The highly-anticipated draw for the 2017 AFL season has been released and there will be some matches and occasions that are well worth looking forward to as 17 clubs look to dethrone the Western Bulldogs as reigning AFL premiers.

Each club has now received their schedule for what is expected to be another blockbuster season, each varying in difficulty depending on how your team fared last year.

The fixture was formed on the basis of the 18 teams’ finishing positions from 2016, from which a formula was developed to determine which teams meet twice.

And of course, there will be winners and losers from the 2017 fixture, which will see more Thursday night fixtures and more prime-time exposure for the GWS Giants, preliminary finalists last season and premiership favourites in 2017.

Let’s look at a few of the matches or occasions that you must not miss in 2017.

Round 1
As always, Round 1 is one not to be missed, with Carlton and Richmond to once again get proceedings underway on the Thursday night before Travis Cloke makes his Western Bulldogs debut against his old club, Collingwood, in what promises to be a massive blockbuster the following night.

Following a disappointing 2016 season both personally and for the club, which resulted in him being dropped multiple times, Cloke requested to be traded out of the Magpies, and has sought a fresh start at the Bulldogs under Luke Beveridge.

His presence in the red, white and blue is what will make the Friday night clash at the MCG – where the Bulldogs went four from four in 2016 (including their historic grand final triumph over the Sydney Swans) – all the more intriguing.

But wait, there’s more.

Saturday night will see Essendon welcome back ten of their twelve banned players when they host Hawthorn in a Saturday night blockbuster at the MCG.

It is once again planned that the Bombers fans will march as one from Federation Square to the MCG, like they did before their match against Melbourne last April. As such, it is likely that this match will be promoted as the “Make a Stand” match.

It will also mark somewhat of a new era for the Hawks, who offloaded club champions Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis in the off-season and will therefore resemble a weakened team which will still be led by captain Luke Hodge.

Simon Goodwin will make his debut as Melbourne senior coach when the Dees make the short but dreaded trip across town to Etihad Stadium to face St Kilda, another side expected to make massive inroads in 2017.

There is also a Q-Clash to look forward to, in which Pearce Hanley will make his Gold Coast debut against his former club, the Brisbane Lions, while there will be two NSW versus SA showdowns with the Sydney Swans hosting Port Adelaide at the SCG and Adelaide welcoming the GWS Giants to the Oval.

North Melbourne hosts the West Coast Eagles, who now have Sam Mitchell in their ranks following a stunning turn of events during the trade period, while Fremantle will begin life without Matthew Pavlich when they host the Geelong Cats at Domain Stadium to finish the round.

The grand final rematches, Rounds 2 and 12
The Western Bulldogs and Sydney Swans won’t have to wait long to renew hostilities, with the grand final rematch pencilled in for Friday, March 31 at Etihad Stadium.

The Dogs will mark their first home game of the season by unfurling their premiership flag, one which was 62 years in the making, before the match. Of course, they defeated the Swans by 22 points in last season’s grand final to break what was, at the time, the longest running AFL premiership drought.

It completed one of the AFL’s biggest fairytales after they were seemingly left in ruins at the end of the 2014 season, after which coach Brendan McCartney and captain Ryan Griffen left the club in disgust.

However, the Swans will be out to ruin the occasion as they seek revenge for their second grand final loss in three seasons, soured by injuries to Lance Franklin and Dan Hannebery which limited their output in the 2016 decider.

They’ll also have a score to settle against the Dogs, having lost their last three meetings against them dating back to early 2015. They are, however, three from three against the red, white and blue at Etihad Stadium.

The Swans won’t have to wait long for their turn to host the return bout at the SCG, which is scheduled for the Thursday night in Round 12.

The Jaeger O’Meara Cup, Rounds 3 and 12
Assuming he returns to full fitness after two seasons on the sideline, new Hawthorn recruit Jaeger O’Meara won’t have to wait long to face his former club, the Gold Coast Suns, with the two teams to meet at Metricon Stadium in Round 3.

O’Meara dropped a bombshell close to the end of last season when he announced that he wanted to leave the Gold Coast, and nominated Hawthorn as his choice of destination.

The Suns made it clear they would seek the best possible outcome, and it wasn’t until the closing minutes of the trade period that O’Meara finally landed at Waverley Park, with the Suns getting pick ten and a 2017 second-round draft pick in return.

Now, come April 9, Suns fans will want to make their feelings clear when the Hawks travel to the holiday strip for the first time in nearly three years.

As for the contingent of Hawthorn fans in Queensland, it will be their only chance to see their team in their home state without the need to travel. Otherwise, they will have to travel to the MCG for the return bout in Round 12.

