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2026 Fixture Discussion

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GC2015

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
May 27, 2013
9,564
12,159
AFL Club
Gold Coast
That time of the year again where the fixture leaks are about to be dropped followed by the full draw a week or so later. Keep in mind, we ended up finishing the 2025 season in 6th position so that means we're in the top echelon in terms of the draw we're going to be given. What are we thinking for Opening Round next year? I think we'll end up getting the Dees at PFS because the Petracca v his old club story sells itself and I'm hoping it's in one of the prime time night game slots (preferably Sat twilight/night).

I'd guess we'll likely end up getting the Bulldogs later in the year for the same reason because Jamarra v Bulldogs is a selling point. Then we've obviously got the games that are always played on certain weekends like Brisbane at the Gabba on the Labour Day weekend (Sunday, May 3rd) + the reverse Lions fixture in the back half of the year as well as Collingwood at PFS in the second term school holidays. Given we finished in the top 6 last year, I think we'll probably get to play the Pies at the G as well and also play another top 6 team twice out of the Crows, Hawks and Cats.

Hopefully the AFL listened and spread our home games out a bit more this time around so we're not on the road for so long. What are your thoughts?

2026 Fixture*
OR - Geelong @ PFS, Saturday, March 7, TBA
R1 - TBA
R2 - TBA
R3 - TBA
R4 - Melbourne @ MCG, Sunday, April 5, TBA (Easter Sunday)
R5 - Sydney @ Norwood, Saturday, April 11, 4:15pm (Gather Round)
R6 - TBA
R7 - Hawthorn @ Launceston, Saturday, April 25, 12:15pm (ANZAC Day)
R8 - Brisbane @ Gabba, Sunday, May 3, TBA (Labour Day Eve)
R9 - TBA
R10 - Port Adelaide @ Darwin, Friday, May 15, TBA
R11 - TBA
R12 - TBA
R13 - TBA
R14 - TBA
R15 - TBA
R16 - TBA
R17 - TBA
R18 - TBA
R19 - TBA
R20 - TBA
R21 - TBA
R22 - TBA
R23 - TBA
R24 - TBA

* To be updated.
 
Last edited:
GC2015 said:
That time of the year again where the fixture leaks are about to be dropped followed by the full draw a week or so later. Keep in mind, we ended up finishing the 2025 season in 6th position so that means we're in the top echelon in terms of the draw we're going to be given. What are we thinking for Opening Round next year? I think we'll end up getting the Dees at PFS because the Petracca v his old club story sells itself and I'm hoping it's in one of the prime time night game slots (preferably Sat twilight/night).

I'd guess we'll likely end up getting the Bulldogs later in the year for the same reason because Jamarra v Bulldogs is a selling point. Then we've obviously got the games that are always played on certain weekends like Brisbane at the Gabba on the Labour Day weekend (Sunday, May 3rd) + the reverse Lions fixture in the back half of the year as well as Collingwood at PFS in the second term school holidays. Given we finished in the top 6 last year, I think we'll probably get to play the Pies at the G as well and also play another top 6 team twice out of the Crows, Hawks and Cats.

Hopefully the AFL listened and spread our home games out a bit more this time around so we're not on the road for so long. What are your thoughts?

2026 Fixture*
OR - TBA (Melbourne @ PFS?)
R1 - TBA
R2 - TBA
R3 - TBA
R4 - TBA
GR - TBA
R6 - TBA
R7 - TBA
R8 - TBA
R9 - TBA
R10 - TBA
R11 - TBA
R12 - TBA
R13 - TBA
R14 - TBA
R15 - TBA
R16 - TBA
R17 - TBA
R18 - TBA
R19 - TBA
R20 - TBA
R21 - TBA
R22 - TBA
R23 - TBA
R24 - TBA

* To be updated.
Click to expand...
To be honest let's keeps things hot and spicy and do Collingwood straight away for opening round and mix things up a little bit even though the holidays are probably better to do it and Carrara Q-Clash early and yeah I hope our home games excluding the NT ones if that's happening to be more evenly spread and not far apart
 
Nothing offical. Purely guessing, and based on some things I have heard given the Giants trying to get away from Norwood we might end up back there

