Ah yep, thats right. Gather round has made the season weird and spicy.Geelong played WCE in Adelaide but they are so bad that you would prefer them to be one of your interstate games - likewise NM as far as "away" games.
Ideally you wanted to get the sides in 5th-14th at home and not too many against the top 4 (Geelong had 4 away and 2 at home; St Kilda 2 home, 1 neutral, 1 away) - especially away. I think St Kilda did pretty well on that front (swap Collingwood and Port away for Gold Coast at home and NM neutral for example and it flips the script on both teams) but that's just the way the fixturing works.
The fixture is an even bigger mess than trying to figure out if the Saints are good or not. Or if Geelong win their next 2 do they play at GMHBA against a non vic club.