Fixture 2026 Fixture

[Seattle Mariners]

Teams play each other twice within an 8 week period often enough.

Yeah that’s true but I was under the impression that Sydney and Carlton had an annual Friday night fixture at the SCG for the Doug Nicholls round. One of the Swans executives was interviewed before this years fixture and he mentioned that both clubs take this game very seriously and it will be a long term arrangement.

Therefore if the two sides meet in opening round it would have to be at Marvel which would defeat the purpose of OR.

The other option is Sydney and Carlton play Opening round at the SCG and Sydney play someone else for Doug Nichols round.

 

[royboy2]

In regards to Gather Rd, I think there's 3 things to take into account.

1) The Vic teams share the load with away games at AO. So I expect Collingwood/St Kilda/North Melbourne/Richmond to share them. With the other 2 playing there next year.

2) Adelaide requests Thursday Night

3) You need to take into account the previous weeks games due to Easter
Brisbane vs Collingwood on Thursday
North Melbourne vs Carlton on Friday
Hawthorn vs Geelong on Monday
With a high likelihood of Fremantle vs someone (Probably Adelaide to even out breaks) Friday Night too

So I'll go with

Thursday - Adelaide vs Collingwood (AO)
Friday - Fremantle vs North Melbourne (NO)
Friday - Carlton vs Brisbane (AO)
Saturday - Essendon vs Western BUlldogs (AO)
Saturday - Richmond vs Greater Western Sydney (Barossa)
Saturday - Hawthorn vs Sydney (AO)
Sunday - West Coast vs Gold Coast (Barossa)
Sunday - Geelong vs Melbourne (NO)
Sunday - Port Adelaide vs St Kilda (AO)

As much as it makes a shit tonne of sense to utilise Collingwood's Gather Rd on Port when they're down, I think we'll see from last year, the AFL won't pass this up for the marketing side of things and give us this blockbuster.

Is it the best Rd? No.
But, I'm trying to put myself in the AFL's shoes based around pre-set matches to try and get it close to the final product.

I wouldn't be surprised if its Crows v Lions Thursday night of Gather Round & have a neutral Collingwood vs ? (Dogs maybe) On Friday night.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

I wouldn't be surprised if its Crows v Lions Thursday night of Gather Round & have a neutral Collingwood vs ? (Dogs maybe) On Friday night.

I think that would be an awesome way to open up Gather Round. Brisbane are way overdue to play at AO.

I'd contemplate finishing Gather Round with Port V Collingwood - Sunday 7:10pm local.

Is this the year we finally see Melbourne, Carlton and Essendon play at Norwood or Barossa?

 

[Seattle Mariners]

The three dates that I'm thinking the fixture will be released given it's always released on a Thursday (in order):

1) Thursday 13 Nov
2) Thursday 27 Nov
3) Friday 21 Nov (day after the draft)

If it's released on 13 Nov, expect Gather Round and opening round to be released this coming Sunday to Tuesday, which seems awfully sudden given the herald sun and co haven't dropped any hints.

 

[Milanista28]

Freo vs Eagles, Crows Vs Power, Lions Vs Suns, GWS Vs Swans in 4 consecutive Friday night fixtures, do something like this I reckon.

 

[beev]

Why Channel 7 is pushing for AFL night Grand Final

The network wants a later start.

www.sen.com.au

This articles mentions that the fixture comes out next week.

 

[Viceregal]

Is there an official reason why everyone doesn't play everyone else in the first 17 rounds and then do the double ups?

 

[Mentallo]

From the HS....

The AFL will release its fixture next week with Essendon set to take a prime time back seat and Channel 7 adamant Thursday night football is going nowhere.

 

[mikey127]

The three dates that I'm thinking the fixture will be released given it's always released on a Thursday (in order):

1) Thursday 13 Nov
2) Thursday 27 Nov
3) Friday 21 Nov (day after the draft)

If it's released on 13 Nov, expect Gather Round and opening round to be released this coming Sunday to Tuesday, which seems awfully sudden given the herald sun and co haven't dropped any hints.

We might get that much but from memory their weren't as many links last year as previous years

 

[Billy ray]

Is there an official reason why everyone doesn't play everyone else in the first 17 rounds and then do the double ups?

you funny!

 

[Whiskers]

Is there an official reason why everyone doesn't play everyone else in the first 17 rounds and then do the double ups?

Flexibility

 

[POSA98]

We can look forward to Sunday night games on the eve of public holidays, with this exert coming from an article I just read.

“I think we’ve done a really good job with the AFL of identifying those public holiday weekends in different states and trying to schedule Sunday night matches on those days.”

