Fixture 2025 Fixture Discussion

[Bucking Beads]

Was considering Gather round but the week before at the MCG against Richmond sounds good.

 

[Gadzorks]

If those two concepts are linked, then it's never been egalitarian.

Have you ever been able to get every game live on FTA? Honestly don't know, but I know it hasn't been the case since at least the late 90s.

All games actually televised on FTA have only been live in Qld/NSW since 2012. Before then Friday nights at a minimum were on a delay.

All Lions/Swans/etc games have only been live and on FTA in Qld/NSW since 2007.

(Don't know about Victorian, SA and WA but I can't imagine they got better details since it was part of the expansion push to get what we've got.)

Pay TV has been subsidising the AFL for decades now. This is not a new thing. Without it the league would be seriously screwed in terms of the amount of money coming in.

Uggghh. Reasonableness. Why are you even here?

 

[McIvor]

Was considering Gather round but the week before at the MCG against Richmond sounds good.

We considered two games to attend outside of Melbourne / QLD and for differing reasons (Gather Round - game being played at a non-standard soccer ground b/c thats what Norwood is) and the Hobart game (yes, the stadium is crap similar to Norwood, but North barely attract anyone so you could no doubt get a decent vantage point but the Sunday 4:40pm timeslot is a killer - Saturday anytime or Sunday at 1:10 is fine but unless you now take the Monday off to, virtually impossible getting back to the Sunshine Coast on Sunday night.)

Will just stick to a couple of the MCG with the Tigers game one of them.

I know its hard draw, but don't mind the split of games geographically with the exception of having to play at Norwood and then having to pay for North's patheticness by not getting to play them in Melbourne insetad of shipped off to one of their backwaters in order to stay afloat and yes I see the irony of that comment in light of saying Id go to Hobart but for the time.

 

[dlanod]

Uggghh. Reasonableness. Why are you even here?

I've been stuck with Telstra then Kayo for years to see more than two games of the Lions a year and it shits me to tears. I'd love to get it all on FTA and that'd be a fantastic improvement but it's never actually been like that regardless.

 

[Bucking Beads]

We considered two games to attend outside of Melbourne / QLD and for differing reasons (Gather Round - game being played at a non-standard soccer ground b/c thats what Norwood is) and the Hobart game (yes, the stadium is crap similar to Norwood, but North barely attract anyone so you could no doubt get a decent vantage point but the Sunday 4:40pm timeslot is a killer - Saturday anytime or Sunday at 1:10 is fine but unless you now take the Monday off to, virtually impossible getting back to the Sunshine Coast on Sunday night.)

Will just stick to a couple of the MCG with the Tigers game one of them.

I know its hard draw, but don't mind the split of games geographically with the exception of having to play at Norwood and then having to pay for North's patheticness by not getting to play them in Melbourne insetad of shipped off to one of their backwaters in order to stay afloat and yes I see the irony of that comment in light of saying Id go to Hobart but for the time.

You would hope beating Richmond at the MCG just happens in 2025. Would be our first trip to the MCG since the GF.

 

[Grasshopper17]

bit odd in terms of time slots especially the prime time friday/saturday games all being away.

I feel like Round 14 vs GWS could have been prime time, especially compared to Hawks/Crows in Tasmania, or North/Freo on Saturday night.

Looking at the last 8 rounds i think some of those home games will be prime time - Port/Dogs/Sydney/Hawks - all of them could be really.

Not sure about the others, but my understanding is that the Giants have requested to the AFL to not have any prime time matches, or as few as possible. They have found it doesn't really work for their market.

Mind you nothing has really worked for their market thus far

 

[Grasshopper17]

Did a quick review of our timeslots earlier in this thread. Was keen to have a look at our inter-game position also compared to 2024.

Looks like only 2 batches of consecutive travel in 2025. Rounds 4&5 (Richmond @ MCG, Bulldogs @ Norwood), the latter of which is also an away game for our opposition so not too bad. Separated by a 7 day break so can't complain about that.

Also, Round 20&21 (Gold Coast @ Carrara, Collingwood @ MCG). So again, not too bad considering one is simply a trip down the M1.

