Originally Posted by
Thunder Shaker
Recently I noticed that Sydney hasn't played Adelaide twice in a season since 2005. That's quite a long time. This revealed that the AFL doesn't actually balance the fixture in such a way to prevent this.
So I decided to investigate this further, and here are the results: Thunder's list of the three longest doubled-up fixture droughts for each club.
Notes:
* If multiple clubs are tied for third, I list all such clubs.
* I have ignored the doubled-up games in the 2020 season's original fixture, and the 2015 match between Adelaide and Geelong that was cancelled after the sudden death of the Adelaide coach. None of these matches were played so there was no point including them.
Adelaide: Sydney (2005), Western Bulldogs (2013), Brisbane Lions (2015).
Brisbane Lions: Sydney (2011), Adelaide (2015), West Coast (2016), Carlton (2016).
Carlton: North Melbourne (2007), West Coast (2010), Geelong (2014).
Collingwood: Greater Western Sydney (NEVER), St Kilda (2011), Sydney (2013), North Melbourne (2013).
Essendon: Melbourne (2005), West Coast (2013), Western Bulldogs (2014).
Fremantle: Adelaide (2016), Gold Coast (2016), Geelong (2017), North Melbourne (2017), Richmond (2017).
Geelong: Carlton (2014), Essendon (2016), Collingwood (2017), Fremantle (2017), Greater Western Sydney (2017).
Gold Coast: Richmond (NEVER), Essendon (2016), Fremantle (2016).
Greater Western Sydney: Collingwood (NEVER), North Melbourne (2012), Port Adelaide (2016).
Hawthorn: Carlton (2015), Port Adelaide (2015), Collingwood (2017).
Melbourne: Essendon (2005), Carlton (2017), North Melbourne (2017).
North Melbourne: Carlton (2007), West Coast (2012), Greater Western Sydney (2012).
Port Adelaide: Hawthorn (2015), Sydney (2015), Greater Western Sydney (2016).
Richmond: Gold Coast (NEVER), Western Bulldogs (2013), North Melbourne (2015).
St Kilda: Collingwood (2011), Essendon (2016), Western Bulldogs (2016).
Sydney: Adelaide (2005), Brisbane Lions (2011), Collingwood (2013).
West Coast: Carlton (2010), North Melbourne (2012), Essendon (2013).
Western Bulldogs: Adelaide (2013), Richmond (2013), Essendon (2014).
Longest droughts:
Never: Gold Coast v Richmond, Collingwood v Greater Western Sydney.
2005: Adelaide v Sydney, Essendon v Melbourne.
2007: Carlton v North Melbourne.
2010: Carlton v West Coast.
2011: Brisbane Lions v Sydney, Collingwood v St Kilda.
2012: Greater Western Sydney v North Melbourne, North Melbourne v West Coast.
If the AFL is looking for ways to improve its fixture, they could pick the longest doubled-up droughts and make them doubled-up fixtures for next season, if the drought is longer than seven years or so. A few clubs like Fremantle have no such long droughts so don't need this adjustment yet.
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