Easter Round
A massive Easter Round kicks off with the West Coast Eagles hosting the Sydney Swans on a Thursday night in Perth, and concludes with Hawthorn renewing hostilities with the Geelong Cats at the MCG.

The Eagles will face the Swans on the back of a five-day break, the first of three for any club this season (Essendon and Collingwood have one each, made possible by ANZAC Day being on a Tuesday this year). Once again, the HMAS Sydney II Trophy will be up for grabs, with the Swans the current holders of it.

Tradition will break on Good Friday, with AFL football to be played on the religious holiday for the first time when North Melbourne squares off with reigning premiers the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium with a starting time of 4:20pm.

While it is an away game for Luke Beveridge’s men, it is one of many blockbusters the club will be involved in as they continue to reap the rewards of their drought-breaking premiership victory in 2016.

The Sunday twilight match between the Brisbane Lions and Richmond will see Justin Leppitsch return to the Gabba for the first time since his sacking as Lions coach last August.

The triple-premiership winning defender has returned to Tigerland, where he served as an assistant coach between 2010 and 2013, and will once again serve in the same role in his second stint under senior coach Damien Hardwick.

Finally, Hawthorn and Geelong will face off in the annual Easter Monday clash, with the two teams to meet for the first time since last year’s qualifying final, which went the way of the Cats after Isaac Smith missed a shot at goal after the final siren.

Anzac Round
If you thought Easter was huge, then the Anzac Round will be bigger.

It kicks off with Port Adelaide hosting Carlton at the Oval on the Friday night, in what will be either club’s only match in the premium time slot for the season and the Blues’ first match in the City of Churches since late 2014.

The first of the two Sydney Derbies will take place on the Saturday night, as will the annual Len Hall Tribute Match which in 2017 will pit Fremantle up against North Melbourne.

The Sunday twilight fixture will see Hawthorn face the West Coast Eagles in the most unimaginable way possible, as the Hawks face former hero and new Eagle Sam Mitchell for the first time.

The prospect of Mitchell joining the Eagles appeared extremely unlikely when the season concluded, but a sudden turn of events during trade period turned things upside down and the 2008 premiership captain ended up relocating to Perth.

For the Hawks faithful, it will be their chance to bid a proper goodbye to the man they had grown to love since he joined the club in the famed 2001 draft, in which they also landed current captain Luke Hodge.

The Anzac Eve match between Richmond and Melbourne will once again feature, this time being on a Monday night, before Essendon and Collingwood face off in the biggest match of the regular season on the Tuesday.

The preliminary final rematch between GWS and the Western Bulldogs, Rounds 6 and 21
Last September’s preliminary final between the GWS Giants and Western Bulldogs was one of the most watched non-grand final matches in history, with the Bulldogs winning a cliffhanger by just six points to progress to their first grand final since 1961.

Such is the building rivalry between the two clubs, that the AFL has scheduled two matches between the pair for season 2017, the first of which will take place on a Friday night at Manuka Oval in Canberra in Round 6.

It will be the first time the Giants have played a match for premiership points in the AFL’s premium timeslot, as they reap the rewards of their stunning 2016 season which saw them fall just short of a maiden grand final berth.

They certainly could’ve been wondering what might have been had Steve Johnson not been so careless to bump Josh P Kennedy high in the qualifying final against the Sydney Swans and Callan Ward not been knocked out in the second quarter of the preliminary final.

Still, the heartbreak suffered in the penultimate weekend of the season will hopefully be what spurs them on to the ultimate glory in 2017, much like it did for Essendon in 2000 when they won the premiership twelve months after suffering a similarly heartbreaking one-point loss to Carlton in that famous preliminary final.

The rematch is pencilled in for Round 21 at Etihad Stadium, where the Bulldogs will be expected to enjoy the majority of the support – not only that, a host of ex-Bulldogs including coach Leon Cameron, co-captain Callan Ward and former Bulldogs captain Ryan Griffen are set to be in for a torrid time.

Essendon versus Melbourne, Round 6
The Round 6 match between Essendon and Melbourne at Etihad Stadium promises to be spiteful for a large number of reasons only their fans would know.

Not only will it be their first meeting since Round 2 last season, when the Bombers pulled off a massive against-the-odds victory by 13 points, it will also pit new Demons pair Jake Melksham and Michael Hibberd against the club they walked out on in the wake of the supplements scandal.

Melksham joined the Dees during the 2015 trade period but he, along with 34 past and present players, were wiped out from all football activity in 2016 after the Court of Arbitration of Sport found them guilty of using a banned substance in 2012.

Hibberd, on the other hand, was one of twelve players at the Bombers banned for their part in the supplements scandal, and while ten of his twelve now-former teammates have returned to Essendon, the 26-year-old sought a fresh start under new coach Simon Goodwin at the Dees (the other, Tayte Pears, has retired).

