AFL 2023: All fixtures news and updates for next season

Who had the most blockbuster night games in 2022? Find out where your club sits. And it’s set to get worse for several clubs next year. FIXTURE LATEST

Gary Ayres and Jason Dunstall props the Premiership Cup on John Platten's head after the 1989 VFL Grand Final between the Hawthorn Hawks and the Geelong Cats at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Carlton and Richmond are set to reclaim their position as the AFL’s season-opening clash as the Blues push for a blockbuster fixture reflecting their huge pulling power.

The AFL is unlikely to replicate this year’s trial that saw the Grand Final rematch kicking off the season on a Wednesday night.

Melbourne played Western Bulldogs in a grand final rematch to open the season this year, after the Dees lobbied the AFL to hold the marquee round 1 clash

But it is understood the AFL does not believe Geelong-Sydney is the right fit next year.

Geelong and Sydney would be reluctant to host a Wednesday night midweek clash at either GMHBA Stadium or the SCG and the Cats only play two home MCG games.

Richmond is set to face the Blues in the season-opener. Picture: Michael Klein

Saving those Geelong MCG games for blockbuster opponents later in the season is a more likely scenario.

The Grand Final rematch generated significant hype but attracted only 58,002 fans.

The Blues played five Thursday or Friday night encounters in 2022, with the Western Bulldogs eventually handed 10, Melbourne eight, Sydney seven and Brisbane six.

With the AFL guaranteeing clubs that it will lock in 15 rounds when it releases the fixture it will not want to risk playing underperforming clubs in those marquee timeslots.

It means teams tipped to struggle next year including Essendon, North Melbourne and Hawthorn could be mostly shut-out of those big time slots.

Under a floating fixture the league could assess their early-season form and reward their attractive, competitive play.

Carlton chief executive Brian Cook told the Herald Sun on Thursday the Blues were again keen to be a part of the Thursday night round 1 clash but also hopeful of more “blockbuster” clashes.

The Blues led the league in home attendances — 49,784 per home clash — ahead of arch rival Collingwood (48,573 per home clash).

Collingwood led the lead in total average attendances across the home-and-away season given bigger away attendances.

But the Blues would love one more big clash against a high-drawing Victorian opponent given they rate well and draw big attendances after this year’s double-up contests against Adelaide, Collingwood, Fremantle, GWS Giants and Richmond.

“To be really frank we really want as many blockbusters as possible. We get good crowds, we had the highest average home crowds, that was coming off some pretty poor years, so we are after as many blockbusters as we possibly can get. That is really the key for us,” he said.

“We are like every other club, we get our five or six interstate games but even if we got an extra blockbuster we would be very happy with that. It’s in the interests of Carlton and the AFL for that to happen and also the broadcasters.”

Clubs have 5000 thousand reasons to back Magic Round

The AFL has told clubs they will each receive a $500,000 windfall from the 2023 Magic Round and will be able to spend $200,000 of that money on extra football department spending.

And the AFL’s players are set to be given $200,000 extra per club by the league for the initiative which will see them forced to play an extra AFL game per season.

The league is closing in on a venue for the late April initiative which will see all 18 clubs in one state playing nine games across a given round.

The extra round of football will replace a pre-season contest with Sydney and Adelaide vying for the right to host the games.

Clubs have been informed by the league that it will provide them with $500,000 of extra funding as a result of the 23rd contest, which has effectively turned into a bidding war between states.

Adelaide premier Peter Malinauskas this week urged the league to use Adelaide Oval as the centrepiece of the Magic Round but Sydney’s lure of multiple venues could see it host the 2023 version.

The league has already increased the football department cap by $750,000 in the next two seasons - $500,000 in 2023 and $250,000 more in 2024 - with more medical and mental health exemptions.

AFL clubs are set to receive a $500 thousand windfall from Magic Round. Picture: Michael Klein

By 2024 clubs will be able to spend $7.2 million on their football departments.

Next year clubs can spend $200,000 of the extra $500,000 on effectively paying coaches and other football staff more for the added round of football which will be spent interstate for 16 of the 18 clubs.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan pitched the Magic Round to clubs as a way of monetising another round, saying players were already going full-speed in both pre-season contests.

