Fixture 2025 AFL Fixture

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What we know so far.

Opening Round = GWS (A) at ENGIE Stadium on Sunday, March 6 (3.20pm)

Round 2 = Western Bulldogs (A) at the MCG on Friday, March 21 (7.40pm)

Round 4 = Carlton (H) at the MCG on Thursday, April 3 (7.30pm)
Round 5 (Gather Round) = Sydney (H) at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, April 11 (7.40pm AEST)
Round 6 = Brisbane Lions (A) at the Gabba on Thursday, April 17 (7.30pm)

Round 9 = Fremantle (A) at Optus Stadium on Thursday, May 8 (8.10pm)
ANZAC Day Round 7 as well, looks like Round 1 will be at home and R3 will be our bye
 
A bit bummed that we won’t be playing in Melbourne on Mother’s Day weekend (that being the week of our Thursday night game at Freo). That was going to be my (hopefully) yearly trek over the border. Oh well. You can’t have everything in life.
 
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So what is the AFL fixture rule for where you finish last season on the ladder?
Clearly they want us to play top sides for the dollars. What should we expect after finishing outside the eight?


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So what is the AFL fixture rule for where you finish last season on the ladder?
Clearly they want us to play top sides for the dollars. What should we expect after finishing outside the eight?


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
The 'weighted fixture' generally assumes that you'll play certain sides twice according to where they finished on the ladder the previous season and is broken up into 3 groups of 6.

So if you finished in the bottom 6 in 2024, you should expect to double-up against other sides who finished in the bottom 6 in 2024, and the same for the middle bracket and the top 6.

The top 6 is determined according to the standings after finals.

If the AFL wants to stick to its weighted fixture, we could expect something similar to what the Swans or Dogs got this season, after finishing 8th and 9th respectively in 2023. The Swans played twice against 2 top 6 teams, 3 middle 6 teams and 1 bottom 6 team, whereas the Dogs played twice against 2 top 6 teams, 2 middle 6 teams and 2 bottom 6 teams.
 
Taking from PonsfordMagpie's post, what we now know

Opening Round = GWS (A) at ENGIE Stadium on Sunday, March 9 (3.20pm)
Round 1 = presumably home given away games OR and R2, likely Sat 15th
Round 2 = Western Bulldogs (A) at the MCG on Friday, March 21 (7.40pm)
Round 3 = almost certainly a BYE
Round 4 = Carlton (H) at the MCG on Thursday, April 3 (7.30pm)
Round 5 (Gather Round) = Sydney (H) at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, April 11 (7.40pm AEST)
Round 6 = Brisbane Lions (A) at the Gabba on Thursday, April 17 (7.30pm)
Round 7 = Essendon (H) at the MCG on Friday, April 25 (3:20pm)
Round 8 = TBC (1-4 May)
Round 9 = Fremantle (A) at Optus Stadium on Thursday, May 8 (8.10pm)
Round 10 = TBC (15-18 May)
Round 11 = North Melb (A) at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, May 24 (7:35pm)***
Round 12 = TBC (May 29-June 1)
Round 13 = Melbourne (A) at MCG on Monday, June 9 (3:20pm)

***Carlton v GWS earlier same day, same venue 1:20pm
 
The bye could be either round 1 or 3.

No one has a bye in Round 1 as the AFL want it to be a full round.

So what is the AFL fixture rule for where you finish last season on the ladder?
Clearly they want us to play top sides for the dollars. What should we expect after finishing outside the eight?

The exact rule for sides that finish in the middle 6 like we did is:

2 or 3 against other sides in the middle 6 (Bulldogs, Carlton, Freo, Essendon, St Kilda)
1 or 2 against sides in the top 6 (Brisbane, Sydney, Port, Geelong, Hawthorn, GWS)
1 or 2 against sides in the bottom 6 (Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, West Coast, North, Richmond)
 
No one has a bye in Round 1 as the AFL want it to be a full round.



The exact rule for sides that finish in the middle 6 like we did is:

2 or 3 against other sides in the middle 6 (Bulldogs, Carlton, Freo, Essendon, St Kilda)
1 or 2 against sides in the top 6 (Brisbane, Sydney, Port, Geelong, Hawthorn, GWS)
1 or 2 against sides in the bottom 6 (Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, West Coast, North, Richmond)
Bye in round 3 it is then.
 

No one asked for Sunday night football. It's been tried and tested about 10 years ago and was a complete flop.

I remember the backlash it received in 2014 when they experimented with it and no one turned up in the middle of winter.

Collingwood and Carlton got a subpar crowd of 40,000 from memory.
 
Not as bad as it seems as they are all either Perth based or adjacent to holidays/special events. ANZAC Eve, KB Eve, Easter, Gather Round etc.
Now that you've explained it, it doesn't sound as bad.

Nevertheless, no one asked for Sunday night football. It's all being driven by the broadcasters.
 

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No one asked for Sunday night football. It's been tried and tested about 10 years ago and was a complete flop.

I remember the backlash it received in 2014 when they experimented with it and no one turned up in the middle of winter.

Collingwood and Carlton got a subpar crowd of 40,000 from memory.

Just over 40k - 40,939 in 2014. The worst Coll v Carl H & A crowd at the MCG in history.
 
We both had poor seasons that year didn't we? Maybe that also had something to do with it?

Will be interesting to see the crowds this time round though.
Going into that 2014 match, we were 8-5 (6th) and Carlton were 4-9 (12th).

It was our home game.
 
The first 6 rounds are challenging

Dogs will be up for it for their VFL/AFL century game

The early bye is annoying but probably works well to break up the first 6 games into two batches

* Hopefully the VFL bye not scheduled for the same weekend as senior bye. But who knows… wouldn’t surprise me 😂
 

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Fixture 2025 AFL Fixture

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