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Two big pieces of news on the 2017 AFL Fixture – Round 1 is locked in, and it’s been reported by The Herald Sun that we’ll have Good Friday footy for the first time.
First, let’s hop into Round 1. Here’s what’s being reported as the fixture for 2017’s opening weekend:
Thursday, March 23
Carlton vs Richmond, MCG
Friday, March 24
Collingwood vs Western Bulldogs, MCG
Saturday, March 25
Sydney vs Port Adelaide, SCG
North Melbourne vs West Coast, Etihad Stadium
Gold Coast vs Brisbane, Metricon Stadium
Essendon vs Hawthorn, MCG
Sunday, March 26
Adelaide vs GWS Giants, Adelaide Oval
St Kilda vs Melbourne, Etihad Stadium
Fremantle vs Geelong, Subiaco
The Carlton vs Richmond season-opener is something we’ve grown pretty used to in recent years and it’s no surprise to see it as the first fixture on the list once again.
The Bulldogs will begin their premiership defence against the Magpies on the Friday, and assuming he can break into their best 22 over the course of the off-season, Travis Cloke will play his first game for his new side against his old one.
The ‘Q-Clash’ will be the only state derby of Round 1, with Gold Coast’s new recruit Pearce Hanley set to line up against his old side on Saturday, while Essendon’s banned players will return to action on the big stage – a Saturday night blockbuster at the MCG against an old enemy in Hawthorn.
GWS will enter the season as premiership favourites in the eyes of many but if they want to maintain that favouritism they’ll have to find a way to get their first ever win against Adelaide on the Sunday.
St Kilda and Melbourne will also face off that day in a battle of the up-and-comers, possibly setitng the tone for what could be a thrilling push into finals for both sides.
For the first time in several years the fixture doesn’t start on the Easter weekend, in fact, it starts well before – but when Easter does roll around it’s believed there’ll be an AFL match on Good Friday for the first time.
North Melbourne will be involved, having campaigned heavily for a number of years to start up a Good Friday blockbuster – and as a North fan, I’d say it’s a deserved reward. We invented Friday nights you know. Before we got involved, people just went straight from Friday arvo into Saturday morning.
Seriously though, the vast majority of footy fans, myself included, will be glad to see some footy come to Good Friday. It’s believed that the Western Bulldogs will be North’s opponent in this historic match, but the fixture is reportedly set to be rotated between different clubs from year to year.
Big fan of that policy. At least, I will be when they start doing it for the season opener, Dreamtime at the ‘G, ANZAC Day, Easter Monday, Queens Birthday, et cetera et cetera as well.
Got to be all one way or the other there in my view – North Melbourne and the Bulldogs have both put in a lot of work campaigning for this time slot, and to shunt them out of the spotlight after a single year would be rather disrespectful in my book.
Otherwise, it’d just seem like the AFL has one set of rules for big clubs and one set of rules for small clubs – but, we all know that couldn’t possibly be true, right?
Perhaps the best way to do it would be a rotating fixture between Melbourne’s three smallest clubs – North, the Dogs and St Kilda – where the reigning champion each year hosts whichever side didn’t take part in the previous season’s match.
Every other team in the comp has at least one high-profile marquee match booked in year after year. If these three have to split one between them, well, that’s a start at least.
The full 2017 AFL Fixture will be released on Thursday 27 October. Be sure to return to The Roar then for all the details and analysis!