AFL Fixtures

The AFL released its 2024 schedule on Thursday, 16^th November, although some details were revealed in the days prior. A new feature is a four-game Opening Round in early March to promote Aussie Rules in NSW and Queensland. Sydney Swans will host the season opener against Melbourne at Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday night, 7^th March. It will only be the second time in AFL history that the first game of the season is played in the Harbour City (the first time was 2012). The following night (Friday 8^th March) sees Brisbane facing Carlton at The Gabba in a rematch of this year's preliminary final. On Saturday, 9^th March, Gold Coast will host Richmond in late afternoon, pitting new coach Damien Hardwick against his former club for the first time. The game will also mark the senior coaching debut of new Tigers coach Adem Yze. It will be followed by a Saturday night game between GWS and Collingwood in another preliminary final rematch. The eight teams involved in Opening Round will have a bye at some point between Round 2 and Round 6, meaning all 18 clubs will have played the same number of games by the start of Round 7. All clubs will have a bye across the four weeks between Rounds 12 and 15.

A full Round 1, featuring all 18 clubs, will kick off on Thursday, 14^th March with the traditional Carlton v Richmond game at the MCG.

The AFL announced the 2023 AFLW fixture on 17^th July. The delay was due to protracted negotiations between the League and the AFL Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement for both AFL and AFLW players. AFLPA remains firm on its commitment to a 17-round competition by 2026 but has agreed to the same number of regular season rounds as last year (ten rounds), in order to get the competition going, and to provide the platform for future negotiations to expand the season length.

The eighth season of the women's competition will begin on Friday night, 1^st of September, when Melbourne unfurls their Premiership flag at Ikon Park before taking on Collingwood. The first round will take place during the pre-final's bye weekend of the men’s season. Four weeks of finals start in November, with the Grand Final on Sunday, 3^rd of December. Once again, the final round will be released as a floating schedule, with exact dates and times to be determined later in the season.

The AFL released the 2023 men's schedule on Saturday, 10^th December. The unexpected announcement (at 6:00PM AEDT, 2:00AM US EST) came after a copy was apparently leaked to The Melbourne Age, which published it online in the afternoon. It was the second straight year that the schedule was launched in December. While the venues had been set, the League has only confirmed the dates and times for the first 15 rounds. The schedule for Round 16 through to 24 will be progressively revealed during 2023 with advance notice.

In the biggest media deal in Australian sporting history, the AFL announced on 6^th of September that Channel Seven and Foxtel have retained the Australian domestic broadcast rights to men's and women's competitions for a further seven years, fending off strong challenges from rival channels Nine and 10. The new deal, which expires at the end of 2031 season, is worth a total of A$4.5 billion (US$3.08 billion) at an average of A$643 million per year, a large increase on the A$473 million per year figure for the two-year contract extension Seven and Foxtel signed with the League in 2020, at the height of COVID pandemic. The previous rights deal from 2017 and 2022, also with Seven and Foxtel, was worth A$2.5 billion. [Ed. note: This new deal does not immediately affect coverage in the US and Canada which are covered by pre-existing contracts extending beyond this season. The current AFL deal with Fox Sports US has a mutual renewal option for the 2023 season.]

With the season set to restart on June 11^th and the next four rounds now scheduled, there are logistical issues facing multiple clubs regarding travel. Both Essendon and North Melbourne are scheduled to play in New South Wales on the same day in round two. Essendon against the Swans and North against Greater Western Sydney. While travel arrangements are not confirmed, it appears Essendon and North will share a chartered jet to Sydney and return the same day. 

After last week’s announcement by AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan that the 2020 season would resume on June 11^th, the League revealed the schedule for Rounds 2-5 on Monday afternoon (AEST). As widely expected, Richmond and Collingwood would kick off Round 2 on Thursday, June 11^th, followed by Geelong hosting Hawthorn on Friday night, June 12^th, the first time since round 3, 2006, that the two teams will clash at the Cats’ home ground of GMHBA Stadium.

Brisbane and Fremantle will meet at the Gabba on Saturday June 13^th, followed by Carlton and Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. On Saturday night, Gold Coast will host West Coast while Adelaide will take on Port Adelaide in the Showdown at Adelaide Oval, before the two teams relocate their operation bases to the Gold Coast. The Showdown game was made possible after the South Australian Government allowed Crows and Port players to complete full contact training at home. Because there are currently no senior field umpires based in Adelaide, four umpires will fly into the city this week to undergo 14 days of quarantine before the game.

The 2020 AFLW schedule was announced at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Oval, St Kilda’s administration and training base, on October 29, two days before the AFL schedule was revealed. The new season sees the introduction of four expansion teams (Richmond, St Kilda, Gold Coast and West Coast) making it a 14-team competition. The controversial conference system, introduced in the 2019 season, has been retained, with seven teams each in the conference.

The big winners when the AFL announced the 2020 schedule on October 31 included Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon, the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane. Richmond will play on Thursday nights in first two rounds of the season as well as six Friday night games, while Collingwood will appear on Thursday night three times and Friday night five times. The Bulldogs scored five and the Lions earned four Thursday or Friday night games - up from just one for each club this year, as reward for their form improvements during the season. Essendon will play four Thursday night games and two Friday night games. At the other end of the scale, St Kilda and North Melbourne will each make one appearance on a Friday, with Fremantle and Gold Coast missing out on both prime time slots.