in for either the Sunday afternoon game or the Saturday night game (provided it is in Melbourne so no interstate travel is involved).

I wrote this time last year, with three top four sides all on a fixturing collision course, that the AFL needed flexibility for its Round 22 fixture.

It’s fair to say that’s what it has gotten.

Follow Michael on twitter @mdifabrizio

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The Crowd Says (10) | Page 1 of Comments

Alissa said | July 13th 2010 @ 2:43am | Report comment

I think it’s a joke. Scheduling it before the season starts means it’s more random – and more fair. To schedule it with the season’s results in mind can mean that it’s more prone to fixing and favouritism. It’s been long speculated that the AFL (and the VFL before it) make certain decisions based on favouring certain teams – and this strategy is ripe open to abuse.

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- Joel said | July 13th 2010 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
  
  I think you’re confused, have you looked at a fixture at all this year? If you had, you’d know the fixture was decided last year, it’s only the scheduling for the last round that has been decided now. The reason for that is to allow for fairer scheduling of finals matches, so the participating clubs can get an even break.
  
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- Michael DiFabrizio said | July 13th 2010 @ 7:00pm | Report comment
  
  Alissa, cheers for the comment. It should be pointed out though that the teams and venues were always locked in so I’m not sure that Round 22 is any more open to favouritism than any other round of the year.
  
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Justin Rodski said | July 13th 2010 @ 7:40am | Report comment

I think the concept has worked pretty well. I wonder if they could have delayed it two more weeks to possibly have a more definitive outlook on the top 8.

But then again, as I wrote a week ago, the top 8 wont change from here, so in the end, although they’ve shown a complete lack of faith in North Melbourne making the finals, the AFL also probably got it right.

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Redb said | July 13th 2010 @ 10:17am | Report comment

Looks Ok. I guess some Nth Melb fans might take offence

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Mathew said | July 13th 2010 @ 12:27pm | Report comment

The two Sunday games have teams from last year’s bottom two, so you could say that round 22 could have been fixtured virtually the same way had it been done last year along with the rest of the draw. That said, I don’t think Fremantle would have been given the Friday night gig at the end of last year

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- Michael DiFabrizio said | July 13th 2010 @ 6:56pm | Report comment
  
  Yep, Freo do not play a single game at the MCG this year. Something tells me the AFL definitely thought finals were beyond them.
  
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HK47 said | July 13th 2010 @ 5:11pm | Report comment

North Melbourne fans will and should be a bit pissed about this. The bigger issue for me is teams playing other teams twice, when they haven’t played others once yet. For example, st. Kilda has played Fremantle and is going to play Collingwood twice, before they face the hawks for the first time. The AFl should draw up the first 15 rounds, (17 come 2012, either 16 or 17 next year) first, so that all teams play each other once, before playing another team twice..

If it had been scheduled last year, my matches would be, Friday: Adelaide vs. Saints (top 4 contendors and saints have to travel), Saturday Afternoon. Collingwood vs. Hawthorn, Geelong and West Coast (3 of the 4 are top 4 contendors and there were finals speculation about wcoast), Sat twilight, Bulldogsvs. Essendon (Bulldogs favourites for a top 2 spot and Essendon may have made the finals) Sat Night Fremantle vs Carlton and Brisbane vs Sydney (none except Brisbane was expected to make finals, but no travel for them meant it was ok. Sunday: North vs. Melbourne and Richmond vs. Port.

All and all pretty similar, just a few speculations, which while seemed likely at the time, have not come to rise.

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- Michael DiFabrizio said | July 13th 2010 @ 6:58pm | Report comment
  
  Good call, HK47. Teams playing for the first time in Round 20 or 21 just seems plain wrong. So does teams playing two games within ten or so weeks. The AFL needs to go back to the old system on that one.
  
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andy g said | July 13th 2010 @ 10:21pm | Report comment

its ridiculous to get upset about an unfair draw for the final round, the entire afl draw is unfair. the concern shouldnt be about a fair draw over 22 weeks, just ensuring maximum breaks for teams that earn it.

and thats the afl defence for the kangaroos scheduling – if they make the final, and its a big if, it’ll probably be 8th. and if one team gets a less favourable draw, it should be 8th spot.

if the afl were serious, they’d have utilised the benefit of time difference and played a friday night double header in melbourne and perth, followed by 5 saturday games. but maybe the tv networks that dominate the fixturing wouldnt have gone for it.

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