AFL fixture news 2025: Round 16-23 reveal to reward Collingwood as Carlton and Melbourne fight for prime time

The AFL’s round 16-23 fixture is coming soon and expect to see Collingwood rewarded. But will Carlton and Melbourne pay the price for their slow starts to the year? Jon Ralph has the latest.

Carlton and Melbourne have two weekends to show they can strut their stuff on the prime time stage as the AFL looks to reward Collingwood’s hot start when it locks in its floating fixture after round nine.

The league’s fixture boss Josh Bowler is working through the fixture from rounds 16-23 as he considers which teams are worthy of Thursday and Friday night football.

The league is keen to give fans certainty over the next release of games so fans will have more than six weeks to plan travel to interstate fixtures.

The league will keep its round 24 fixture open for some time as it considers how to schedule the extra Essendon-Gold Coast game that will fall in that round after its postponement through ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

Collingwood are set to receive more prime time games in the next fixture release. Picture: Michael Klein

Collingwood has seven of its first 16 games on Thursday or Friday nights (plus Anzac Day and King’s Birthday blockbusters), with Hawthorn also rewarded for its brilliant 2024 campaign with seven Thursday and Friday night contests.

The Pies have a series of big games in the back end of the season that would suit prime time including Carlton (round 17), Gold Coast (round 18), Fremantle (round 19), Brisbane (round 21), Hawthorn (round 22) and Adelaide (round 23).

Brisbane, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs were handed five Thursday and Friday night slots in the first 16 rounds when the fixture was released last year.

The league is desperate not to fixture dead rubbers in prestigious timeslots, so would be worried about Carlton and Melbourne’s sluggish starts to the season.

The Blues and Dees need to keep winning in order to land a better fixture in the run home. Picture: Michael Klein

Melbourne has worked back to 2-5 with West Coast to come, while Carlton’s crunch match against Geelong after turning a 0-4 start to the year into 2-4 will be crucial.

The Blues are always considered box office gold but if they can continue winning before that next fixture release it will give the league more confidence to lock them into prime time slots.

Richmond will also be sweating on the fixture release, hoping Noah Balta can take part in a run of games from rounds 16-18 if they are day games which will allow him to play under his curfew requirements.

The desperation of clubs to find clear air and big broadcast numbers was shown by the Dogs’ use of Sunday night on the Easter weekend to take on St Kilda.

Dogs CEO Ameet Bains was thrilled with the slot and strong broadcast numbers in that game.

The league this year scheduled Sunday night games on Gather Round, Easter Sunday, Queensland Labour Day Eve (Round 8), WA Day Eve (Round 12) and King’s Birthday Eve (Round 13).

The league is always keen to maximise attendances and broadcast numbers, with the extra Thursday night contests this year giving the league more chance to reward clubs.

Greater Western Sydney was not handed a Thursday or Friday night game in the first 16 weeks, while Port Adelaide did not feature.

The Power takes on Hawthorn again late in the season after the Ginnivan-Hinkley grudge match, with that contest in Launceston in round 19.

Originally published as AFL fixture news 2025: Round 16-23 reveal to reward Collingwood as Carlton and Melbourne fight for prime time