 

[1972championsofaust]

This is weird……
Hearing Carlton will be playing the Crows in Gather Round(fair enough)

But get this…..
Carlton will be listed as the HOME Team?

 

[JPetro83]

Is there an official reason why everyone doesn't play everyone else in the first 17 rounds and then do the double ups?

Used to be.. Round 16 was when the double ups started. not sure why they had to change it. Whoever you played in round 1 you would play in round 16 and so on. Now you can play someone in round 14 and play them again in round 20. ridiculous!

 

[JPetro83]

This is weird……
Hearing Carlton will be playing the Crows in Gather Round(fair enough)

But get this…..
Carlton will be listed as the HOME Team?

Ive never been to a gather round game before. how does ticketing work? members get first crack? is it like finals ticketing?

 

[kirky]

Ive never been to a gather round game before. how does ticketing work? members get first crack? is it like finals ticketing?

Yes, tickets are available to both sets of members at the same time like finals ticketing.

Obviously, less members from the visiting team will be going due to travel so a larger % will be Adelaide members.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

This is weird……
Hearing Carlton will be playing the Crows in Gather Round(fair enough)

But get this…..
Carlton will be listed as the HOME Team?

That is interesting that:
a) it's the second time Carlton has played an SA team at Gather Rd.
b) Carlton are listed as the home team.

Could this be the first year where a non SA team plays Adelaide (or Port) twice at the AO? As in Gather Rd and then later in the year.

 

[kirky]

That is interesting that:
a) it's the second time Carlton has played an SA team at Gather Rd.
b) Carlton are listed as the home team.

Could this be the first year where a non SA team plays Adelaide (or Port) twice at the AO? As in Gather Rd and then later in the year.

And it would be second time Carlton has played Adelaide in Gather Round in the 4 years. Just weird if correct.

 

[Whiskers]

Used to be.. Round 16 was when the double ups started. not sure why they had to change it. Whoever you played in round 1 you would play in round 16 and so on. Now you can play someone in round 14 and play them again in round 20. ridiculous!

You obviously can’t do that now. They lock in games to certain rounds all the time.
For example it would never be possible to have Melbourne v Collingwood twice, Richmond vs Carlton would always be twice as would pies vs dons and cats v hawks etc etc.
They do the fixture the way they do for flexibility.

 

[Mentallo]

This is weird……
Hearing Carlton will be playing the Crows in Gather Round(fair enough)

But get this…..
Carlton will be listed as the HOME Team?

There is no home team as such at Gather Round as the match is played at a so called neutral venue.

 

[Libbaaaa]

You obviously can’t do that now. They lock in games to certain rounds all the time.
For example it would never be possible to have Melbourne v Collingwood twice, Richmond vs Carlton would always be twice as would pies vs dons and cats v hawks etc etc.
They do the fixture the way they do for flexibility.

Easy solution is not to have the same teams playing these made up marquee games like ANZAC Day, Easter Monday, King's Birthday etc...

 

[MightyFightings]

Some fixture droughts that may be broken next week from a Hawthorn perspective, that keep me up at night.

• Haven't played Port Adelaide at the MCG in a Home & Away fixture since 2011
• Haven't played Suns at the MCG since 2017.
• Haven't played Dogs at the MCG in a Home & Away fixture since 2019
  
  
• Haven't played Sydney twice in a Home & Away fixture since 2018
• Haven't played West Coast twice in a Home & Away fixture since 2019
• Haven't played Essendon twice a Home & Away fixture since 2021

Love a fixture quirk if there's any others that the BigFooty community can identify for the 2026 fixture release.

 

[Steele2King]

Some fixture droughts that may be broken next week from a Hawthorn perspective, that keep me up at night.

• Haven't played Port Adelaide at the MCG in a Home & Away fixture since 2011
• Haven't played Suns at the MCG since 2017.
• Haven't played Dogs at the MCG in a Home & Away fixture since 2019

Love a fixture quirk if there's any others that the BigFooty community can identify for the 2026 fixture release.

One for St Kilda

Haven’t played Adelaide in Melbourne since 2019

 

[manicmagpie]

That is interesting that:
a) it's the second time Carlton has played an SA team at Gather Rd.
b) Carlton are listed as the home team.

Could this be the first year where a non SA team plays Adelaide (or Port) twice at the AO? As in Gather Rd and then later in the year.

It means basically nothing which team is listed as the home team in Gather Round as they are meant to be neutral.

It also doesn’t mean that Carlton then couldn’t have another home game against the Crows, as Richmond had two ‘home’ games against Sydney in 2023.

 

[1972championsofaust]

Sounds like the last match of Gather Round 2026 is the Sunday game Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood Magpies!