Fixture 2026 Fixture

[Hawkk]

You’re both wrong.

Sorry, it’s 9/5 so the same number of away games as the Hawks. Re Collingwood’s fixture whilst you’re only high drawing home game is the Hawks last year you had Carlton, Essendon, Geelong and Hawthorn in the first half.

I’m surprised the AFL don’t rotate the ANZAC Day and Carlton home games like they do with our Easter Monday and Essendon (ditto Melbourne with Kings Birthday and ANZAC Eve).

As an aside with Richmond and Hawthorn taking back seating from Collingwood in the Ponsford Stand I’m actually surprised Collingwood hasn’t lobbied to play away games against non MCG tenants to make up the 14 games and keep the seating in the Ponsford Stand. A Collingwood home game for North, St Kilda and the Dogs is far more important to those clubs than a Hawks or Tigers.

 

[mighty_lions]

It actually isn't.
It may now be called the Australian Football League but that was a name change in 1990.

The inconvenient truth is that two Melbourne clubs in some form moved interstate with a further 6 joining a Melbourne centric competition in the coming years. None were forced to join, they chose to. Don't now get all upset that the comp you joined doesn't fully suit you.

How can clubs be shocked when the focal point of the league is the city with which the competition was formed and you joined. There will always be more games in Victoria due to team density and complaining about it doesn't make it vicbias or something that anyone should even give a 2nd thought to.

75% of the Australian population live outside little Victoria, its irrelevant what was before, its a completely different competition now, there will eventually be more teams outside of Victoria than in it, so im not sure how you could even consider it anything like the VFL and its irrelevant how it all came about irrespective of who joined what competition

If you want it to be the VFL change every game to Saturday 2.30 and give back all the tv rights money

 

[fl4gd0n5]

I’m surprised the AFL don’t rotate the ANZAC Day and Carlton home games like they do with our Easter Monday and Essendon (ditto Melbourne with Kings Birthday and ANZAC Eve).

ANZAC Eve, ANZAC Day, King’s Birthday Eve and King’s Birthday all rotate who hosts. Last year Collingwood hosted ANZAC Day, next year it’s Essendon. It’d be unfair if one club had a guaranteed 90k plus every year and the other was tied to being the away team. I will say thought, because Collingwood take the city end, ANZAC day is pretty neutral. One end is red, the other is white.

 

[EBERT THE KING]

You don't think the Adelaide teams only winning 2 of their last 8 finals at their home ground is more of a reason for their failure to win flags than the venue for the GF that they almost never make?

Collingwood have literally never won a premiership while having an unfair home ground advantage at any stage of the finals, by the way.



We are involved in Opening Round. And as usual, we're being used as a cash cow for other teams' benefit, not ours.



Last season we travelled 3 times in our first 6 games. All anyone mentioned about that was that it was an advantage to not have much travel later on in the season. This year it's flipped and everyone will suddenly think that it's an advantage to travel later on.

I predict next year our travels will be evenly spread throughout the fixture, and everyone will change their tune again and decide that even spacing is the real advantage.

Pardon???

 

[Art Vandelay_]

75% of the Australian population live outside little Victoria, its irrelevant what was before, its a completely different competition now, there will eventually be more teams outside of Victoria than in it, so im not sure how you could even consider it anything like the VFL and its irrelevant how it all came about irrespective of who joined what competition

If you want it to be the VFL change every game to Saturday 2.30 and give back all the tv rights money

You need to improve comprehension of the topic.
The complaint was about travel of interstate teams and vic sides playing up to 17 games in Victoria and how unfair it is.

The inconvenient truth to that whinge is that interstate clubs joined a competition centred in Melbourne and then wonder why there's so many games in Melbourne. It's just basic mathematics. Everyone gets 11 home games, more teams in one locale leads to more games there.

Tasmania coming in will increase games outside Victoria but it will still have more games, and interstate games are spread out making Melbourne still the epicentre of the league.

 

[Hawkk]

ANZAC Eve, ANZAC Day, King’s Birthday Eve and King’s Birthday all rotate who hosts. Last year Collingwood hosted ANZAC Day, next year it’s Essendon. It’d be unfair if one club had a guaranteed 90k plus every year and the other was tied to being the away team. I will say thought, because Collingwood take the city end, ANZAC day is pretty neutral. One end is red, the other is white.

