AFL fixture news: AFL fixture release coming November 16

The AFL looks set to launch its 2024 season with the northern states in mind, with a release date locked in as clubs rally to get their demands met by the league.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 30: Lachie Neale of the Lions congratulates Magpies head coach Craig McRae after the 2023 AFL Grand Final match between Collingwood Magpies and Brisbane Lions at Melbourne Cricket Ground, on September 30, 2023, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

The AFL plans to release the 2024 fixture in a fortnight as clubs prepare to open the season with a northern-states twist.

The league has told clubs it is preparing to release the fixture on Thursday, November 16 as AFL bosses thrash out the final details in talks with club chiefs.

Key requests include another King’s Birthday eve game between Essendon and Carlton, a Good Friday game featuring North Melbourne and the Blues, and a second major home MCG game for St Kilda.

Western Bulldogs are in talks with the league about another marquee game to replace the Good Friday game it lost to Carlton last year.

The Blues-Bombers Sunday night clash could become a staple of the fixture. Photo by Michael Klein.

The 2024 season is expected to be launched with four marquee games in Sydney and Queensland to help deliver the game a boost in the northern states.

The mooted opening weekend games include GWS Giants versus Collingwood, Sydney Swans versus Melbourne, Gold Coast against Richmond and Brisbane versus Carlton.

It will see new Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick take on his old side, new Swan Brodie Grundy face his old Melbourne teammates and the Lions and Blues clash in a repeat of the 2023 preliminary final.

Scheduling four games on the opening weekend of the season will mean those clubs will have two byes in-season.

Carlton and Richmond could continue their blockbuster rivalry in the early rounds of the season.

Fixture whispers: How AFL will navigate five-day breaks

– Jon Ralph

The AFLPA will attempt to safeguard the health and fitness of its players despite agreeing to the five-day breaks which allow the league to beef-up its Thursday night schedule.

The league and AFLPA agreed to a new deal as part of the collective bargaining agreement that will see clubs playing a maximum of three five-day breaks each home-and-away season.

It allows the AFL to schedule quality Thursday night games every week of the home-and-away season if it sees fit.

The new $643 million-per-year deal that kicks off next year requires the league to schedule the first 15 rounds with Thursday night football from 2025 onwards.

But a league that scheduled 11 Thursday home-and-away games and a Thursday night final is yet to lock in how many Thursdays will be in the 2024 fixture.

The AFL said when it brokered its TV rights deal it was in “active discussions” about an earlier start time to Friday night football but new CEO Andrew Dillon is yet to get that deal over the line with Channel 7.

The league is expected to again lock in the first 15 or so rounds of the schedule for clarity then have a floating component to maximise blockbusters in the back-end of the season.

The AFL wants to maximise Thursday night blockbusters in the future. Picture: Getty Images

But the new-found flexibility with five-day breaks means the league can ensure the quality of Thursday night football, with the AFL believing big blockbuster games to start a round are important for the momentum and flow of a weekend’s action.

The new rules contained in the AFL CBA will give players the best chance to avoid injuries despite the added strain of multiple five-day breaks.

Those rules include:

– Clubs cannot play successive five-day breaks.

– A club cannot play a five-day break against a team which has had a seven-day break.

– Clubs cannot play off a five-day break after travel to Perth.

– WA-based clubs cannot play a home game then be forced into a five-day break if that fixture involves interstate travel.

– Teams need at least three weeks between five-day breaks.

Teams could have a maximum of three five-day breaks during a season. Picture: Getty Images

There are two options for maximising breaks before or after playing off a five-day break.

A club which is playing off a five-day break must have a six-day break in the previous round and a seven-day break in the next round, or a six-day break in the previous round and a seven-day break in the following round.

There is still discretion to change those protocols based on the rule “in the AFL’s reasonable opinion is likely to impact on the AFL’s ability to comply with any of its obligations to AFL broadcasters”.

Under that scenario the player union and AFL will “in good faith consider reasonable changes to the five-day break requirements”.

The league is likely to lock in a 26-week home-and-away season with four games in northern states as part of a split round 1, as well as the second AFL Gather Round early in the year.

Originally published as AFL fixture news: AFL fixture release coming November 16