Victorian teams seem to get handed the best fixtures every AFL season even when they don’t deserve it

Handing two of the most disappointing teams of the past decade the most coveted timeslots in the 2025 AFL fixture is inexplicable and scandalous, writes Graham Cornes.

There is a very good reason the AFL’s season program is called a fixture. That’s because it is fixed.

It’s fixed in favour of several chosen Victorian clubs. It is fixed to favour television ratings. It is fixed to maximise attendance. It is fixed so the AFL executives can reach their key performance indicators.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s fixed to give the Victorian-based teams the best chance to make the finals. We can’t have another scenario in which two non-Victorian teams play off in the grand final, can we?

The advantage Essendon and Carlton have in the 2025 AFL fixture is as inexplicable as it is scandalous. Why have these two, two of the most disappointing teams of the past decade, been handed the most coveted timeslots?

Every team wants to play on Thursday or Friday night. For a start the whole football world is watching, which maximises the clubs’ marketing and sponsorship dollar. Secondly, and most importantly, it is a massive boon to the lifestyle and mental health of the players, who get to spend the weekends free from football commitments, other than recovery and rehab.

It is especially valuable to the players with families, who don’t have to travel interstate on weekends. Oh, that’s right, the Victorian teams don’t really travel all that much anyway. But you get the picture.

The Crows haven’t fared too badly in the new fixture set up, getting one Thursday night game and three on a Friday night. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

How is it possible in an equitable fixture that Essendon has been scheduled to play seven games on either a Thursday or a Friday? And, of course, it always plays in the Anzac Day match against Collingwood. Such a significant match, it is second only to the grand final for exposure and prestige.

Essendon has finished higher than eighth on the ladder just once in the past 20 years – and that was seventh in 2014 – so why would it deserve so many marqué spots? Is it that the AFL wants to awaken the sleeping Bomber fans? When the Dons are playing well, they bring an army of supporters with them.

Carlton is no better. Until last year’s magical run to the preliminary final, it had been nine years since it had experienced finals action. This year the Blues slipped into eighth position on percentage but bombed out in the first week of the finals.

For that they are rewarded with three Thursday night games, three Friday night games and a day game on Good Friday. Somebody must have photos.

The Crows haven’t fared too badly. They have one Thursday night game and three on a Friday night. It’s not as if they earnt them. Adelaide was one of the great disappointments of the 2024 season, as it failed to live up to pre-season expectations.

However, the trade-off to the Crows’ four Thursday and Friday night games will be the number of Sunday and twilight games.

Adelaide has been scheduled to play on Anzac Day and as enthusiastic as the club is about this announcement, it’s hard to share its enthusiasm.

Of course, the day is important and deserves special reverence but playing Fremantle away from home in the evening of a public holiday does not have the same gravitas as the stand-alone game at the MCG.

And that’s another thing. As traditional as it now has become, that one game at the MCG should be accessible to all teams, not just the realm of Collingwood and Essendon. All players in the competition should have an opportunity to win the AFL’s Anzac Day Medal, not just a fortunate few from two clubs.

In terms of the fixture, Port Adelaide has been shafted. There is no other word for it. One of the most exciting teams in the competition, a team that finished the minor round in second position on the ladder, has but one game on a Thursday night.

On a Friday night, that most coveted of timeslots, it has none, zero, zilch. It’s inexcusable. The Power has been placed in the same irrelevant category as the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants.

North Melbourne would be there too but it hosts a Good Friday day game. Worse than that, Port has to travel to AFL football’s outer reaches – Ballarat, Launceston and Canberra. Adding insult to the injury of fining Ken Hinkley a ridiculously excessive amount for harmless words and a benign gesture after the Hawthorn semi-final last year, the AFL has penalised the club by giving it what has been ranked the second-toughest draw in the competition and ensuring it travels.

Making a South Australian team travel to play an AFL match in Ballarat, albeit a fine regional ground and a football heartland, is an insult to the professionalism of that AFL team. That it is done to financially benefit an opposition club compounds the insult.

If the AFL was really serious about equity and a fair and balanced competition, Collingwood and Carlton would be making those trips up the M8 freeway. It’s not too long a ride and the folks at Ballarat would love to see them. But imagine the outrage and the vitriolic outpour if Collingwood was scheduled to play the Bulldogs in Ballarat.

Still, coaches and players can’t be concerned about annoying things like prejudicial and unbalanced fixtures. “Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow” is a motto well worth adopting if you’re a non-Victorian football team.

In terms of the new fixture system, Port Adelaide has been shafted. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Coaches look very carefully at the fixture as soon as it’s released. The optimist sees every game as winnable. They have to see it as so but reality tells us, the fans, not every game is winnable. More so than for any other AFL coach, the start of next season is absolutely vital for Matthew Nicks. We all know the history of 2024. The players succumbed to the hype that it was time for the Crows to make the finals, that it was just going to happen because a goal-umpiring error cost them the previous year.

Complacency and overconfidence undermined intensity and at no stage of the year did they ever truly regain momentum. Brisbane recovered from a poor start to win the flag but Adelaide never did.

There is some sentiment that Adelaide has a soft draw to start the season but it doesn’t look like it to me. Yes, the first six games are winnable but let’s look at them.

St Kilda won four of its last five matches last season, including one against Geelong, so the Saints are no easybeats. A home game, I put it down as a win for the Crows.

Essendon at the MCG in round 2 is 50-50 at best. The Crows have a modest 36.7 winning percentage at the MCG.

In round 3, North Melbourne at home has to be a win for the Crows. Then the improving Gold Coast Suns on the Gold Coast is a dangerous game. I fear a loss.

Geelong at home in round 5 should be a win despite the reputation of the Cats. Then it’s the Giants at home in round 6. Win that and make it four wins out of the first six games and the fans can start thinking about finals again.

But don’t let anyone tell you the Crows have an easy start – or the AFL program is balanced and fair.

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Originally published as Victorian teams seem to get handed the best fixtures every AFL season even when they don’t deserve it