Fixture Fixture 2022

[BrutThough]

Three prime-time blockbusters to kick off post-bye run

St Kilda will feature in three prime-time slots following its Round 12 bye, with matches against Brisbane, Essendon and Sydney to be played under lights.

www.saints.com.au

 

[St Kilda Death]

Funny tho we need to win 5 in a row playing scintillating footy to get off Sunday duty.

Essendon playing shit and still get 3 fridays anyway

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Funny tho we need to win 5 in a row playing scintillating footy to get off Sunday duty.

Essendon playing shit and still get 3 fridays anyway

I don't get the logic.

OK they are a big club, but don't the media know how many people absolutely detest Essendon?
Or is it that we like to watch when they are getting spanked?

 

[11men1cup]

Booked my flights to Sydney. Keen.

On Pixel 4 XL using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Ephemeral Hope]

I don't get the logic.

OK they are a big club, but don't the media know how many people absolutely detest Essendon?
Or is it that we like to watch when they are getting spanked?

I do like watching them get spanked

 

[Remboy]

Funny tho we need to win 5 in a row playing scintillating footy to get off Sunday duty.

Essendon playing shit and still get 3 fridays anyway

That’s why the rolling fixture is so important for us. If they didn’t do it this way we’d be getting bugger all prime time slots for the rest of the year. Happened two years ago too. If we play well enough we’ll be rewarded.
Hopefully one day we’ll get the good timeslots from round one.

 

[gringo2011]

That’s why the rolling fixture is so important for us. If they didn’t do it this way we’d be getting bugger all prime time slots for the rest of the year. Happened two years ago too. If we play well enough we’ll be rewarded.
Hopefully one day we’ll get the good timeslots from round one.

Even when it's rolling Bulldogs still get a heap of prime time slots.

 

[no1saint66]

That’s why the rolling fixture is so important for us. If they didn’t do it this way we’d be getting bugger all prime time slots for the rest of the year. Happened two years ago too. If we play well enough we’ll be rewarded.
Hopefully one day we’ll get the good timeslots from round one.

100% agree.

 

[hangdog]

2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty | Strength of Schedule

Get ahead of the game with our 2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty analysis. Find the Strength of Schedule for each team and plan your bets.

www.statsinsider.com.au

Not sure if anyone has shared this, but this is as good an indicator of fixture difficulty you'll find.

Wouldn't you believe who is comfortably at 1st for the most difficult fixture...

 

[my name was taken]

2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty | Strength of Schedule

Get ahead of the game with our 2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty analysis. Find the Strength of Schedule for each team and plan your bets.

www.statsinsider.com.au

Not sure if anyone has shared this, but this is as good an indicator of fixture difficulty you'll find.

Wouldn't you believe who is comfortably at 1st for the most difficult fixture...

Lol and Freo the next most difficult, that's 10th and 11th from last year with the hardest runs home after just 6 rounds. Fixtures are a major spot where AFL loses integrity.

 

[hangdog]

Lol and Freo the next most difficult, that's 10th and 11th from last year with the hardest runs home after just 6 rounds. Fixtures are a major spot where AFL loses integrity.

It bugs me to no end.

The fairest fixture would be for teams to play each other once only. Sod Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon and Geelong demanding to play each other twice. Boo hoo, maybe some other clubs will get a chance to play in prime time.

Hopefully, when we go to 20 sides in the competition they reduce it to 1 game vs each side. You'd get 20 H&A rounds and 5 weeks of finals if you went with a Top 10 (or something like the NBA).

27 weeks of football down to 25 weeks. 2 new teams would balance out the "lost matches" as it would mean 1 extra game per round.

 

[Munga]

2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty | Strength of Schedule

Get ahead of the game with our 2025 AFL Club Schedule Difficulty analysis. Find the Strength of Schedule for each team and plan your bets.

www.statsinsider.com.au

Not sure if anyone has shared this, but this is as good an indicator of fixture difficulty you'll find.

Wouldn't you believe who is comfortably at 1st for the most difficult fixture...

Bloody hell! It's not even close!!

 

[hangdog]

Bloody hell! It's not even close!!

And Richmond has the easiest run...

Just looked at WC fixture and they're so rooted. Even their easier games all seem to be away games (Adelaide, Suns, Giants, Hawks etc). And their last game is at Kardinia...

 

[bird_man]

Lol and Freo the next most difficult, that's 10th and 11th from last year with the hardest runs home after just 6 rounds. Fixtures are a major spot where AFL loses integrity.

Both Freo and St Kilda have had a very good run in the first 6 weeks so it makes sense that the run home is harder for both teams

 

[hangdog]

Both Freo and St Kilda have had a very good run in the first 6 weeks so it makes sense that the run home is harder for both teams

Depends how you look at it. Is it an "easier" draw if you play none of last years top 8? Or this years top 8? Or is it more complicated than that?

I posted this the other week and have updated it for this round.

teams currently (end of round 6) in the 8 in blue. Final 8 last year in green. Red for teams final 8 currently AND last year.