Goodwin, who has taken over from Paul Roos as Demons coach, will also come up against his old club where he served as an assistant during the time in which the controversial supplements program took place.

It will also remain to be seen what the latest edition of the Essendon versus Melbourne rivalry throws up. Since 2009, only once has the starting favourite prevailed, and that was when Essendon won by a whopping 148 points early in the 2013 season.

Times may have changed since then, but the bookmakers’ fortunes in respect to this match-up hasn’t. Only the most die-hard Essendon supporters would have been brave enough to back their side to beat Melbourne last season, and that’s exactly what happened.

They will have reason to be confident the Bombers can rack up a third straight win over the Dees in 2017, with this to be their first meeting at Etihad Stadium since 2009. The Dees have only beaten the Bombers once at the venue, in 2006.

The Jordan Lewis Cup, Round 7
Sam Mitchell aside, the other major bombshell to emerge out of the trade period was that of Jordan Lewis, who requested to move to Melbourne despite being contracted to Hawthorn until the end of 2017.

All seemed to be going well between player and club until it emerged Lewis was not happy about how things were unfolding at Waverley Park. The Hawks initially refused to entertain the thought of trading him away, but, despite having already lost Sam Mitchell to West Coast, relented midway through the trade period.

Lewis eventually landed at Melbourne and joins the club at exactly the right time of its on-field development, the Dees having finished 11th at the end of 2016 with ten wins, including that over Hawthorn in Round 20.

He will get thrown into a midfield led by the club’s past three best-and-fairests: captain Nathan Jones (2012-4), Bernie Vince (2015) and Jack Viney (this year).

As well as the continued improvement of Jesse Hogan, as well as the inclusion of ex-Essendon pair Michael Hibberd and Jake Melksham, and with new coach Simon Goodwin on board, there are no more excuses for the Demons in 2017.

As far as the Hawks are concerned, they’ll be keen to prove that they have moved on from the sudden losses of two of their club legends, as they also look to bounce back from a season in which they were dethroned as three-time reigning premiers.

The AFL heads to China, Round 8
History will be made when the Gold Coast Suns and Port Adelaide head to Shanghai, China, for the first match to be played for premiership points outside of Australia or New Zealand, let alone north of the equator.

The world’s most populous country will become just the second foreign country (after New Zealand) to play host to an AFL premiership match, made possible by Port Adelaide’s keenness to establish a presence in China.

No other club was keen to face the Power in any potential match in Shanghai, until the Gold Coast Suns put their hand up to be their opponents. This has come at a cost, though, with Rodney Eade’s men giving up a home game at Metricon Stadium to be part of this history-making event.

While it is officially a Gold Coast Suns home game, the Power will be allowed to “advertise” the match, with their sponsors to appear across the stadium.

The match will be contested at Jiangwan Stadium, which previously played host to a post-season exhibition match between Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions in 2010. The match will start at 1:20pm local time (3:20pm in Melbourne), allowing the Seven Network to televise the match live into Australia.

In a normal departure from tradition, both clubs will then have the bye in the round immediately after (round nine), rather than join the other 16 clubs on their weeks off (rounds 11-13).

Also in Round 8, the second annual Country Game between Essendon and the Geelong Cats will take place, with the match to start at 7:25pm. This is a departure from last season, when it was held in Round 4, with the AFL keen to make the most of the fact that the country leagues have their bye on this weekend.

Brett Deledio versus Richmond, Rounds 9 and 18
It appeared inevitable Brett Deledio would leave Richmond at the end of 2016, but not in the way many expected him to.

During the trade period, it seemed almost certain Deledio would head down to Geelong, with the Cats offering Josh Caddy as part of a proposed straight swap. But when that deal fell through, the GWS Giants pounced and landed their man within the final minutes before the 2pm deadline last Thursday.

Deledio has joined the Giants at exactly the right time of their development, with the club favourites to win their first premiership in 2017. Whether or not they can handle that pressure remains to be seen.

The Tigers will not only have nightmares facing their former hero, they will also confront the Giants for the first time since posting the season’s lowest score, 3.5.23, against them in Canberra last July.

It will, however, be their first trip to Spotless Stadium since they racked up a 113-point win in mid-2014, in which Jack Riewoldt booted 11 majors, more than double of what the entire Giants side managed – 5.11.41 – on that dirty Saturday afternoon.

This time around, though, Brett Deledio might just about prove to be the difference here. His homecoming will come in Round 18, in what will be the Giants’ only match at the MCG in 2017 and their first since Round 1 last season.

