The 2023 AFL Fixture

[binman 41,945]

2 hours ago, FearTheBeard said:

The Age are currently uploading rounds 16-23 in their Fixture section:

Currently confirmed games (which we all sort of knew anyway)

Sunday Footy here we come.

Round 16: Melbourne v GWS - TP - Sunday 2 July 3:20pm (Channel 7)

Round 17: St Kilda v Melbourne - Marvel - Saturday 8 July 7:25pm (Channel 7)

Round 18: Melbourne v Brisbane - MCG - Friday 14 July 7:50pm (Channel 7)

Round 19: Melbourne v Adelaide - MCG - Sunday 23 July 3:20pm (Channel 7)

Round 20: Richmond v Melbourne - MCG - Sunday 30 July 3:20pm ( Channel 7)

Round 21: North Melbourne v Melbourne - BA - Sunday 6 august 1:10pm (FOX)

Round 22: Carlton v Melbourne - MCG - Saturday 12 August 7:25pm (Channel 7)

Round 23: Melbourne v Hawthorn - MCG - Sunday 20 August 3:20pm (Channel 7)

Round 24 Sydney v Melbourne TBC (But has to be Saturday or Sunday given we have already had our 5 day break)

So we travel to and from Alice Springs for our round 16 game. 

Then we have a six day break into what will be a critcal game against the Saints in round 17.

And then another six day break into yet another critical match against the Lions in round 18.

Thanks AFL.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,349]

15 minutes ago, binman said:

So we travel to and from Alice Springs for our round 16 game. 

Then we have a six day break into what will be a critcal game against the Saints in round 17.

And then another six day break into yet another critical match against the Lions in round 18.

Thanks AFL.

That is a poor result, although almost the same scenario occurred last year.

Sunday in Alice into Saturday night at Marvel into Friday night at Optus Stadium, and we won the latter game Vs Freo off back to back 6 day breaks.

The two alternatives to prevent this issue occurring is to punt the Alice Springs game for good or to request to the AFL that we don't play Friday night games.

Given neither is an option I don't think there was much the AFL could've done here and posters in this thread predicted this 3 week schedule would occur.

[YearOfTheDees 3,263]

[YearOfTheDees 3,263]

31 minutes ago, binman said:

So we travel to and from Alice Springs for our round 16 game. 

Then we have a six day break into what will be a critcal game against the Saints in round 17.

And then another six day break into yet another critical match against the Lions in round 18.

Thanks AFL.

Playing in Alice and returning is not a problem "It's the Darwin games that used to hurt"  The saints also travel the week before.

[praha 11,117]

Yes, 3x 6-day breaks, but it comes off like 3x 10-day breaks.

Across a 42-day window from Round June 2 - July 14, we play 6 games. That's an average 7-day break between games. People need to calm down.

Saints also come off a 6-day break from Perth. Brisbane a 6-day break when they play us.

What I love is 3x Sunday games at 3:20pm. Quickly becoming my favourite timeslot.

[whatwhat say what 22,118]

we're a free to air favourite, which is important for repucom

sunday 3.20pm arguably more favourable than saturday nites for ch 7

Edited May 18, 2023 by whatwhat say what

[FearTheBeard 1,195]

The problem is that we have been "shafted" by events the club can do nothing about. The Adelaide game deserves a Friday night but there are three docklands games that week so one of those has to be Friday night. The Bledisloe cup game being on a Saturday nigth prevented the Richmond game from being a Saturday game so that is why we end up with 5 Sunday games rather than 3.

Edited May 18, 2023 by FearTheBeard

[Jjrogan 1,391]

Based on current ladder positions we play 5 of the bottom 8 teams the last 5 rounds.  Some of these 6 days breaks are going to be 12 with a bit of mid season form....

[DubDee 24,344]

43 minutes ago, binman said:

So we travel to and from Alice Springs for our round 16 game. 

Then we have a six day break into what will be a critcal game against the Saints in round 17.

And then another six day break into yet another critical match against the Lions in round 18.