1. Melbourne: Dogs H, Suns A, Bombers H, Port A, Giants H, Tigers A. Hawks H to come.

2. Fremantle: Crom A, Eagles A, Giants H, Bombers A, Blues H with a loss to the Saints at home. Cats A to come.

3. Lions: Port H, Bombers A, North H, Pies H, Suns A with a loss to Geelong at home. Swans A to come

4. Swans: Giants A, Cats H, North H, Eagles A, Hawks A with a loss to the Dogs away. Lions H to come.

5. Saints: Fremantle A, Richmond H, Hawks A, Suns H, Giants A with a loss to Collingwood at home. Port H/A to come

6. Geelong: Essendon H, Collingwood A, Brisbane H, North A with losses to Sydney away and Hawthorn away. Freo H to come.

7. Carlton: Richmond H, Dogs A, Hawks H, Port H with loses to the Suns away and Freo away. North H to come.

8. Collingwood: Saints A, Crom H, Essendon H with losses to Geelong at home, West Coast at home (LOL), Brisbane away. Suns H to come.

9. Hawks: North H, Port A, Geelong H with losses to Carlton away, St Kilda home and Sydney home. Dees A to come.

Carlton has had the easiest draw in the first 6 rounds by my assessment, yet it's only the Saints being underrated due to an "easy draw". We're about to play our third game interstate (same as Freo and Sydney). The only bottom 4 side we've played were the Giants, and they won't be bottom 4 at seasons end.

My point is, it's quite subjective how difficult a draw is but I'd say we sit somewhere in the middle of the top 8 sides for difficulty thus far.

 

[ScrappyDo]

Quit your moaning people. No one saw the demise of Richmond, WC and Port or the rise of Hawks or Freo.
We had an ok fixture given to us, it just hasn't worked out. Move on.

 

[bird_man]

Depends how you look at it. Is it an "easier" draw if you play none of last years top 8? Or this years top 8? Or is it more complicated than that?

I posted this the other week and have updated it for this round.

teams currently (end of round 6) in the 8 in blue. Final 8 last year in green. Red for teams final 8 currently AND last year.

1. Melbourne: Dogs H, Suns A, Bombers H, Port A, Giants H, Tigers A. Hawks H to come.

2. Fremantle: Crom A, Eagles A, Giants H, Bombers A, Blues H with a loss to the Saints at home. Cats A to come.

3. Lions: Port H, Bombers A, North H, Pies H, Suns A with a loss to Geelong at home. Swans A to come

4. Swans: Giants A, Cats H, North H, Eagles A, Hawks A with a loss to the Dogs away. Lions H to come.

5. Saints: Fremantle A, Richmond H, Hawks A, Suns H, Giants A with a loss to Collingwood at home. Port H/A to come

6. Geelong: Essendon H, Collingwood A, Brisbane H, North A with losses to Sydney away and Hawthorn away. Freo H to come.

7. Carlton: Richmond H, Dogs A, Hawks H, Port H with loses to the Suns away and Freo away. North H to come.

8. Collingwood: Saints A, Crom H, Essendon H with losses to Geelong at home, West Coast at home (LOL), Brisbane away. Suns H to come.

9. Hawks: North H, Port A, Geelong H with losses to Carlton away, St Kilda home and Sydney home. Dees A to come.

Carlton has had the easiest draw in the first 6 rounds by my assessment, yet it's only the Saints being underrated due to an "easy draw". We're about to play our third game interstate (same as Freo and Sydney). The only bottom 4 side we've played were the Giants, and they won't be bottom 4 at seasons end.

My point is, it's quite subjective how difficult a draw is but I'd say we sit somewhere in the middle of the top 8 sides for difficulty thus far.

I don't think it's as complicated as you make it out

Pretty easy to see we've had a very good run early no matter what way you look at it

We are still yet to face a top 6 team from last year

The only one we have faced this year is Freo, who have also had a great run so it's a tad early to say they are a quality side just yet

 

[gringo2011]

I don't think it's as complicated as you make it out

Pretty easy to see we've had a very good run early no matter what way you look at it

We are still yet to face a top 6 team from last year

The only one we have faced this year is Freo, who have also had a great run so it's a tad early to say they are a quality side just yet

The last 10 years we seem to have been given tough fixtures early so start with a few painful losses. I think getting obliterated by Essendon on top of that psychologically destroyed our confidence last year on top of that. This year looked like on last years results like it had a good run up until Port in Cairns. Funny enough that looks like an easy kill with hindsight, Collingwood looked like an un-loseable game before round one.

The fixture looked a lot harder after this week and what looked like some hard games now look easy and some of the easy ones look hard. If we are a serious top 4 side we'll bag the easy ones and put up good performances against the good sides and hopefully win at least a percentage of them.

 

[lewdogs]

The interesting thing with the fixture is if we are a good team it presents a top four opportunity, because we play all the teams around us twice.