Sir Doug Nicholls Round
For the first time since 2014, the AFL’s Indigenous Round will kick off on a Thursday night, with the Geelong Cats and Port Adelaide to be given that honour when they face off at Simonds Stadium for the first time since 2013.

That match will also indirectly mark a decade since the Cats won the 2007 premiership, in which they thrashed the Power by a record 119 points in the grand final, but whether that occasion will even be celebrated is yet to be known.

Friday night sees the resumption of the modern-day rivalry between the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn, with the Marn Grook trophy to be contested by the two clubs in front of what is expected to be a sell-out crowd at the SCG.

That all leads up to the big match at the MCG on the Saturday night, which sees Richmond face off against Essendon in the annual Dreamtime at the G match.

Meanwhile, Eddie Betts will once again get his chance to shine when his Adelaide Crows face Fremantle at the Oval. Could it be possible that he kick the goal of the year in Indigenous Round for the third consecutive year?

Jake Carlisle versus Essendon, Round 17
Twenty-one months after being traded to St Kilda, during which he served a twelve-month doping suspension, Jake Carlisle will finally face his old club in what promises to be a spiteful Friday night showdown at Etihad Stadium.

Carlisle’s move from the Bombers to the Saints during the 2015 trade period was later met with controversy after a video emerged of him snorting wide powder on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair.

He later received a two-match suspension as part of the AFL’s illicit drugs policy, which was later overwritten by the aforementioned season-long ban he and 33 other past and present Essendon players copped as part of the supplements scandal.

The match is St Kilda’s home game, which means he will more than likely receive more support from the crowd than he would if it were an Essendon home game. It will be the only time the Saints and Bombers clash this season.

The Pride Game, Round 18
Following its success last season, the Pride Game between the Sydney Swans and St Kilda will return in 2017, with the second edition of the game to take place at the SCG in Round 18.

Once again, the match is set to celebrate sexual diversity, gay marriage, and other various LGBT issues, with the 50-metre arcs on the field to be painted in rainbow colours to celebrate the occasion.

Should he hold his place in the Saints’ line-up, Tim Membrey will return to the SCG for the first time since leaving the Swans (where he played just one match in two years) at the end of the 2014 season in search for better opportunities at St Kilda.

For the Saints, the match will provide an acid test of their on-field development, and will be their second meeting against the Swans in 2017 (after previously facing off in Round 9 at Etihad Stadium).

Cam McCarthy versus GWS, and the Dion Prestia Cup, Round 19
It was one of the biggest issues of the past fourteen months – Cam McCarthy requested a trade home to WA at the end of the 2015 season citing homesickness, only for the GWS Giants to continually knock it back.

McCarthy had burst onto the AFL scene that year, forming a dangerous partnership up forward with Jeremy Cameron after making his debut in the final game of the 2014 season against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

But as talented and hard-working as he was, deep down he was missing his family at home and that was the catalyst for him requesting a trade to Fremantle at the end of the year.

Despite the seriousness of the issue, the Giants refused to entertain the thought of trading him away from the club, stating that they would not release a contracted player like they had done with Tom Boyd at the end of 2014.

Eventually, McCarthy sat out the entire 2016 season and he was finally traded to Fremantle during this year’s trade period.

There, he is expected to fill the huge shoes left by retired veteran Matthew Pavlich, but it will remain to be seen whether he can stand up to the rigours of AFL football again after such a long time out of the game.

For his new club, it will be the first of two trips to the Harbour City they will have to make within three weeks, with the Dockers to play the Sydney Swans at the SCG barely a fortnight later.

Also in Round 19, Dion Prestia will face his old club when Richmond travels to the Gold Coast for a Saturday night showdown against the Suns.

It will be just the second time the Tigers have played at Metricon Stadium since it was redeveloped in 2011, and with the head-to-head between the two clubs at three wins apiece, the stakes will be very high.

All the intra-state derbies
And of course, there are the eight intra-state derbies that must not be missed in 2017, with two each of the Q-Clash, Sydney Derby, Showdown and Western Derby to take place during the season.

* QClashes: Rounds 1 (Gold Coast Suns) and 21 (Brisbane Lions)
* Sydney Derbies: Rounds 5 (Sydney Swans) and 17 (GWS Giants)
* Showdowns: Rounds 3 (Port Adelaide) and 20 (Adelaide Crows)
* Western Derbies: Rounds 6 (West Coast Eagles) and 17 (Fremantle)

NOTE: Teams in parentheses denotes the home team for each derby.

Those are some of the matches and grudge showdowns that you will not want to miss in 2017!

For many AFL fans, the countdown has already begun to Thursday, March 23, 2017, when the season will open between Carlton and Richmond at the MCG.