The 2017-18 A-League season will kick off on October 6 in Brisbane, with a blockbuster round to get things underway.
While the season will begin when the Brisbane Roar take on Melbourne City in a Friday night clash, the game of the opening round is the grand final rematch between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium.
» See the full A-League draw here
The first round of the year will also see an F3 derby between the Newcastle Jets, as well as matches between the Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United in New Zealand and the Western Sydney Wanderers and Perth Glory at Spotless Stadium
A Melbourne derby between the Victory and City will follow in Round 2, while the two Sydney clubs, FC and the Wanderers, will meet for the first time in Round 3 on a weekend that will also see rivals the Victory and Adelaide meet at the Adelaide Oval.
Each team will play each other twice – one home and one away fixture – by Round 18, while the final nine rounds of the year will see each side play one match against all other clubs in the competition.
Rounds 20 and 22 will both be split across two weekends to accommodate the clubs competing in the Asian Champions League.
“Developing this draw has been a challenging process to accommodate the preferences of the clubs, venue availability and also the AFC Champions League 2018,” said A-League boss Greg O’Rourke.
“We have added a new feature to this season’s draw with all clubs playing each other twice between rounds 1 to 18. The remaining nine rounds will see each club play each other once in the lead-up to the Hyundai A-League 2018 Finals Series.”
The 2017-18 season will be the first edition of the A-League played under the new broadcast deal, with Network Ten to broadcast one Saturday night match each week and all the finals live on free-to-air TV. Each side will play at least one game shown on free-to-air TV throughout the season.
Fox Sports will once again show every game of the season live on pay TV and their streaming services.
PunchDrunkFC
Roar Rookie
As a Sydney FC season ticket holder the draw is very very poor. Cant understand why we would not open the season with a home game. Then our first home game is the low drawing Nix on a Sunday at 7pm. We have a lot of junior blues members who wont be able to attend. And to be fair Sunday 7pm is not great for me either. After away week 1 we have three home game in a row. Asking fans to back up 3 weeks in a row is a stretch for those with young families like myself. Round 3 home derby then a home game a week later, that will be lowest crowd of the season (well maybe or the the Nix on a Sunday at 7pm). Who comes up with this rubbish. Also CCM away on a Friday night, just no consideration as per usual to away supporters for that. Not one kick off family friendly either. All up a terrible result for us.
JF
Guest
Just an FYI, and most of you are probably already aware, the round of 32 FFA Cup draw is taking place at 3PM AEST today. Cheers..
Redondo
Roar Rookie
A few leagues have tried similar things. Apparently it’s not overly popular in Belgium but it has boosted crowds and tv ratings. But they went from a standard first past the post to this model, whereas we’d be migrating towards first past the post. As cg2430 says, it might be a good compromise. Also means the top 6 teams play each other 4 times a season. Unlike the Belgian system, I’d prefer the top 6 to take their head-to-head points into the top 6 play-offs. That seems much fairer.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Midfielder
Guest
Redondo that system has some merit.
Waz
Roar Rookie
I'm actually not that bothered about the GC game, better than Cairns. And there are thousand of fans down there. The stadium unavailability though is massive this year and they've had to force fit SFC and WSW into a 72 hour window and then there's weeks where there's nothing. It is what it is - the answer is a new stadium.
Rolland
Guest
I was thinking the Same Wollongong have win stadium that sits empty during the summer last time Sydney fc played there we had 11,000 at the ground .guess David Gallop Ian interested in expansion
Caltex Ten & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
Well it has made one Football fan happy. I'll be looking forward to watching HAL live again at Robina. I haven't been to a live game since the demise of GCU.. Not that I'll switch over to supporting the Roar but as a SFC supporter and a lover of football this is good news for me.
Midfielder
Guest
well played
Nemesis
Guest
Compared to the current ALeague calendar, the system i've outlined will only have heavy traffic during August. But, I'm pretty sure Super Rugby is over by August. September, the NRL finals are played, so easy to work around that. All the other months it's no different to current fixture.
CG2430
Guest
This is actually a really good compromise (I hate the finals concept). Harder to do than in Belgium due to stadium availability but not quite as hard with the 'international break'.
jamesb
Guest
That's not too bad. I was expecting Sydney FC and Victory to be around 12 or 13 games, while the Nix have none.
punter
Guest
SFC v MV GF replay should be a cracker, looking forward to the season starting.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Non-alignment with the grassroots is a problem for pro-rel. In a model like the Belgian one, the top 2 NPL teams might have to play in 2 comps at the same time for a period unless that can be fixed i.e. Feb through April. Also, putting the A-League back on a winter schedule would mean lots more games on rugby-ruined cow paddocks. Allianz was a disgrace for the last part of this past season.
Nemesis
Guest
Very astute observation. I'm pretty sure this is where we're heading. In fact, I've even speculated that the season will be fully split into 2 sections: Feb-May: Opening Season: Every team plays every opponent at home once June, July: Mid season break for International competitions Aug-Nov: Closing Season: Every team plays every opponent at home once 1st 3 wks in Dec: Finals & relegation playoffs This would align ALeague better with the ACL and also align ALeague with grassroots.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
It'll be interesting to see a complete home-and-away result after 18 rounds. That's a big improvement. Maybe in the future the A-League could build on that by copying the Belgian Div 1 approach. They split the table into 2 competitions after the home-and-away is complete. The top 6 play home and away again for the championship (taking half their previous points into this comp). That would do away with the finals but retain some of the finals' feel. In Belgium the bottom teams then play home and away, with 3 Div 2 teams included, to decide who is relegated. The A-League could use a version of this as a tester for new A-League teams. For example, the best 2 NPL teams join the bottom 4 A-League teams in a home-and-away series. Maybe no promotion/relegation for a couple of years but it would sure provide an indication of the viability of NPL teams, without the expense of a whole season.
punter
Guest
God acknowledges your thanks.
Fadida
Guest
Jets actually get Friday and Saturday games. Thank God
mattq
Guest
any confirmation whether ONE will go HD?
Nemesis
Guest
All 10 teams get exposure on Saturday night Syd FC = 10 City, Victory = 8 WSW = 6 AUFC, BRI, CCM = 5 Perth, Jets, Nix = 3