AFL 2025: Tony Cochrane blasts fixturing farce that sees Suns play three games at home in first 16 rounds

Queensland won’t see an AFL game for seven of the first 16 rounds, with Gold Coast playing just three home games in that time in a fixturing flaw ‘no Melbourne team would put up with’.

Queensland will be without an AFL game for seven of the first 16 rounds of the season highlighting a major fixturing flaw that was compounded by the Opening Round cancellations due to ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

Last week AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon told Code Sports that Queensland was the key battleground in the league’s push for 10 million fans and one million participants by 2033, however the code will have no presence in the Sunshine State for a third of the regular season – a decision ex-Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane labelled “far from ideal”.

“The Opening Round stuff definitely does give a focus to footy in Queensland so I’m a massive supporter of it. But the way these circumstances have turned out now, this is almost as bad as the year we (the Suns) had to vacate the coast ... because of the Commonwealth Games (in 2018),” Cochrane said.

“Clearly the circumstances (cyclone Alfred) that led to it is no one’s fault so certainly you can’t apportion any blame … but it does make it pretty hard and again the Suns, like the northern state teams generally, get the rough end of the pineapple.”

Ex-Suns chairman Tony Cochrane believes the AFL has dropped the ball by fixturing so few games in Queensland during the first part of the season. Picture: Jerad Williams

With Gold Coast’s Opening Round home game against Essendon rescheduled to round 24, the Suns will play just three games at People First Stadium between now and the end of June.

In the short-term, factoring in the February 28 pre-season game against Sydney, Gold Coast-based Suns fans will have just one home game – round 4 against Adelaide – to attend over a 58-day period.

Only the Crows, Swans and Dockers will visit People First Stadium before round 16.

Brisbane meanwhile will play seven games at the Gabba in the same span.

Between the two clubs, Queensland will be absent from the fixture in rounds one, five, nine, 11, 13 and 15 – to go with the rescheduled Opening Round.

Even if Opening Round had gone ahead as planned, round three would not have featured a Queensland team playing at home.

Last year, there was no football played in Queensland six times over the same period and for seven weeks across the regular season.

In 2023, only five rounds featured games with no Queensland presence.

“We need some loud voices again to bring the commission into the picture (and explain) that it’s no good pouring all this money and effort into growing football in Queensland, and then basically create a situation where the Suns are going to have one home game in pretty much two months,” Cochrane said.

“It’s a crap state of affairs – no Melbourne team would put up with that. There would be an outcry.

“It just makes the whole thing that much tougher, to engage with the locals to get them on board with the club.”

Part of the fixturing dilemma is due to the Suns taking two home games to Darwin, which the club has done each year since 2022 and will continue to do until at least 2026, in collaboration with the Northern Territory Government.

And while it has become a happy hunting ground for the Suns – who are 6-0 in that period – it leaves Queensland-based fans with only nine games per season to watch their team in action.

The Suns have turned Darwin into a home away from home, but it has left fewer opportunities for fans on the Gold Coast to watch their team play. Picture: Getty Images

“It’s just the financial necessity. Because we are a young club we don’t have the financial depth, so we have to sell off a couple of (home) games,” said Cochrane, who helped facilitate the deal when he was chairman.

“We have a great affinity to Darwin, it is part of our academy zone and we want to have a good, solid connection to the people of Darwin … so that’s all part of the story.

“But this just proves the extra hard yards that a young club likes the Suns has to endure compared to established clubs in Melbourne or Adelaide or Perth, because we have to do all these extra things to A, grow the game up here and B, financially survive.

“It just adds a whole other layer of pressure.

“I think when Dimma (coach Damien Hardwick) came to the coast it was probably the first time he got to experience and realise, ‘wow, it is a really hard extra layer imposed on a club like the Suns’ versus where he was at Richmond for a long period of time.

“I’ve been around football for 60 years of my life and you’re just an imbecile if you don’t recognise that there is a huge extra burden that has to be carried by the northern state clubs, particularly the newer ones (Gold Coast and GWS).”

On the flip side of the coin, the Suns’ lack of early-season home games means they will play six of the final nine rounds at People First Stadium.

That double-edged sword means Damien Hardwick’s side could either have a serious advantage in its late-season push for finals, or already be out of the September picture by the time fans on the Gold Coast get to regularly see their team in action.

Last year, it took until round 22 for the Suns to claim their first win on the road and by then it was much too late.

This season, 10 of their first 13 games will be played away from People First Stadium.

Cochrane said the Suns now found themselves in a sink or swim situation and backed the team to break its 14-year finals drought.

Cochrane believes that with Damien Hardwick (pictured) on board, the Suns are perfectly placed to break their AFL finals drought. Picture: Getty Images

“I would turn that into a positive. They’ve now got no choice, they have to perform well on the road and get wins, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“This now has to be a defining moment for them that they find that extra bit to have some solid wins on the road, because they are basically on the road for the first two months of the season.”

Cochrane, who was on the Suns’ board for nine years and chairman for seven, believes the club is better placed than ever before to play finals in 2025.

“I think we’re going to have a very, very good season. We have a very good list, an excellent coach, and we’ve got all the building blocks in place,” he said.

“Some of our youngsters are now well into their 75-plus games. We’ve got some depth – for once we can cover loss now, which only three or four years ago we couldn’t.

“I think we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in and by a good margin. I’m certainly expecting that we make the (top) eight this year, no question whatsoever.”

Originally published as AFL 2025: Tony Cochrane blasts fixturing farce that sees Suns play three games at home in first 16 rounds