I mean rotate the games around so that Collingwood hosts ANZAC Day one year. Carlton the next etc. As it stands, Collingwood host ANZAC Day and the early season Carlton game in the odd season and miss out on both in the even season etc.

 

[mighty_lions]

Pardon???

apparently the 2023 premiership never existed, won by less than a kick with a home ground advantage

 

[EBERT THE KING]

apparently the 2023 premiership never existed, won by less than a kick with a home ground advantage

Seriously. What a ridiculous comment from that poster.

 

[mighty_lions]

You need to improve comprehension of the topic.
The complaint was about travel of interstate teams and vic sides playing up to 17 games in Victoria and how unfair it is.

The inconvenient truth to that whinge is that interstate clubs joined a competition centred in Melbourne and then wonder why there's so many games in Melbourne. It's just basic mathematics. Everyone gets 11 home games, more teams in one locale leads to more games there.

Tasmania coming in will increase games outside Victoria but it will still have more games, and interstate games are spread out making Melbourne still the epicentre of the league.

The inconvenient truth is that more melbourne teams should of been merged or moved, just like the one I barrack for

 

[Art Vandelay_]

The inconvenient truth is that more melbourne teams should of been merged or moved, just like the one I barrack for

That's a separate discussion and subjective opinion more than truth.

 

[mighty_lions]

That's a separate discussion and subjective opinion more than truth.

Its the AFL not the VFL, just because they all existed in to the VFL does not mean they should all continue in the AFL, the problem is its too late now, and now we have an ongoing problem which you dismiss as oh "you joined our league"

The game has evolved into a national competition and it should be treated like so

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Its the AFL not the VFL, just because they all existed in to the VFL does not mean they should all continue in the AFL, the problem is its too late now, and now we have an ongoing problem which you dismiss as oh "you joined our league"

Again, an inconvenient truth.
6 clubs have joined a competition centred in Melbourne. None of that is incorrect.

The game has evolved into a national competition and it should be treated like so

It is national but nothing I have said today about fixturing in Victoria can change.

all clubs are entitled to 11 home fixtures. Basic mathematics means more games in Melbourne and more travel to Melbourne than vice versa.

 

[NeverEddie]

We beat Brisbane in OR the year it was introduced and we all still collectively hated it. It's crap.

center of the universe hates to have a moment of not being the center of the universe

 

[jwikked]

Its the AFL not the VFL, just because they all existed in to the VFL does not mean they should all continue in the AFL, the problem is its too late now, and now we have an ongoing problem which you dismiss as oh "you joined our league"

The game has evolved into a national competition and it should be treated like so

The AFL and the VFL are the same competition, with a name change.

It is treated like a national competition.

 

[Linda Lovelace]

The AFL and the VFL are the same competition, with a name change.

It is treated like a national competition.

But the name change reflects the fact that they are not the same competition in any real sense beyond administrative consistency. If they were the 'same competition', then why change the name?

A divided non-professional state league, which for much of its history didn't even have a monopoly on top Victorian talent due to the existence of the VFA, is fundamentally not the same as a professional national competition that has a monopoly on the top talent in the entire country.

The issue with pretending the VFL and AFL are the same thing is that it distorts and excludes much of the actual history of Austrian Rules football. It didn't become the AFL until the SANFL and WAFL contributed to this process.

The SANFL and WAFL being negligent in not holding out for a merger is the reason we are stuck with this iT's tHe sAmE cOmPeTiTion talking point.

 

[BrutThough]

There’s a few Marvel Stadium Saturday double headers in the schedule. I think it’s just a coincidence that three of the same teams are in both double headers.

Round 3
St Kilda v Brisbane - 12:35
Essendon v North Melbourne - 7:35

Round 8
Essendon v Brisbane - 12:35
Carlton v St Kilda - 7:35

Not really sure why they do this. Can’t imagine people go to both games on the same day, given how spread out they are. Not even sure if they sell some sort of double game ticket deal.

Having Carlton v St Kilda as one of these makes no sense. There wont be any tickets left for people to hang around for a 2nd game anyway.

The match-up usually gets over 40k at Marvel. It got 65k at the G last year. Saints have just taken a two high profile Carlton players so any type of rivalry has heated up. Why do it as a Marvel double header while the MCG is sitting empty and you'd get over the Marvel capacity there.