But clubs will be forced to play their best possible side in the Magic Round when they have often decided against playing their veterans in official pre-season clashes.

The league is still working through the details of the extra player payments, with clubs not aware how that figure will be broken up between players.

The AFLPA has consistently lobbied for two byes within the AFL season and will instead be handed an extra week of football in what is already a 22-game, 23-week home-and-away season.

The AFL is thrilled with the standard of finals football that it believes has been helped by the pre-finals bye so is unlikely to remove that bye to hand players more rest in-season.

The AFLPA is deep in negotiations with the AFL on the new collective bargaining agreement which will result in a pay rise for players.

Clubs were told by the AFL recently to budget for a five per cent pay rise for players in 2023.

A five per cent rise would see players paid $14.2 million per club plus nearly $1.3 million in marketing allowances.

McLachlan said the league was happy to scrap that official pre-season hit-out for clubs but they will still want one unofficial game against an AFL opponent as a tune-up for the season proper.

“This year they had one proper hit-out in venues and they just played it like a home-and-away game, belted into each other,” McLachlan said.

“People got suspended, people got injured, so we had CEOs and presidents on the back of that saying, ‘’If you’re going to do it like that, why don’t you play it as a home-and-away game?’’.

WHY HAWKS WANT THE OLD ENEMY FOR SPICY SEASON OPENER

- Jay Clark

Hawthorn has requested to play arch rival Essendon in round 1 next season to help celebrate its 40-year premiership reunion.

The Hawks have asked the league to lock-in the marquee fixture four decades after it trounced the Bombers in the 1983 premiership decider by 83 points.

Clubs have begun submitting their fixture requests for the new season but the league confirmed it was still at least one month away from confirming the schedule for the 2023 season.

Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe and Essendon’s Darcy Parish could meet in the round 1 blockbuster if their request is accepted by the league.

The league wants to kickstart the season with a blockbuster round 1 including the traditional Thursday night clash between Richmond and Carlton.

An early-season Collingwood versus Melbourne clash would also deliver one of the most anticipated match-ups of the season when former Magpies’ ruckman Brodie Grundy takes on his former teammates after he was traded out this year.

The AFL is also considering a 24-round season next year including a same-city super round where all nine matches are staged in one city, most likely across multiple venues.

Sydney is the frontrunner ahead of Adelaide, which is also keen.

Essendon and Hawthorn share one of the most intense rivalries of the modern era following a series of brutal encounters throughout the 1980s and the famous 2004 ‘line in the sand’ game.

The Hawthorn 1983 premiership team is looking to celebrate its 40-year premiership reunion in the opening round next season.

Hawthorn’s 1983 premiership featured some of the greatest names in Hawthorn’s history including Leigh Matthews, who kicked six goals in the premiership decider, Dermott Brereton, Michael Tuck, Gary Ayres and Peter Knights.

A Hawthorn-Essendon round 1 clash would also mark Brad Scott’s first game as Bombers’ new coach and pit two of the league’s youngest teams against each other.

Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton had a famous rivalry with Essendon in the eighties.

Former Port Adelaide wingman Karl Amon would step out in Hawthorn colours for the first time, while new Bombers Will Setterfield (Carlton) and Sam Weideman (Melbourne) could also make their debuts in red and black.

The Hawks will unveil a new-look midfield after trading Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn) and Jaeger O’Meara (Fremantle), with Sam Mitchell set to hand the keys to the engine room to James Worpel, Dylan Moore, Will Day, Josh Ward and potentially former Cat Cooper Stephens.

Brad Scott could come up against one of Essendon’s fiercest rivals in his first game as coach.

Hawthorn has requested Essendon in its first home game of the season at the MCG in a bid to draw a bumper crowd and help celebrate a dominant period in the club’s history.

The last clash between the two sides at the MCG in 2018 drew 68,857 in Round 20 as the Bombers narrowly missed out on finals and Hawthorn bowed out in straight sets.

The AFL opened the 2022 season with a rematch of the 2021 Grand Final between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs but it remains unclear whether Geelong and Sydney Swans will meet in the same round 1 Wednesday night fixture next year.