We play no consecutive home games in 2025, so given we start the season at home AND end it at home, it is not possible to have any better set up from a travel perspective.

Also, we haven't played the final round away from the Gabba since 2019. 2025 will be our 6th straight year of playing the final round at home. I wonder if this has been a specific request made by the club?

By contrast, in 2024 we had 3 lots of consecutive travel. Rounds 4&5 (Gather Round v North into Melbourne @ MCG, with a 6 day break), Rounds 11&13 (separated by a bye) and Rounds 20&21 (which again involved a trip to Carrara, and then an 8 day break).

So that wasn't too bad but I think we've come out better off in 2025 from a travel perspective.

Looking at our breaks between games, in 2024 (to Round 15) we had:

1 x 5 day break (lost to GWS)
2 x 6 day breaks (beat Melbourne and Richmond)
2 x 7 day breaks (the first of these didn't come until Round 9! Drew with Adelaide and beat St Kilda)
3 x 8 day breaks (beat North and Port, lost to Hawthorn)
2 x 9 day breaks (lost to Freo and Geelong)
1 x 10 day break (beat Gold Coast)
1 x 11 day break (lost to Collingwood)
1 x 12 day break (beat the Bulldogs)

So it really was all over the shop, hiddledy piggledy.

2025 I feel is a little more favourable:

2 x 5 day breaks
2 x 6 day break
3 x 7 day breaks
4 x 8 day breaks
2 x 9 day breaks
1 x 13 day break

So we have an extra 5 day break in 2025, but both of these end with home games (vs Collingwood and Essendon), both of whom themselves will be coming off 6 day breaks themselves. And given the Easter Thursday is a specific request by the club, we probably have to be willing to wear a 5 day break on that one.

Other than that we get an extra 7 day break and an extra 8 day break. So a bit more normality there I guess.

Even our bye turnarounds are a bit more normal. 13 days for the first one, and the other one is yet to be determined but given we play on the Friday coming into our 2nd bye, it will be at least 13 days, possibly as many as 16, altho let's hope not. We host Port coming out of the bye so hopefully Port are going OK at that stage and that game can be the Thursday for another 13 day break.

Also we only have 1 trip to Perth and 2 to Adelaide, after the cross country expedition we had in 2024. So on the whole I think our overall fixture is a bit less all over the place than it was in 2024. Happy to give it a tick on just about every front.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Also our last bye is in Round 16 in 2025 - the last of the bye weeks. So we have a long stretch in the middle of the season, but we should be in better nick coming into finals if we are good enough to get there.

 

[McIvor]

I don’t get (well I do have my VFL theories) how Carlton for the second successive season wound up with a very soft draw after last season where they got two double ups against two of North, WCE and Richmond and now they get the same again and the easier double ups in the other two categories and whilst we have two 5 day breaks and also the hardest ranking draw in 24 and they get none and yet these clowns at VFL house are in front of the media saying how equitable the draw is.

 

[McIvor]

Did a quick review of our timeslots earlier in this thread. Was keen to have a look at our inter-game position also compared to 2024.

Looks like only 2 batches of consecutive travel in 2025. Rounds 4&5 (Richmond @ MCG, Bulldogs @ Norwood), the latter of which is also an away game for our opposition so not too bad. Separated by a 7 day break so can't complain about that.

Also, Round 20&21 (Gold Coast @ Carrara, Collingwood @ MCG). So again, not too bad considering one is simply a trip down the M1.

We play no consecutive home games in 2025, so given we start the season at home AND end it at home, it is not possible to have any better set up from a travel perspective.

Also, we haven't played the final round away from the Gabba since 2019. 2025 will be our 6th straight year of playing the final round at home. I wonder if this has been a specific request made by the club?

By contrast, in 2024 we had 3 lots of consecutive travel. Rounds 4&5 (Gather Round v North into Melbourne @ MCG, with a 6 day break), Rounds 11&13 (separated by a bye) and Rounds 20&21 (which again involved a trip to Carrara, and then an 8 day break).

So that wasn't too bad but I think we've come out better off in 2025 from a travel perspective.

