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The biggest story out of the 2016 AFL fixture is that the League has seen fit to schedule a bye round in the week immediately before the start of the 2016 AFL Finals series.
It smacks of a knee-jerk reaction to last season’s Restapalooza Round 23, and in many ways is a bit contrary to the AFL Prime Minister, the Hon Gillon McLachlan’s, response to the issue in the week after the cataclysm. He said something to the effect of incentives are the way to go, and putting a bye in place risks simply moving the yellow line back seven days. Will it stop resting in the final round? There’s only one way to find out.
But it does means the season will end for 10 teams at the end of August, and the finals series won’t begin til the weekend of the ninth of September. What will the League do with that week off? I wrote about a few ideas earlier in the week. The League has created this time, and now it must find something to fill it.
The 2016 AFL fixture, at a first glance, looks as balanced as ever, which means there are going to be some winners and some losers. That’s the nature of things when each team can only play five double ups – the relative challenge of the fixture as far as getting enough wins to make the eight is a function of who your team plays twice.
Hawthorn and Richmond will grace our Friday night screens six times each, while Brisbane, Carlton, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney and St Kilda miss out on the marquee fixture. I had speculated that the Giants, poised to take over the footballing world in the next two years, may be given their first taste of the prime time slot, but alas that will have to wait for another year.
At least my Friday Night Forecasts will be a little more colourful in 2016.
The flip side of no Friday night football for the three Melbourne sides is that they play almost half of their matches (10 of the 21 that have been scheduled thus far) on Sundays – otherwise known as the Graveyard Shift in AFL land. St Kilda should feel a little aggrieved at this, given they showed at times throughout 2015 that they could play some exciting football.
As is now tradition, Collingwood will leave Victoria just five times for the year, although they have been joined at that tally by Geelong, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs. An expansion team (Gold Coast this year) once again gets to travel to the west twice, however this season no team manages to avoid facing the Eagles or Dockers on their home deck. The Eagles won’t be travelling to Tasmania for the first time in a few years, but the Dockers still will be.
There are a few more quirky details that stick out immediately: GWS play just two games under lights in 2016, while Richmond play 13. The Giants, instead, play a dozen games in the twilight spot, with the next most games (seven) during the day. Hawthorn get two Thursday games – the only club to play more than one.
There’s plenty of details to consider, and I’ve got a busy night ahead of me. For now, here’s a detailed table of some of the pertinent details of the fixture, broken down on a club-by-club basis.
It’s too early to make a call, but let’s do it anyway! Who are the biggest winners and losers from the 2016 fixture as far as you can tell? Are you pleased with your club’s draw? What do you think of the bye week before finals?