The rest of the draw is being announced this morning. I am watching the broadcast on the AFL site and am not sure if the full draw is published yet (I was late starting). I have seen that we will have 8 six days breaks next year - the most of any club - which is explained by the number of Thursday and Friday night games we play.
I'm not sure this is a big deal. I think we had a similar number last year and I don't think it really affected the results.
Fixtures & Results - 2018 AFL Premiership Season Fixture and Scores - AFL.com.au
Here is the full fixture
Swans set for blockbuster 2018 - sydneyswans.com.au
2017 Season Fixture - sydneyswans.com.au
Disappointing we won't have a trip to Adelaide as I was planning a trip to the Adelaide Oval.
First six weeks (hmm) are quite tough before easing up leading to the bye.
5 Friday Nights
2 Thursday Nights
Play Cats, GWS, Eagles, Hawks, Roos twice
8 - 6 Day Breaks - YIKES!
Hawks (!!), Giants, Roos, Eagles and Cats twice.
Two trips to Queensland, one to Perth and, as Ugg mentions, none to Adelaide.
Looks like just two games at the 'G (disappointing, given the discussion around fairness of that location as the GF), five games at Etihad and one (unsurprisingly) at Simmonds.
Only two afternoon home games.
Why are we playing Richmond at Etihad? Weird.
The byes are a bit weird.
Round 10 - Gold Coast, Port Adelaide (after round 9 game in China).
Round 12 - Carlton, Hawthorn, West Coast Eagles, Western Bulldogs
Round 13 - Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, Essendon, GWS Giants, Melbourne, North Melbourne
Round 14 - Adelaide Crows, Fremantle, Geelong Cats, Richmond, St Kilda, Sydney Swans
After round 23: Post-season bye.
They are lopsided, mostly falling after the halfway mark of the season (round 12). Sides with the round 14 bye (including Sydney) play 13 games before the bye, only 9 after. For four weeks, the ladder at the end of each round will have sides with different numbers of games.
I would organise the byes like this:
Round 10 - Gold Coast play Port Adelaide in China.
Round 11 - Six byes (including Gold Coast and Port Adelaide)
Round 12 - Six byes
Round 13 - Six byes
I would also scrap the post-season bye. Instead of a post-season bye, I would play the two elimination finals in that week.
The finals would then run over 5 weeks.
Week 1 - Elimination finals. (Qualifying finalists have a break)
Week 2 - Qualifying finals. (Winners of elimination finals have a break)
Week 3 - Semi finals.
Week 4 - Preliminary finals
Week 5 - Grand Final
There is precedent. When we had the old Final 4 (1931 to 1970), the VFL played one final in each week. This is why the First Semi Final and Second Semi Final had the names they did: it was the order they were played in.
"Unbelievable!" -- Nick Davis leaves his mark on the 2005 semi final
Can understand games against Saints, North, Dogs and Drug Cheats at Etihad, but why couldn't our game against Richmond be at the MCG. And again we travel to provincial Geelong. When did we have a season without a game in Geelong? I cant remember and cant be bothered looking it up.
The AFL website has remarked that Sydney has a tough fixture:
* Sydney (and GWS) play three top-6 sides twice. No side plays more.
* Sydney has eight 6-day breaks. No side has more.
"Unbelievable!" -- Nick Davis leaves his mark on the 2005 semi final
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