Looking at our breaks between games, in 2024 (to Round 15) we had:

1 x 5 day break (lost to GWS)
2 x 6 day breaks (beat Melbourne and Richmond)
2 x 7 day breaks (the first of these didn't come until Round 9! Drew with Adelaide and beat St Kilda)
3 x 8 day breaks (beat North and Port, lost to Hawthorn)
2 x 9 day breaks (lost to Freo and Geelong)
1 x 10 day break (beat Gold Coast)
1 x 11 day break (lost to Collingwood)
1 x 12 day break (beat the Bulldogs)

So it really was all over the shop, hiddledy piggledy.

2025 I feel is a little more favourable:

2 x 5 day breaks
2 x 6 day break
3 x 7 day breaks
4 x 8 day breaks
2 x 9 day breaks
1 x 13 day break

So we have an extra 5 day break in 2025, but both of these end with home games (vs Collingwood and Essendon), both of whom themselves will be coming off 6 day breaks themselves. And given the Easter Thursday is a specific request by the club, we probably have to be willing to wear a 5 day break on that one.

Other than that we get an extra 7 day break and an extra 8 day break. So a bit more normality there I guess.

Even our bye turnarounds are a bit more normal. 13 days for the first one, and the other one is yet to be determined but given we play on the Friday coming into our 2nd bye, it will be at least 13 days, possibly as many as 16, altho let's hope not. We host Port coming out of the bye so hopefully Port are going OK at that stage and that game can be the Thursday for another 13 day break.

Also we only have 1 trip to Perth and 2 to Adelaide, after the cross country expedition we had in 2024. So on the whole I think our overall fixture is a bit less all over the place than it was in 2024. Happy to give it a tick on just about every front.

I’d personally like to see us have our mid season bye in the round immediately after our WA away game which I don’t think we’ve ever had. Given it’s the longest road game in the AFL it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect.

 

[Section 5]

With the delayed telecasts it looks like i will have to get Kayo for 2 months from about March 13th.
Thats $50 on top of the increased Membership

The 4 FTA games were always enough for this old guy to watch on any given weekend. Sometimes i only watched 2.
I suppose i will get to choose which 4 games i want to see.
Costs below for those thinking the same. Foxtel just too expensive.

 

[Sproj]

Can we play day games in dark mode to lower the brightness level?

 

[Grasshopper17]

Broncos scheduled to play their first match at exactly the same time as ours. NRL (trying to be seen) sticking their flag in the ground very early.

 

[Section 5]

Broncos scheduled to play their first match at exactly the same time as ours. NRL (trying to be seen) sticking their flag in the ground very early.

No doubt the NRL win the rating war but will be interesting to see the city figures.
Also win the attendance easily at this early stage of the season.
Not great for fans that try to attend both clubs' games.

Just have to allow a little more time getting to the game.
Going home should not be a big problem as the Broncos finish before us.
NRL runs to about 90-100 minutes. AFL about 150 minutes
Lions fans will just have the usual issues after the game.

 

[Sproj]

If I lived in Brissy, I’d go Lions for sure and I’m a bigger Broncos fan myself.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Broncos scheduled to play their first match at exactly the same time as ours. NRL (trying to be seen) sticking their flag in the ground very early.

The NRL leadership are deluded and think that they in a war with the AFL. Seems to me that disappointing people in SE Qld who like both codes is not a great way to treat that segment of your customers.

Bad news for them is that the GABBA will be a sell out with thousands of disappointed people at not being able to attend not matter what the NRL do.

 

[Monkey Daniel]

If those two concepts are linked, then it's never been egalitarian.

Have you ever been able to get every game live on FTA? Honestly don't know, but I know it hasn't been the case since at least the late 90s.

All games actually televised on FTA have only been live in Qld/NSW since 2012. Before then Friday nights at a minimum were on a delay.

All Lions/Swans/etc games have only been live and on FTA in Qld/NSW since 2007.

(Don't know about Victorian, SA and WA but I can't imagine they got better details since it was part of the expansion push to get what we've got.)