 

[Xtreme]

change every game to Saturday 2.30 and give back all the tv rights money

I'd be OK with this, red sherrin footy is best footy

 

[WalshistheGOAT]

Having Carlton v St Kilda as one of these makes no sense. There wont be any tickets left for people to hang around for a 2nd game anyway.

The match-up usually gets over 40k at Marvel. It got 65k at the G last year. Saints have just taken a two high profile Carlton players so any type of rivalry has heated up. Why do it as a Marvel double header while the MCG is sitting empty and you'd get over the Marvel capacity there.

Because the league don't trust St Kilda fans to turn up.

 

[cricketnut14]

There is also a massive difference in MCG exposure between the four full time MCG tenants, Essendon / Carlton and the rest. Given this, I don’t think MCG co-tenants should be able to host other clubs at the MCG unless they earn the right. The advantage is enormous.

anzac day, dreamtime, kings b'day - they being played at Ballarat then ?

away games at home has been a thing since the victorian teams moved away from the suburban grounds.

by taking games from Collingwood, Hawthorn, Richmond, Melbourne at the MCG and giving them to St Kilda, North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs makes them like Essendon/Carlton eg. having 2 home grounds - MCG & Marvel.

this would only even up the allocation of MCG and Marvel games to the Victorian clubs and ultimately they'd still get 16-17 games in Vic (except games sold off).

when a national competition has 10 of its 18 clubs based in Victoria, then that's where a majority of games will be, no matter how you slice and dice it.

 

[VicBased]

The WA whingers don't think Melbourne teams or their fans are entitled to 11 home games.

They think they should have to play games away from home to make it fair.

Meanwhile, SA teams get 13 games at AO and WC get 13 games at Optus in 2026.

While DG conveniently forgets the amount of hours in comparison spent in the air, as usual.

 

[fl4gd0n5]

Having Carlton v St Kilda as one of these makes no sense. There wont be any tickets left for people to hang around for a 2nd game anyway.

The match-up usually gets over 40k at Marvel. It got 65k at the G last year. Saints have just taken a two high profile Carlton players so any type of rivalry has heated up. Why do it as a Marvel double header while the MCG is sitting empty and you'd get over the Marvel capacity there.

Saturday night isn’t as high drawing as Friday night. People do other things with their life on Saturday night.

Remember that the Saints were getting crowds between 10-20k last year. If both teams start poorly it’ll be 35k, if both teams start well then it’ll be 50k and a good atmosphere.

 

[Hawkk]

anzac day, dreamtime, kings b'day - they being played at Ballarat then ?

away games at home has been a thing since the victorian teams moved away from the suburban grounds.

by taking games from Collingwood, Hawthorn, Richmond, Melbourne at the MCG and giving them to St Kilda, North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs makes them like Essendon/Carlton eg. having 2 home grounds - MCG & Marvel.

this would only even up the allocation of MCG and Marvel games to the Victorian clubs and ultimately they'd still get 16-17 games in Vic (except games sold off).

when a national competition has 10 of its 18 clubs based in Victoria, then that's where a majority of games will be, no matter how you slice and dice it.

I’m talking about finals not marquee home and away games.

 

[BrutThough]

Saturday night isn’t as high drawing as Friday night. People do other things with their life on Saturday night.

Remember that the Saints were getting crowds between 10-20k last year. If both teams start poorly it’ll be 35k, if both teams start well then it’ll be 50k and a good atmosphere.

The amount of people Saints got when hosting the smallest interstate club would be completely irrelevant to a Carlton home game against a team that's got over 40k each match since Covid.

 

[fl4gd0n5]

The amount of people Saints got when hosting the smallest interstate club would be completely irrelevant to a Carlton home game against a team that's got over 40k each match since Covid.

St Kilda definitely haven’t had 40k every match since Covid but that’s obviously a typo.

20k v Fremantle on a Friday night, 20k v Western Bulldogs, 22k v Melbourne. That is worse than North Melbourne last year.

Just because Carlton can draw a crowd, doesn’t mean St Kilda should get to play games at the MCG.

 

[BrutThough]

St Kilda definitely haven’t had 40k every match since Covid but that’s obviously a typo.

20k v Fremantle on a Friday night, 20k v Western Bulldogs, 22k v Melbourne. That is worse than North Melbourne last year.

Just because Carlton can draw a crowd, doesn’t mean St Kilda should get to play games at the MCG.

That specific match-up has.