Australian Football Association of North America

By Johnson Leung reporting for AFANA in Melbourne

Richmond are the biggest loser from the 2008 AFL schedule, with the 2007 wooden spooners scheduled to play three home games at Telstra Dome, including one against MCG co-tenant Melbourne, even though both clubs celebrate major milestones next year. The Tigers received some consolation in that the AFL has agreed to schedule its centenary clash at the MCG against Carlton as a night game at the end of June during the second split round.

Announcing the fixture in Melbourne, AFL Chief Broadcasting and Commercial Officer Gillon McLachlan accepted Richmond's criticism for scheduling two home games at Docklands against Melbourne and St Kilda. He said the league had more than 200 requests from the clubs and, although not all could be accommodated, he was happy a good balance had been achieved.

Melbourne chairman Paul Gardner said playing the Tigers-Demons clash at Docklands was silly and beyond a regular anomaly of the draft. He said the opportunity was there for the league to embrace the game and promote it as a joint initiative at the home ground, given Melbourne would be celebrating their 150th anniversary and Richmond their 100th year in the VFL/AFL.

The 2008 AFL season will kick off with two matches. Carlton and Richmond will meet in a twilight game at the MCG (cricket commitments permitting) on Thursday before Good Friday (March 20). It starts at 6.10pm Melbourne time and will be telecast on Channel Ten. It will be followed by a Grand Final re-match between Port Adelaide and Geelong at AAMI Stadium that night, to be shown on Channel Seven.

As key developments of this year's fixture, the AFL has introduced two bye weekends for all clubs - over the Mother's Day weekend in May and the split round over round 14 (late June to early July). And for the first time, each team does not play each other once by the end of Round 15, to reduce consecutive travel loads for clubs and provide an even spread of both home and away matches for all clubs through the season. The absence of the constraint that each team plays each other once by the end of Round 15 means that in 2008, while some teams (Adelaide and West Coast) will have met twice by Round 9, Carlton will not play Hawthorn until Round 22.

McLachlan said the increased flexibility meant that no club in the competition would have back-to-back travel for away games involving a match at Subiaco, and the number of back-to-back interstate trips for all clubs across the competition had been reduced dramatically from 12 to only five occurrences. The five back-to-back interstate travel commitments for clubs in the 2008 season is the lowest since Fremantle joined the competition in 1995. "The AFL's programming software enables us to finalise the fixture after the Grand Final and allow us to provide a better schedule and a fairer offering for clubs, players, spectators and viewers," McLachlan said. "It is crucial for the AFL and our clubs that we deliver not only an even and fair fixture for the teams seeking to contest the finals, but that we maximise our commercial opportunities for the clubs and provide a successful return for our broadcasting and commercial partners."

McLachlan said while State of Origin was off the agenda "in the foreseeable future", the league was planning to host a Victoria-All Stars clash on the eve of Mother's Day (May 10) as part of the game's 150th anniversary celebrations. Current players were likely to be involved in the match. "It'll be a game that has links to our history, to our Hall of Fame and will essentially be a celebration of football," he said. "It'll be a weekend when we hope to showcase the game."

McLachlan said the Origin concept was discussed at length with all 16 clubs, player groups, state leagues and other bodies, and the league concluded that it should not be revived "on balance and for various reasons including a disproportionate burden on some clubs to provide a lot of players."

McLachlan is confident all stakeholders will give the fixture the thumbs up. "I think from an on-field sense I don't think there's ever been a more equitable draw," he said. "We've never had less back-to-back travel, we've never had a more even spread of six-day breaks, we've never had no teams not travelling (after) coming back from Perth; we've never had all those things before.
"I think I'm prepared to say it almost has to be (our best draw) but others will judge it."

Other key features in next year's fixture include:

• Retention of all key marquee games, including Anzac Day (Collingwood-Essendon), Queen's Birthday Monday (Melbourne-Collingwood), Dreamtime at the 'G (Richmond-Essendon), Len Hall Tribute Game at Subiaco, Showdowns and Derbies.
• Fremantle and Geelong will share in the Anzac Day experience, with the Dockers to host the reigning premiers at Subiaco in a night match following the traditional Essendon-Collingwood match at the MCG.
• A compact Round 22 in which five matches will be played on Saturday, while four Melbourne teams play on Sunday in a bid to reduce travel loads and give teams the best possible preparation ahead of finals the following week.
• Heritage Round will be Round 19, named in honor of Tom Wills, one of Australian Rules' founding fathers. Melbourne Grammar will play Scotch College in honor of the first-ever game of Australian Football as a curtain-raiser to the Melbourne-Geelong clash. The AFL clash will start at 7.10pm Melbourne time, leads into the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, to be broadcast on Seven.
• A Friday night premiership season match at the Gabba for the first time since Round 13, 2001, with the Brisbane Lions hosting Collingwood in Round 2 and the match to be broadcast nationally in prime time by Seven, going head-to-head against National Rugby League coverage on Nine.
• All teams will play at least once in SA or WA and all 16 clubs will play at least one match at both the MCG and Telstra Dome.
• Melbourne and Western Bulldogs will play home games in Canberra.
• Four home games for North Melbourne at Carrara, to be played against Melbourne (Round 4), West Coast (Round , St Kilda (Round 14) and the Brisbane Lions (Round 18).
• Four home games for Sydney at Telstra Stadium, to be played against West Coast (Round four), Essendon (Round , Collingwood (Round 14) and Geelong (Round 20).
• Every team except Sydney will play on Friday night.
• Adelaide will play eight Saturday afternoon matches in 2008, double the amount of games played in the same timeslot in 2007.
• Port Adelaide will play six Saturday afternoon matches during the season. Port will also travel to Perth twice, Sydney once and go to Launceston and Darwin.
• Western Bulldogs will play in every state and territory during the season.
• Reigning premiers Geelong will feature in Friday night football six times next season – including MCG blockbusters against Collingwood and Hawthorn. They will play four Sunday games in 2008, compared with 13 this year.
• Collingwood will play seven Friday night games next season.
  

The AFL has also released the schedule for the 2008 pre-season NAB Cup, with Collingwood and Adelaide playing the first game in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday February 9.

The AFL went against West Coast's and Fremantle's requests by scheduling a third Derby in week one of the NAB Cup. Matches will be played in Darwin (TIO Stadium), Launceston (Aurora Stadium) and the Gold Coast (Carrara) in week one of the competition over February 15-17 with a second-round match also taken to Manuka Oval in Canberra.

McLachlan said each of the 15 matches in the competition would be broadcast by either Channel Seven, Channel Ten or Fox Sports, with Ten to broadcast the final on Saturday March 8.

Sources: AAP, afl.com.au, Herald Sun, Melbourne Age, author's notes