In the past when we have been a middle-tier team it has been really tough getting so many hard double ups. This year our double ups are bloody hard, but with Geelong, Sydney and Brisbane all fighting for top four if we win the bulk of those games we will probably finish inside the four and give ourselves a great opportunity.

We've already won the first two of our ten double up games including an Interstate win so it has been a great start. We'd want to at least break even with the Cats, Lions and Swans but if we can win a few away then we can start to dream.

 

[saintbill]

FMD, I don't normally like to complain about this stuff but our draw is disgusting. How do we end up with a significantly harder draw than every other top 4 candidate after missing finals last year? Simply unbelievable.

There are 6 teams that can make top 4. Dees, Lions, Cats, Saints, Swans, Freo.

Dees are a lock. The rest have piss easy draws compared to us. Lions have to play Dees twice but that is a joke, as they play round 22 when Dees will rest their entire squad. Lions draw is soooooo easy outside apart from that. They are making top 4 when you consider they will be gifted round 22.

That leaves 2 spots for 4 teams. Given we play the other contenders twice (mind blowing), we are going to have to beat at least 2 of the other teams twice to make it IMO. Freo should happen, which leaves Cats and Swans. Have to go 2-0 against 1 of these teams to make top 4.

In essence if we manage to pull off top 4 with this fixture we will need to be the second best side in the comp this year.

Unbelievably bad draw. Almost looks intentional to be honest. Nobody is this unlucky.

 

[hangdog]

FMD, I don't normally like to complain about this stuff but our draw is disgusting. How do we end up with a significantly harder draw than every other top 4 candidate after missing finals last year? Simply unbelievable.

There are 6 teams that can make top 4. Dees, Lions, Cats, Saints, Swans, Freo.

Dees are a lock. The rest have piss easy draws compared to us. Lions have to play Dees twice but that is a joke, as they play round 22 when Dees will rest their entire squad. Lions draw is soooooo easy outside apart from that. They are making top 4 when you consider they will be gifted round 22.

That leaves 2 spots for 4 teams. Given we play the other contenders twice (mind blowing), we are going to have to beat at least 2 of the other teams twice to make it IMO. Freo should happen, which leaves Cats and Swans. Have to go 2-0 against 1 of these teams to make top 4.

In essence if we manage to pull off top 4 with this fixture we will need to be the second best side in the comp this year.

Unbelievably bad draw. Almost looks intentional to be honest. Nobody is this unlucky.

When they were deciding the team's to be doubled up on it was pretty obvious Freo would be big improvers while Brisbane, Sydney and Geelong would remain top 4 or top 8 relevant. Plus, the Hawks finished the season with very strong form so predicting them to be around the 8 wasn't out of the question. These are the team's we double up on. Brilliant stuff AFL.

I guess it will make it all the more sweet if we finish in the top 6 this year. You need to beat good clubs and having more exposure to them will only strengthen us. Carn Saints, stick it up them!

 

[saint66au]

Brisbane having an automatic return game v GCS every year. Must be nice....

Does any other major sporting comp in the world have so many "stakeholders" that compromise the draft?. Do they compromise in the name of "growing the game"? Do they schedule a primetime game just because one player is playing against his old side?? Does the NBA/NFL/EPL have Theme Rounds that demand certain teams play each other?

No--didnt think so.

 

[my name was taken]

Quit your moaning people. No one saw the demise of Richmond, WC and Port or the rise of Hawks or Freo.
We had an ok fixture given to us, it just hasn't worked out. Move on.

That's not the point though, talking about the AFL as a whole here. We all know how we ended up with the hardest, Demons technically had the hardest. The point is a competition should work with everyone being on equal footing.

 

[saint66au]

That's not the point though, talking about the AFL as a whole here. We all know how we ended up with the hardest, Demons technically had the hardest. The point is a competition should work with everyone being on equal footing.

Teams under/overperforming in any given season to change the apparent difficulty of a teams draw is a separate argument to the huge compromises that are in place when the original fixture is released

 

[saintbill]

Quit your moaning people. No one saw the demise of Richmond, WC and Port or the rise of Hawks or Freo.
We had an ok fixture given to us, it just hasn't worked out. Move on.

Mate, I am not one to normally moan about these sort of things. Never complain about umps, Friday night games etc.

However, nobody could objectively look at our fixture without drawing the conclusion we were absolutely robbed.

3 of our 5 double up games are against top 6 sides from last year that one 15 games or more. That is insane for a side that finished outside the 8 and not something any other side has being dished up. Not even Dees, Lions, or Cats.

Of the middle 6 teams they gave us games against they choose Freo, the most likely to rise. They give us Hawks from bottom 6, again the most dangerous from the bottom 6. No Hawks, Crows (who are better than expected).

We also travel 7 times, some clubs travel 4.

To suggest that is an okay fixture for any side is a stretch. To suggest it is an okay fixture for a side that didn't make top 8 last year is madness.

A fixture this bad is at least 2 standard deviations greater than what could be expected for a non top 8 side.