Thanks AFL.

in fairness it is our decision to play in the Alice

And the Saints should be falling out of the 8 by round 17.  should be an easy kill imo

[binman 41,945]

12 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

The two alternatives to prevent this issue occurring is to punt the Alice Springs game for good or to request to the AFL that we don't play Friday night games.

Given neither is an option I don't think there was much the AFL could've done here and posters in this thread predicted this 3 week schedule would occur.

Not sure i follow your logic here. 

Why couldnt we play the round 16 Alice Spings game on a Saturday arvo?

Our round 15 game is on a Thursday (against the cats) and the Giants are comng off the bye. So no issue there in terms of fairness.

A Saturday arvo game would mean a seven day break into the round 17 Saints game, mitigating the impact of having to travel (clubs basically lose a day when they travel in terms of prepartion and recovery - partic to a venue liek the Alice).

And really the big problem is back to back six day breaks with travel.

Playing the round 16 game on the Saturday would mean the six day break into the Friday night round 18 Lions game would not be an issue, partic because no travel is required. 

 

[DubDee 24,344]

19 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

after this week we have 10 of the last 13 rounds in Melbourne and one of the 3 interstate trips is our choice so we cant complain about that!

[BangBnagBang 581]

12 minutes ago, praha said:

Yes, 3x 6-day breaks, but it comes off like 3x 10-day breaks.

Across a 42-day window from Round June 2 - July 14, we play 6 games. That's an average 7-day break between games. People need to calm down.

Saints also come off a 6-day break from Perth. Brisbane a 6-day break when they play us.

What I love is 3x Sunday games at 3:20pm. Quickly becoming my favourite timeslot.

Your missing that we have a bye in there.  Once again with the Monday game into a bye into a Thursday game the players pretty much miss out on having a break/weekend off compared to all the other teams.

[BW511 2,569]

4 interstate games out of the remaining 14 rounds (13 games)

Of which 3 are Adelaide, Sydney and Tassie (short flights)

Good result 

Edited May 18, 2023 by BW511

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,644]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:55 PM, FearTheBeard said:

The funny thing with melbourne supporters is that 99% of us want games to be Saturday 2:10pm or Sunday 1:10pm and not prime time night games. (I don't care, id be at the game if it was at 3am)

We are likely to have a Friday night against Brisbane, Saturday night against St Kilda and Carlton. Saturday arvo against Adelaide, Hawthorn and North and Sunday arvo against Richmond. Personally I think our game against Adelaide deserves Friday night, but the Pies are going to get it that week and I think the Richmond game may end up Friday night as well (Collingwood v Carlton often ends up as the Sudnay 3:20pm). 

 

99%? Really? I don't think so.

If I've learned anything about Demonlanders and their scheduling preferences, there is absolutely no uniform view. And why should there be? Every person's circumstances are different. The opinions of a person with a young family can be different from a single, unattached person. An older person might prefer daytime; a younger person a night game. Some people work weekends while others are fully retired, etc. 

[binman 41,945]

36 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Playing in Alice and returning is not a problem "It's the Darwin games that used to hurt"  The saints also travel the week before.

Travel is never ideal.

But you're right, it helps big time that the Saints travel in round 16 - and to perth at that (for a twighlight game. meaning they will have to getthe red eye out).

Does anyone know if we charter a flight to and from the Alice? 

Edited May 18, 2023 by binman

[binman 41,945]

20 minutes ago, BW511 said:

4 interstate games out of the remaining 14 rounds (13 games)

Of which 3 are Adelaide, Sydney and Tassie (short flights)

Good result 

Yep.

And this is one reason why being 7-2 is so important - the hardest part of our fixture in terms of travel and breaks between games is behind us. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by binman

[old55 22,778]

10 minutes ago, binman said:

Not sure i follow your logic here. 

Why couldnt we play the round 16 Alice Spings game on a Saturday arvo?

Our round 15 game is on a Thursday (against the cats) and the Giants are comng off the bye. So no issue there in terms of fairness.

A Saturday arvo game would mean a seven day break into the round 17 Saints game, mitigating the impact of having to travel (clubs basically lose a day when they travel in terms of prepartion and recovery - partic to a venue liek the Alice).