Pay TV has been subsidising the AFL for decades now. This is not a new thing. Without it the league would be seriously screwed in terms of the amount of money coming in.

Back in the VFL days, it was 2 hour replay 6.30pm on a Saturday night. Two full quarters of the deemed two matches of the day, plus highlights of a 3rd.
Live football started when South moved to Sydney and it was every 2nd Sunday.
Grand Final was shown live for the first time in 1977, which also was a draw.
Friday nights were from 8.30pm and after all the intro BS, the actual vision started about 8.50pm
Live games into Vic were interstate matches as the train of thought was that people wouldn’t attend games if they could watch live in their lounge room.
Bit like the cricket, Test vision started for the last session in the home test venue and the first two hours of 50 over games.

 

[McIvor]

The NRL leadership are deluded and think that they in a war with the AFL. Seems to me that disappointing people in SE Qld who like both codes is not a great way to treat that segment of your customers.

Bad news for them is that the GABBA will be a sell out with thousands of disappointed people at not being able to attend not matter what the NRL do.

I think the same could be said of the AFL with them thinking they too are in a war with with the NRL; I mean they've concocted this BS Round Zero garbage in the northern markets such is their paranoia that they're now commencing the season in the first weekend of March effectively 3-4 weeks earlier than ever before in order to combat the NRL because in their small minds they feel so threatened. And like all CEO's and new administrations at the AFL, they each try to come up with things and this is Dillon and Kane's juvenile attempt, so both codes are as bad as each other it seems.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

If they're to do an opening around I'd rather turn it into a split and not paying the following week.

 

[dlanod]

If they're to do an opening around I'd rather turn it into a split and not paying the following week.

I can see why they don't - harder to maintain momentum after starting with a bang if the following week is just crickets.

 

[Lazza16]

This sucks. In the middle of difficult financial times people who don't have enough money for tickets or pay TV can't/ might not be able watch their team live every week.

Stealing the joy. Going to impact families the most I reckon.

I know it is more money for players etc but how much does the fat cat afl take for their own pay packets and the ever growing support staff.

Watch at the pub and sit on a xxxx for 3 hrs

 

[Section 5]

I think the same could be said of the AFL with them thinking they too are in a war with with the NRL; I mean they've concocted this BS Round Zero garbage in the northern markets such is their paranoia that they're now commencing the season in the first weekend of March effectively 3-4 weeks earlier than ever before in order to combat the NRL because in their small minds they feel so threatened. And like all CEO's and new administrations at the AFL, they each try to come up with things and this is Dillon and Kane's juvenile attempt, so both codes are as bad as each other it seems.

The AFL are defiantly trying to get a foothold in SEQ and Sydney. Been happening for a very long time.
I would not call it a war as such.
I also don't think OR is a good concept.
The AFL are patting themselves on the back but that one off set of games opening the season is too disruptive.
The AFL don't like to admit when they mess up so i expect it to continue for 2026 then hopefully gets dropped.

However, i disagree about starting the season early in SEQ.
For a long time i wanted the season to start at the same time as the NRL or one week later
AFL for far too long have given NRL a free hit media wise early in the season.
It is hard to get traction in a NRL dominate state without giving people an alternative early in the season.
Until recent years often it was R3 of the NRL before the Lions got any media time for their first-round game.

 

[Perrip]

Super Saturday will see delayed Saturday games on FTA + live on Fox/Kayo until Round 10 in Qld.

According to Fox Footy

 

[Section 5]

Super Saturday will see delayed Saturday games on FTA + live on Fox/Kayo until Round 10 in Qld.

According to Fox Footy

An extra 2 week than previously mentioned.
We don't have any Saturday games in R9 & 10 so i still only need Kayo for 2 months.

 

[Grasshopper17]

No doubt the NRL win the rating war but will be interesting to see the city figures.
Also win the attendance easily at this early stage of the season.
Not great for fans that try to attend both clubs' games.

Just have to allow a little more time getting to the game.
Going home should not be a big problem as the Broncos finish before us.
NRL runs to about 90-100 minutes. AFL about 150 minutes
Lions fans will just have the usual issues after the game.

The Broncos' game is in Sydney.