OR - March 5-8 (H - Melbourne)
R1 - March 12-15 (A - Freo)
R2 - March 19-22 (Bye)
R3 - March 26-29 (H - whoever has bye in R2 with us)
R4 - April 2-6 (Easter) (A - Adelaide, should be our turn to do the double Adel week with GR following)
R5 - April 9-12 (Gather Round) (N- Norwood vs Vic club who misses AO)
R6 - April 16-19 (A - Collingwood)
R7 - April 23-26 (H - West Coast)
R8 - A30-M3 (A - Brisbane)
R9 - May 7-10 (Darwin)
R10 - May 14-17 (Darwin)
R11 - May 21-24 (A - some vic team)

12 weekends
11 games
3 GC
3 Neutral (2 home) (2 Darwin, 1 GR)
5 away
 
DTLSchulzy16 said:
Nothing offical. Purely guessing, and based on some things I have heard given the Giants trying to get away from Norwood we might end up back there

OR - March 5-8 (H - Melbourne)
R1 - March 12-15 (A - Freo)
R2 - March 19-22 (Bye)
R3 - March 26-29 (H - whoever has bye in R2 with us)
R4 - April 2-6 (Easter) (A - Adelaide, should be our turn to do the double Adel week with GR following)
R5 - April 9-12 (Gather Round) (N- Norwood vs Vic club who misses AO)
R6 - April 16-19 (A - Collingwood)
R7 - April 23-26 (H - West Coast)
R8 - A30-M3 (A - Brisbane)
R9 - May 7-10 (Darwin)
R10 - May 14-17 (Darwin)
R11 - May 21-24 (A - some vic team)

12 weekends
11 games
3 GC
3 Neutral (2 home) (2 Darwin, 1 GR)
5 away
Click to expand...
Why are you going to round 11 and not the full season just curious
 

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GC2015 said:
That's good news for us. To put it in perspective, if that happened this year then we would've hosted the Swans at PFS in the first week of the finals. Would've been fun to attend a home finals match!
Click to expand...
No its bad news. Wildcard is a load of absolute shit, you want to play finals. You win enough games during the year like everyone else does. Now if we finished 7th, we'd scrap across the line against Sydney and go over to Freo without a break
 

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Supersuns said:
No its bad news. Wildcard is a load of absolute shit, you want to play finals.
Click to expand...
Well, that's your opinion. My opinion is that it's good for us as we now have more opportunity to host/play finals.
Supersuns said:
You win enough games during the year like everyone else does. Now if we finished 7th, we'd scrap across the line against Sydney and go over to Freo without a break
Click to expand...
What if we had lost that last game to Essendon and finished 9th? I can see the benefit in getting finals experience into our list in that scenario, especially if we were to pull off an away win like we did against Freo this year. There are pros and cons, but I think we'll be better off for having it. Especially with Tassie entering the league soon.
 
I thought I’d like the idea of it. But looking at it in reality, I don’t like Wildcard round. Our league is too small for it.

The 9th and 10th best teams getting a chance to play finals, no matter what? What if 9th is 3 wins outside the 8, and 10th 4 wins and on a percentage or 80.

Of course the higher team gets a home final, but it also means they play an extra game now. Finishing 7th or below is almost impossible to go the distance. Harder than ever. Gotta win a wildcard round, then 4 more games after that.

Literally rewarding being middle of the pack (or worse. 10th is in the bottom half of the ladder…) while also reducing the odds of a miracle title.

Anyway, it is what it is. Maybe it will work out for us. But if we lose to a 10th placed Essendon at home, I will never emotionally recover.
 
GC2015 said:
Well, that's your opinion. My opinion is that it's good for us as we now have more opportunity to host/play finals.

What if we had lost that last game to Essendon and finished 9th? I can see the benefit in getting finals experience into our list in that scenario, especially if we were to pull off an away win like we did against Freo this year. There are pros and cons, but I think we'll be better off for having it. Especially with Tassie entering the league soon.
Click to expand...
16 of the last 20 teams to finish 10th have had a 50% or losing record. How is that fair that they get a finals slot?
If we lost that last game then we didn't deserve finals. If dilutes the whole system if lesser teams are let in. If you want to play finals, win more games. That gives you more opportunity. Not this participation trophy finish.
 
Fair has very little to do with it.....
If they can add games and get away with it, they will. We now play 23 games and have just added another one for 2 clubs (9th and 10th). Another reason NOT to look at American sports and how they turn everything into money.

Also, is it just me or is the AFL media full of whiners?
Seem to love whining about something and the pre Finals bye gets a real work out.

Most of the whiners will love this until it throws up a rubbish outcome and then cue the whining about that. You can imagine it already. Wildcard Round is great! Wait....a team that finished 11 and 12 makes a prelim? When I said Wildcard I really didn't mean 'Wildcard'. A bit like when I said I wanted the Suns to be good and this is how they can be good, I didn't actually Want them to do those things and be good...I was just making content.

