AFL fixture 2020: New draw could gift Bulldogs premiership, save Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin
After a year where Luke Beveridge re-established his coaching reputation and Simon Goodwin’s was thrown into doubt, the AFL draw hands both of them massive opportunities.
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After a year where clubs sacked their coaches with the brutality of Richmond at its most savage, you are only as good as your last season.
On that score, Luke Beveridge found his coaching mojo again in the nick of time last year and Simon Goodwin is on the precipice.
Beveridge has been gifted an AFL draw that could set him up for a second premiership in four years and Goodwin got one which should save his coaching bacon.
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The 2020 draw mixes an element of risk and a hint of restraint.
Handing 16 teams Thursday and Friday night contests could fall as flat as Carlton’s Friday night lights several years back but you can’t say it isn’t fair.
And playing only nine Thursday night games rather than flooding the market with 15 or more seems wise for an AFL headquarters which usually wants to monetise every single timeslot and property it can.
Yet the biggest take-outs from the fixture centred on Goodwin and Beveridge’s mobs.
Melbourne has never had a better chance to be the fourth side in as many years to slingshot from the bottom six back into the top four.
Its sole double-up game against a top-six side is against Collingwood on Queen’s Birthday, it takes on rebuilding Adelaide as its middle-six double-up opponent.
The three double-ups against bottom six opponents are two games against the Suns — virtually two wins already — two against rebuilding Freo and two against St Kilda.
If it can’t emerge with five wins from those six games it isn’t trying.
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The question marks remain over the Demons — why did they get rid of Sam Frost? Do they have another key target alongside Tom McDonald, who plays as a genuine star small forward?
But the fixture is a gift from heaven for Goodwin, who would probably be sacked if the Demons finished in 17th again.
The Dogs finished 10 spots higher than Melbourne but would feel even luckier to dodge football’s heavyweights in double-up encounters.
The AFL hasn’t missed a chance to play them against finals conqueror GWS twice — the same mob that Beveridge repeatedly chipped for their MMA-style tactics in a Grand Final week TV appearance.
But the remaining double-ups are against Port Adelaide and the Roos — who could easily be middle-of-the-road again, then the Dockers and Carlton.
The first 12 weeks feature only three 2019 finalists and from Round 13 onwards they set foot out of Victoria only once.
So while Geelong, Collingwood and Richmond all play a trio of top-six opponents twice, the Dogs have never had a better chance to finish top four after winning the 2017 flag from outside that lofty perch.