Unusual Fixtures

[emuboy]

The AFL fixtures have changed significantly from years ago, when 12 VFL teams played 6 games on Saturday afternoon, with the occasional game on a Monday public holiday. Designing the fixtures can't be an easy task, but which are some of the more unusual fixtures and anomalies you have seen over the years?

For example, in 1997 the Fremantle Dockers played North Melbourne in a match on the Queens Birthday Monday, and in 1999 the West Coast Eagles met North Melbourne in Sydney for a Queens Birthday Monday fixture. Nothing unusual in that at first glance, but the Queens Birthday Monday in early June is a public holiday for every state and territory except Western Australia, who have Foundation Day the week before that, and celebrate the Queens Birthday on the last weekend of September/first weekend of October. So why have teams from WA playing on that day when the majority of the populace is at work?

More recently, some teams have met each other in a very short space of time, such as Essendon and West Coast, who played twice in the space of 6 weeks in 2013. At the other end of the scale, after playing a match very early in the 2008 season, Collingwood and Richmond did not meet again until late in 2009. After the Brisbane Lions savaged GWS by 92-points in May 2012, the teams didn't play again until close to the end of the 2013 season (not that the Giants probably minded, with the Lions handing them another thrashing).

Which other examples of odd fixtures can you think of over the years? For example, a team travelling to Perth for a Sunday afternoon game against the West Coast Eagles, then going to Brisbane for a match against the Lions/Bears on the Friday night? Or teams that did not travel to an interstate venue for years on end?

 

[jimbler]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...2004-grand-final/story-fni5f4q3-1226687173801

 

[The Blue Baggers]

the whole FIXture is unusual ....

there are three options;

- conferences 3 x 6
- play everyone twice (impossible)
- play everyone once

so far no one @ the AFL has had the intelligence to rectify .... too much dining on big fat TV right contracts

 

[MWPP]

the whole FIXture is unusual ....

there are three options;

- conferences 3 x 6
- play everyone twice (impossible)
- play everyone once

so far no one @ the AFL has had the intelligence to rectify .... too much dining on big fat TV right contracts

1.I don't like option 1 due to differing stength of conferences plus I'm sure that the Vic teams who ended up in the western conference and therefore had to play both perth teams and Adelaide teams twice year after year would complain. A floating conference system based on previous years defeats the purpose of a conference (making things fair while keeping rivalries)
2. If we do away with the preseason and byes, option 2 is possible but much harder now with 18 teams /34 rounds rather than 16/30
3. Option 3 is ideal, I wouldn't mind it as long as the home
team alternated each year. It would be even better if the derby was played like a final ie no nominated home team , seats allocated based on % of members initially and that gate earnings are shared .

Some alternatives
4. Based entirely on finishing position (ie have a fixture template and fill the positions based on finishing position , staff style , for the double up matches )
5. Keep rivalry double up matches for money making sake but make them worth 2 points each instead of 4(so a draw is worth 1 point ) , so that matches between any 2 teams in 1 year are always worth 4 points total . I would be ok with this system. Maybe the afl would too as long as both of those matches are played like finals it won't financially disadvantage the team who's hosting the second one

 

[FootyJunkie]

due to Diana's funeral in 1997, there was no Saturday night final, so it got moved to Sunday arvo... anyone know why there was no Final on the Friday Night? there were 3 finals on the Sunday, including one on a Sunday Night!

91 GF at Waverley

1993, Melbourne played Adelaide on Sunday in Round 5, only a had a 5 day break and got a non-televised Friday night game against Richmond

1994, two Eagles home finals got played at the WACA due to work being done at Subi

didn't the Kangaroos play a game in the late morning in Canberra in the late 90s?

i think there was some game or games in the 20s that were played on a Wednesday morning
to coincide with the Queen's visit?

before the mid 80s, there were no finals on Sunday, so two VFL finals were being played at the same time in Melbourne

in the 50s, there was a round of VFL footy where all 6 games got played in the bush - "Regional Round"

some of the Eagles' home games on Sunday got played at 12 noon local time back in the day for TV back east

not really strange, but Perth got 2 finals on consecutive nights in 2006, Adelaide got 2 finals on consecutive days in 2003

Some finals hypotheticals...

Had Hawthorn finished 1st and West Coast 2nd in 1991, there would have been 3 finals in Melbourne, and because the MCG was not available for finals, one of the finals would have had to been played on a Friday Night at Waverley, the first night final would have happened 2 years early, but at Waverley

had West Coast beat Essendon in 1993, the Adelaide v West Coast prelim would have been at the MCG due to the new MCG contract

had the 2000 GF ended in a draw, the replay would have been played at Waverley as the MCG was getting ready for Olympic Soccer

 

[MWPP]

due to Diana's funeral in 1997, there was no Saturday night final, so it got moved to Sunday arvo... anyone know why there was no Final on the Friday Night? there were 3 finals on the Sunday, including one on a Sunday Night!

No disrespect to Diana but in hindsight seems like an extreme thing to do! Other celebrities have passed away since and finals weren't rescheduled for them

Yeah no idea why they didn't play Syd/Bulldogs on a Friday night (other 3 matches involved a team who played on Sunday the previous week). Would have meant "upgrading" one of the Sunday matches to a Saturday though , possibly resulting in more fixture issues later on in finals .

 

[kickazz]

In 1985, the season started with the Round 3 game between Essendon and Hawthorn, one week before Round 1.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

WA Collingwood and Demons supporters must dislike the Queen's Birthday game.

 

[Albert Ross]

No disrespect to Diana but in hindsight seems like an extreme thing to do! Other celebrities have passed away since and finals weren't rescheduled for them

Less to do with paying respects to a celebrity and more to do with broadcasting the ratings blockbuster that was the funeral. AFL got shunted out of its timeslot by a higher rating event?

 

[LosBeatles]

No disrespect to Diana but in hindsight seems like an extreme thing to do! Other celebrities have passed away since and finals weren't rescheduled for them

Tbf it was much more than just another celeb dying, even as someone who doesn't like the royal family and was only a kid it stands out for me as the most obvious 'moments you will always remember where you were when you heard.... '

The Collingwood v Melb queens birthday match always has a weird vibe for me when I'm in perth, something about a game being played at 12pm on a workday.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

WA Collingwood and Demons supporters must dislike the Queen's Birthday game.

Yeah haha - I don't get why the Queens birthday public holiday isn't standardised. It's not even like one state is using the Gregorian calendar and the other is using the Julian - it's just illogical.

Neither date is even the Queen's actual birthday anyway

 

[FootyJunkie]

Neither date is even the Queen's actual birthday anyway

And Queen's Birthday isn't even a weekday public holiday in the UK.

 

[FootyJunkie]

In 1985, the season started with the Round 3 game between Essendon and Hawthorn, one week before Round 1.

did the VFL decide after the draw was released that they wanted the GF rematch to be a stand alone match to kick start the season
so they moved the Round 3 match to Round 1, effectively giving Essendon and Hawthorn a bye when Round 3 really did roll around?

 

[kickazz]

Yeah haha - I don't get why the Queens birthday public holiday isn't standardised.

It could be, if only you people yielded to the ways of the 'wise men from the east'.

did the VFL decide after the draw was released that they wanted the GF rematch to be a stand alone match to kick start the season
so they moved the Round 3 match to Round 1, effectively giving Essendon and Hawthorn a bye when Round 3 really did roll around?

Yeah only vaguely remember it as a kid, had to look it up to check the year. Dunno why they did it, and whether it was planned that way all along or if they moved it. Any Bomber / Hawks fans remember?