2026 fixture wishlist/discussion

[CarterS]

Fox's review

Pros: If you’re a club who has won back-to-back flags, you are absolutely taking the eighth-hardest fixture on offer heading into next season. Double-up matches against Carlton and Essendon look favourable, with the rest of the match-ups as expected given their recent dominance. And when you compare their fixture to last year — which history tells us was one of the hardest we’ve ever seen — it’s a huge, huge win.

Cons: What on earth is up with the Lions not being a feature of Gather Round? Their clash with the Western Bulldogs last year at Norwood Oval was one of the matches of the home-and-away season, yet they’ve somehow been banished out to the Barossa Valley next year against North Melbourne. Additionally, their lack of prime time fixtures is perplexing. Over half of their matches will be instead on a Saturday.

Grade: A

 

[braddsey]

3 games at Marvel, 2 at the MCG and 1 in Geelong. That Richmond game being moved to Tasmania would have been great at the MCG (other than for our Tassie based fans and those who want to travel to there for the weekend).

It seems like our best recent winning records have been at Marvel (for a few years) and the MCG (last 2 years anyway).

I’m marking the Tassie game as a massive danger-game. Middle of June in the coldest place in the country, against the Tigers who will be full of young players looking to make their mark…

 

[Perrip]

Max Laughton on twitter:

The 'not enough primetime games for Brisbane' thing is a bit misleading, a lot of their most interesting match-ups are post-Round 16 and will inevitably be primetime games if they're contenders
Also re: the Lions as @seanHPN points out, the Broncos won the NRL premiership and will get a million Friday night games, so they’re avoiding clashes there

 

[Bosh Jootsma]

I’ve been asking for two Sydney games for Years, so I’m excited for that. But 2 games at the MCG and the lack of primetime is sickening.

I clearly asked the wrong person

 

[braddsey]

Some of us work Thursday nights…

I am one of those. Hate Thursday night footy!

 

[Hollow Knight]

No games against teams that finished above us.

Rort-tastic!

 

[Tom14]

They’re called ‘wfh fridays’

Fake email jobs are the pinnacle of human achievement.

 

[Ironmonger]

Max Laughton on twitter:

Nothing inevitable about that all. The AFL scheduled Collingwood v us on a Saturday night when we were first and second.

On top of the prime time snub, 5 games starting at 1.10pm or earlier is a bit strange.

It's not the fixture you give a supposed powerhouse.

 

[rye]

i dont really buy into the fixture difficulty stuff - the analysis will always be skewed concerning the reigning premier as we obviously cannot play ourselves and we are the hardest matchup for every other team.

i do think getting collingwood, essendon and carlton as double ups is a big win.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Rd 24 Collingwood at the 'G - perfect finals preparation.
Followed by a week off (....assuming we finish top 6)

Only other MCG game, Rd 6 v Melbourne

 

[Lace Out]

 

[The Zork]

Perhaps there is a bit more of a deeper hidden motive behind this fixture.

Maybe the thoughts behind the scenes were that they did us a favor with a hard fixture last year, inadvertently hardened us with the consistent challenges.

 

[Elixuh]

i dont really buy into the fixture difficulty stuff - the analysis will always be skewed concerning the reigning premier as we obviously cannot play ourselves and we are the hardest matchup for every other team.

i do think getting collingwood, essendon and carlton as double ups is a big win.

Unless…

 

[briztoon]

A bit disappointed, I came back here after a midday run looking for the melts. It see nothing in our fixture to be upset about!

Now if we can just avoid a bloody cyclone early season, i think the cup makers can already start engraving our name on that 2026 cup…

Reported for tempting the fates of the Footy Gods.

 

[Saucery]

Damn I wish we could have finagled the crow's future first in a deal for Cal, looking at their draw it's likely to be top 10.

 

[Saucery]

Reported for tempting the fates of the Footy Gods.

Reported for blasphemy, only 3KZ may read from the book of the Footy Gods.

 

[Roylion]

Time someone from the club pulls up the agreement from the merger that they signed with the AFL. It mandates 7+ games at the MCG every year. How’s that working out?

That was broken years ago. Not worth the paper it was written on.

