It was also 17 days, probably one of the longest breaks teams will get this year. Thursday to Sunday, way too longYeah I misrememered and thought we may have had the second weekend of the season off as well.
Still, I can definitely see why clubs like Geelong are salty about the scheduling. No one needs a bye in round 1 (or 0, whatever). Teams that have both their byes later seem to be clearly advantaged.
I know they help, but I personally hate the byes. They're so boring. The time between the Bulldogs and Geelong games seemed like an eternity. I don't think there should be more than 1 in the regular season.