The League is currently weighing up its options for next year, with a likely start date pencilled in for April 3, which means an October 10 Grand Final could be on the horizon if the AFL decides to retain two mid-season byes.

 

The one-day cricket World Cup runs from February 14 until the final at the MCG on March 29.

 

The Adelaide Oval, Gabba and SCG will also be tied up in cricket commitments during that period, creating plenty of headaches for AFL general manager of scheduling Simon Lethlean.

 

"It [an April 3 start] is one of the options," Lethlean told AFL.com.au.

 

"We haven't done the work as yet to analyse what the best start time is for us, not just for Melbourne but for other strategies and other access points across Australia.

 

"It seems that we're starting those decisions earlier and earlier now - it's round two and we're already looking to next year, but we'll do that work over the next few weeks and months and work out what's best.

 

"It dictates obviously the pre-season, it dictates a whole lot of things for our industry when the season starts, so it's a big piece of work that needs to be done pretty thoroughly."

 

The AFL would need to check the availability of the MCG if the Grand Final was to be scheduled on October 10.

 

If the League was to keep to tradition and retain the decider on the last Saturday in September, it may be forced to scrap the mid-season byes which could result in a backlash from coaches and players. 

 

"It's not as unusual as it sounds to have a Grand Final in October," Lethlean said.

 

"I think we've had it during the Olympics and I think the Commonwealth Games as well. It would be different and we'd need to speak to the MCG about access to it that late and you know then there are decisions to be made about how many byes.

"If we can't get access to our venues then we have to work out what we do with them."

 

Lethlean and his team will liaise with the venues in the coming weeks and months as they decide on the best course of action.

 

He said the scheduling of season 2015 would need to be finalised by June this year at the latest, so planning for the pre-season competition could start.  

 

An April start to the season would, however, allow the Carlton-Richmond clash at the MCG to return to an opening round fixture and the potential abolishment of a split round one.

 

"We would have loved [Carlton-Richmond] to be round one this year," Lethlean said.

 

"It's just the reality of the cricket contract at the MCG meant it wasn't possible this year and it looks like it's even sort of harder next year with the World Cup cricket. It's going to cause some access issues for us at a number of venues of which the MCG is one.

 

"The World Cup final is the 29th of March - that makes a few issues for us in terms of when round one is firstly and whether to do it across two weeks or not. For that game to be a round one game it would need to be an April start to the year, which has its own complications for the season's dates and structures."

 

The AFL recorded the third highest round two attendance figure in its history at the weekend with 315,838 fans turning out to venues around the country.

 

But Lethlean conceded crowd numbers for the Blues-Tigers clash at the MCG last Thursday night were lower than expected.

 

"I think it was down for a couple of reasons," he said.

 

"One, that game does probably get 10,000 more people if it is the first game of the year just because I think the casual attendee or the causal MCC or AFL member goes along because it’s the first game in town and it’s the first game. So there's no doubt that you get a lower crowd because it's not the first round.

 

"The second reason would be the MCC or AFL member who wakes in the morning to rain is probably content to watch the footy on the couch that night rather than go in, so that's probably where the crowd numbers are lower as a round two game."