I wish they would spend more time on finding something good and focusing on that. The three best things about the Pre-Finals bye were the Sunday matches in the final round (consequential games), giving smaller clubs who make finals the time to breath and soak it in and F$^$^%#ing Celebrate the achievement with open trainings and member events and sponsor events and going on all the media programs b/c they Earned it (the big clubs don't need that but the small clubs do), then the Finals start on that Thursday night with fresh teams ready to go. A bit of anticipation and build up, ffs what is bad about that.

Rant over.
 
Stroppy said:
Fair has very little to do with it.....
If they can add games and get away with it, they will. We now play 23 games and have just added another one for 2 clubs (9th and 10th). Another reason NOT to look at American sports and how they turn everything into money.

Also, is it just me or is the AFL media full of whiners?
Seem to love whining about something and the pre Finals bye gets a real work out.

Most of the whiners will love this until it throws up a rubbish outcome and then cue the whining about that. You can imagine it already. Wildcard Round is great! Wait....a team that finished 11 and 12 makes a prelim? When I said Wildcard I really didn't mean 'Wildcard'. A bit like when I said I wanted the Suns to be good and this is how they can be good, I didn't actually Want them to do those things and be good...I was just making content.

I wish they would spend more time on finding something good and focusing on that. The three best things about the Pre-Finals bye were the Sunday matches in the final round (consequential games), giving smaller clubs who make finals the time to breath and soak it in and F$^$^%#ing Celebrate the achievement with open trainings and member events and sponsor events and going on all the media programs b/c they Earned it (the big clubs don't need that but the small clubs do), then the Finals start on that Thursday night with fresh teams ready to go. A bit of anticipation and build up, ffs what is bad about that.

Rant over.
Click to expand...
Nice rant. I noticed 2 inaccuracies in your post if I understand it correctly. Wild card adds one extra game for 4 teams (7-10) and teams 11-12 can't make prelim :)

Personally, I could not care less. Interesting to read some posts on main board. There was the same unhappiness from fans in 1994 when AFL introduced 8 teams finals (from 16 teams). Number of teams increases, in several years AFL will be 19 and then 20 teams. So it will still be around 50% teams having shot at finals.

For sure more money for AFL.

Pre-finals bye lessened advantage for top 4 teams. A lot of fans complained about it when introduced, not so much now.

I definitely prefer to watch wild card games rather than nothing in pre-finals bye (AFL really did not fill it with anything).

Teams 7-8 will now play home games.

Less dead-rubber games late in regular season.

Teams 7-10 will have basically no chance with extra game. A bit like Suns this year when we played Essendon during pre-finals bye and looked cooked against Lions after taxing and emotional Freo trip.

A bit like Grand Finals start time. Majority of fans want to keep it at 2:30 despite essentially all other finals games start at twilight or at night. Twilight start is coming like it or not. Personally, I hate when it's sunny and 1/3 of field is in shade. Way better spectacle at night and more fans watching the game. I also feel for WA fans.

Time to finish 1-6. Even better 1-4.

To be honest I am more preoccupied by how many academy kids we draft, by Humphrey and JUH situation and King, Walter, Rogers re-signing and how I will survive without games until March.
 
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Hate wildcard. Although 8/18 didn’t sit with me great. Impossible to have 9. 10/18 sucks, 10/19 im fine with if Tassie want to build a stadium anytime soon

No gather round fixture today? My prediction is Essendon at Norwood (probably going to be wrong) AFL banished them from prime time footy, and I assume will also be banished from AO for a year

I really like that early perth trip and a bye again. If we are going to Vic in round 1. Hopefully round 3 ends up in WA with a r4 bye

The other thing for a team like Collingwood if we were to play them twice. Especially one in Melbourne early in the year. There’s so many pre set matchups. won’t be round 2, gather round, Anzac, Queens birthday, QLD long weekend, Darwin etc
 

League makes big change to weighted rule ahead of fixture reveal​

Teams can play up to four other teams in their ladder range, previously three, from next season
Two teams that finished in the top rungs of the ladder will be hit with the four-club double-up under the amended rules in 2026.
Click to expand...
The League will announce its full fixture for 2026 on Thursday.
Click to expand...

www.afl.com.au

League makes big change to weighted rule ahead of fixture reveal

Teams can play up to four other teams in their ladder range, previously three, from next season
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 

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