AFL fixture 2025: Rounds 16-23 set to be released this week
The Giants want to be a powerhouse, and they’re hoping the AFL help that cause with the second half of the 2025 fixture, but the league will have one major hurdle to get past in round 20.
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The Giants are hopeful the AFL will grant their request of their first Friday night clash at ENGIE Stadium against Geelong in round 18.
The Giants beat Geelong for a fifth consecutive time at GMHBA Stadium in one of the games of the round on Sunday night and take on the Cats again in coming months.
The AFL fixture for rounds 16-23 will be released later this week, which will lock in the days and times for those eight rounds including Thursday and Friday night clashes.
GWS has mostly been locked out of those contests, in part because it is easier to draw a crowd in western Sydney on weekends.
But GWS football boss David Matthews said on Sunday the club had requested a Friday night game in western Sydney and was hopeful of a positive response from fixture boss Josh Bowler.
“It’s even a possibility, maybe not giving too much away but we have requested for the AFL to give us an opportunity to play a Friday night game, so we are hoping for some positive news on that to play Geelong up there. The first ever Friday night game is the potential opportunity we have got so that could be a good fixture,” he told K Rock.
GWS is keen to maximise its fixture in the back half of the season given it is locked out of its home stadium early on through Easter Show commitments.
But Matthews said the Giants were ranked seventh in commercial return of the 18 clubs and had aspirations to be as big as the powerhouse West Coast off the field.
“Covid knocked us around and it’s taken us some time to rebuild our commercial base. We got some data during the week, we are seventh for commercial sponsorship. Membership is growing, we will go past 37,000 this year, being a young club, our focus is to build the fan base and the stadium. We look at Geelong to be a club we can look towards the future towards. Over time we can become as big as Geelong and then as big as West Coast. It is going to become a very big club but the momentum is there off the field.”
The AFL will have to work around the MCG’s commitment to the British & Irish Lions rugby union clash against the Wallabies in Round 20 on a weekend where there are two high-drawing AFL games.
The MCG is booked for the Saturday night rugby game but could turn around the field for a Sunday afternoon clash.
Hawthorn is set to host Carlton and Richmond will host Collingwood across that weekend at the MCG.
So the league could fixture Hawthorn-Carlton on Thursday or Friday night and Richmond-Collingwood on the Sunday given the Tigers are improving but unlikely to be ready for prime time.
The MCG is confident it can turn around its field by replacing goal posts and quickly painting line markings from the Saturday night clash into a 1.10pm or 3.20pm Sunday afternoon clash if needed.
Originally published as AFL fixture 2025: Rounds 16-23 set to be released this week
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