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?
George
Roar Rookie
Since when does membership numbers = game attendees? Geelong, for example, has more members than their home ground seats and still seats empty at most games. Now if you had a list of reserved seat members, that would be a different story, but I promise you those numbers will be a lot lower than total membership numbers.
George
Roar Rookie
My point being is your first point will not happen.
The Original Buzz
Roar Rookie
I am all for option two, all of them as a pentathlon type where each sport plays against all the others for points. Also include the moving goal posts just for interest. The highest points win the trophy. Call it the All Round World Sports Championship. Seriously though, I think a bye is a good idea and have all the Club awards or Brownlow / AA awards that weekend. How about a state of origin made up of players from the teams at 9 - 18? Maybe three matches over two days as a lead into the finals. Have two 30 minute halves and charge a reduced nominal entry fee to encourage attendance. Even a Charity match in each state made up of players that have retired would be something. Games like the E.J. Whitten game or the S.A. Slowdown which are always fun games to watch.
hikikomori
Guest
and those who dont make the finals can rest for 5 weeks longer than everyone else, your point being?
Henry
Guest
Freo need to get over this. They are psychologically beaten before the plane lands in Launceston. Time to man up. Hawthorn know it too. Fremantle would be the least respected team we play.
George
Roar Rookie
No way in heck the AFL would let any team rest half a team in the final round with a bye the following week.
hikikomori
Guest
whos to say clubs who have qualified for the finals will now rest players for 2 weeks instead?
slane
Guest
What about the clubs who have more members than there are seats in Etihad? Do we introduce a membership ceiling of 40,000 and force the big clubs down to the levels of the smaller clubs?
Mitcher
Guest
I haven't read the draw, in fact, I'm not even sure what an AFL is. But I'm in strident agreement with Where is Gene. The Swans have once again been gift wrapped the easiest draw ever created. What is it? 18 games against the Dees? Propped up blah. At the expense of Victorian teams blah blah. I love the VFL blah blah. Blerr blerr blah blah. I hate Adam Goodes. But I'm not racist. Period!!!
MJ
Guest
I can see the week off though backfiring. If clubs in the final round are guaranteed finals and have even the most remote injury cloud on a player they'd still rest them thinking the extra week off on top of another the next week would be of more benefit. It would also be a cause for concern (although it will never be admitted publicly, particularly if they are full of veteran players or have a travel schedule mirroring Phileas Fogg) if a team plays early on Round 23, has a 13 or 14 day break until their qualifying final, then has another 13-14 day break until their preliminary final.
MJ
Guest
If the ARU are smart, they'd schedule a home Bledisloe Cup match for the MCG on the Saturday Night.
EddyJ
Guest
There are so many options for the bye before the finals: 1. A lighting carnival over two days for teams finishing 9–18, and the full-match grand final played on Sunday afternoon. Could be called 'The Loser's Cup'. 2. A hybrid rules game (similar to International Rules, except a combination of AFL and Rugby League) – the possibilities are endless: a hybrid game of AFL/Union, or AFL/Soccer, or AFL/hockey, or AFL/water polo, or AFL/lacrosse. I'd like to see that. Or just have an AFL team playing against a Rugby League team (both playing their own rules), and see what happens. 3. Other innovations could be trialled, such as shifting goal posts, where the goals slowly shift in a clockwise direction along the boundary line, and end up at the other end at the end of the quarter (not sure what type of device could do that, but probably some type of pulley system with gears. 4. Charity matches – the best 44 players are chosen from teams finishing 9–18, and divided into two teams, and play off for something. Maybe the two teams AFL-ANZ, and AFL-McDonald's. 5. Booing contests. The one fear that I have is that politicians will now be able to use the bye as a potential polling day – they've always eschewed the idea of holding elections during AFL finals (except for Jeff Kennett in 1999, and look what happened to him) and now the bye means they can bypass that logic and hold elections on that day. But seriously, the AFL has again reacted in a knee-jerk fashion. There shouldn't be a bye before the finals.
Henry
Guest
Fremantles attitude towards going to tassie is shit from the top down - you're already defeated before you get there. Pretty average for a non excuse club.
Shifty Xr
Guest
State of Origin, with teams picked from the bottom 8 sides
mds1970
Roar Guru
For my beloved GWS Giants, it's a 4:30-fest; with more than half our games being twilight fixtures on either Saturday or Sunday. The five teams the Giants play twice are Geelong, Sydney, Port Adelaide, Gold Coast & Fremantle - surely a unique record in being the first team to not play a Melbourne team twice during a home & away season. Western Bulldogs, Gold Coast and Fremantle play at Spotless for the first time; while the round one clash against the Demons is the Giants' only MCG game for 2016. The Giants play their 100th game in the AFL during 2016, and it's a mouth-watering Battle of the Bridge at Spotless Stadium. Having home games against high-drawing opponents Hawthorn & Collingwood should also help the crowd averages. And there's some great games for Canberra. Overall it's a fair draw for the Giants. Certainly a tougher draw than previous seasons, a result of the Giants not finishing in the bottom six this year. Challenging enough that if the Giants make the finals in 2016 you'll know they've earned it & haven't been gifted a finals berth.
Me Too
Guest
Could be right George - what will be unusual is finals clubs probably preferring to play Sunday rather than Friday that week - imagine having a n eight or nine day break, win, have another seven day break. Happened to a lot of. freo players this year and didn't seem to help too much.
hikikomori
Guest
reactionary much?
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Haha! I don't know about the eight. But your boys have been handed a very generous slate.
Tom Baulch
Roar Guru
Essendon's fixture looks so nice!!!! If we can get our act together by next year then BOY OY BOY WOWEE. Top 8 incoming.
Rory O'Connor
Roar Rookie
The most annoying thing about the end-of-season by is the fact that we're gonna have another October GF. What ever happened to that last Saturday in September? The one day in October just doesn't have the same ring to it...