And really the big problem is back to back six day breaks with travel.

Playing the round 16 game on the Saturday would mean the six day break into the Friday night round 18 Lions game would not be an issue, partic because no travel is required. 

 

Quite reasonably the AFL and MFC want to showcase the game on FTA so it needs to be in the Sunday 3:20pm slot to do so.

[Engorged Onion 10,124]

21 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Exactly. I want to be plastered by 7pm 😂

If it eventuates, I want to be in that state too... then asleep by 8.30pm 🤷‍♂️

[binman 41,945]

3 minutes ago, old55 said:

Quite reasonably the AFL and MFC want to showcase the game on FTA so it needs to be in the Sunday 3:20pm slot to do so.

That makes sense. 

Hopefully then Chaneel 7 and the AFL will pour the sort of promotional resources into the game they did a few years back when it was 'the heart of the country', or some such, game.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,349]

42 minutes ago, binman said:

Not sure i follow your logic here. 

Why couldnt we play the round 16 Alice Spings game on a Saturday arvo?

Our round 15 game is on a Thursday (against the cats) and the Giants are comng off the bye. So no issue there in terms of fairness.

A Saturday arvo game would mean a seven day break into the round 17 Saints game, mitigating the impact of having to travel (clubs basically lose a day when they travel in terms of prepartion and recovery - partic to a venue liek the Alice).

And really the big problem is back to back six day breaks with travel.

Playing the round 16 game on the Saturday would mean the six day break into the Friday night round 18 Lions game would not be an issue, partic because no travel is required. 

 

That would be ideal to have the game on Saturday arvo however it sounds as though channel 7 and the AFL have an agreement to play the Alice game on channel 7 which means it can't be played on Saturday arvo as they are Foxtel games.

Therein lies the problem and there's not much the AFL could do about it aside from putting Melbourne V Brisbane in a less marquee spot.

 

[Jaded No More 67,636]

My only issue is the short break leading into the Brisbane game. Gonna be tough. 

[FearTheBeard 1,195]

48 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

99%? Really? I don't think so.

If I've learned anything about Demonlanders and their scheduling preferences, there is absolutely no uniform view. And why should there be? Every person's circumstances are different. The opinions of a person with a young family can be different from a single, unattached person. An older person might prefer daytime; a younger person a night game. Some people work weekends while others are fully retired, etc. 

They vote with their feet. Demonland is a very small subset of Melbourne supporters. 

[binman 41,945]

36 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

That would be ideal to have the game on Saturday arvo however it sounds as though channel 7 and the AFL have an agreement to play the Alice game on channel 7 which means it can't be played on Saturday arvo as they are Foxtel games.

Therein lies the problem and there's not much the AFL could do about it aside from putting Melbourne V Brisbane in a less marquee spot.

 

Yep, good points.

But they could have swapped the round 18 Lions v Dees game with the Cats v Bombers game, which is on the Saturday night (which by the by is at kardina park, not the G which means a small crowd given the stand won't be completed).

The bombers and cats both play the previuous Saurday, so no issue with the break between games or fairness. And the lions rond 19 game is on Saturday and ours Sunday so issues with breaks for either team into their next games

A Saurday night game would still mean a free to air game in prime time- albeit not the friday night which i assume is the most valubale slot from a commercial perspective. 

And given that lions and the dees will almost certainly be the match of the round, i'm guessing Channel seven would want that game on a Friday night. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by binman

[Jaded No More 67,636]

So with round 23 being a Sunday afternoon game, can I assume our round 24 game against Sydney will either be a Saturday night or a Sunday again? (I am away in Noosa so want to work out if I'll be able to watch it).

I assume AFL will want Lions vs Saints and Geelong vs Dogs (depending on how the season pans out), as the two prime time games.

The rest of the games in round 24 are absolute rubbish, unless Essendon vs Pies determines whether Essendon makes finals or not.

[DeeZee 7,296]

Gee you’d think we were a bottom of the ladder side with that schedule.

We are top two and have been a consistent top 4 side for three years now, and all those bloody twilight games with not one Friday night game