It actually read

"7.2h

h) The Merged Club will play one half of the total number of home and away games per season at the Gabba and as many Melbourne based away premiership games as possible will be played at Optus Oval or the Melbourne Cricket Ground (but not less than 6) with any other away premiership games at any of Waverley, Optus Oval or the Melbourne Cricket Ground at which Melbourne based members of the Merged Club will have home ground status (in respect of which Brisbane Bears will make a contribution to gate receipts of an amount determined by AFL);"

 

[lionbear]

That was broken years ago. Not worth the paper it was written on.

It actually read

"7.2h

h) The Merged Club will play one half of the total number of home and away games per season at the Gabba and as many Melbourne based away premiership games as possible will be played at Optus Oval or the Melbourne Cricket Ground (but not less than 6) with any other away premiership games at any of Waverley, Optus Oval or the Melbourne Cricket Ground at which Melbourne based members of the Merged Club will have home ground status (in respect of which Brisbane Bears will make a contribution to gate receipts of an amount determined by AFL);"

Also didn't help when Brisbane purchased a away game off Melbourne to play at the Gabba.

 

[davemc_lions]

3 games at Marvel, 2 at the MCG and 1 in Geelong. That Richmond game being moved to Tasmania would have been great at the MCG (other than for our Tassie based fans and those who want to travel to there for the weekend).

It seems like our best recent winning records have been at Marvel (for a few years) and the MCG (last 2 years anyway).

Add North game as well could of been 7 plus Geelong.
It sucks.

Swans same as us 5 games in Melb
Swans 3 Marvel and 2 MCG

Look at sides that did not start in Vic
Port and Eagles get 6 games MCG/Marvel. Port also gets another home game
Eagles 4 Marvel and 2 MCG
Port 4 Marvel and 2 MCG

Suns 3 Marvel and 2 MCG
GWS 4 Marvel and zero MCG
Freo 2 Marvel and 2 MCG
Crows 2 Marvel and 2 MCG

 

[braddsey]

Winners and losers: Every AFL team’s 2026 fixture ranked from easiest to hardest

Winners and losers: Every AFL team’s 2026 fixture ranked from easiest to hardest

www.foxsports.com.au

Brisbane Lions: Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Gold Coast Suns, Sydney Swans (x3 top six, x2 middle six, x1 bottom six)

AFL 2026 FIXTURE DIFFICULTY

Based on the 2025 percentage of the teams they play twice in 2026

View attachment 2475892

I went with a different method for fixture difficulty calculating the number of wins of the opponents - which I think is a bit more balanced considering some clubs got massive percentage from double thrashing of bottom 4 clubs. I added wins for finals matches which increases the difficulty of matching up against finals winners (ie. us).
We still got an easier run, Geelong & Pies still got a difficult fixture.

Club​	Oppo Wins​
Collingwood​	82.5​
Geelong​	76​
Carlton​	71.5​
GoldCoast​	68​
Sydney​	67.5​
WesternBulldogs​	67​
Adelaide​	64​
Brisbane​	62​
GWS​	60​
Hawthorn​	60​
WestCoast​	59.5​
Fremantle​	59​
Melbourne​	58​
StKilda​	55​
Essendon​	54.5​
PortAdelaide​	42.5​
NorthMelbourne​	40​
Richmond​	31.5​

 

[davemc_lions]

Still no idea how we got Tassie against the Tigers
They play Suns, Eagles, Port and Crows at home where they get the gate
You say with all the Vic Lions fans they get more $$ playing us in Vic and one of the other interstate in Tassie.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Really happy with that. I hate Thursdays and Fridays and love early arvo away games. + ending the season with the Hawks, Suns and Pies is perfect lead up to finals.

 

[Hollow Knight]

South East QLD will probably get Gather Round in 2033 after the Olympics and the AFL will schedule us to play North Melbourne at Burpengary on a Sunday arvo after Tassie plays Freo in a Friday night blockbuster at Victoria Park.

 

[braddsey]

Still no idea how we got Tassie against the Tigers
They play Suns, Eagles, Port and Crows at home where they get the gate
You say with all the Vic Lions fans they get more $$ playing us in Vic and one of the other interstate in Tassie.

Probably fair on the Weagles. Very limited direct flights between Perth & Hobart, though that will be no excuse once (if) the Devils exist. Arguably same for the Suns, though they could get the team bus to Brisbane.
Port & Crows... do enough of their supporters travel? I reckon we'd get more of our Melbourne fans to a match in a Sunday arvo match than Port/Crows fans travelling.

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Suns have Labor day eve against the Giants @7:20pm

that's a weird one