OVER the next couple of weeks, the AFL Insider and My AFL Season will look at a range of topics and issues relating to the AFL fixture for 2012 and beyond - we will discuss and respond to the main themes from your feedback, continue to present more new ideas (including some of your submissions), and try to answer some of your questions on the AFL fixture.
It’s been an amazing response so far - in the first two days we have had more than 11,000 surveys completed, 1500 comments on the website and more than 600 submissions from fans. We have a team of people working through the ideas, and will do our best to report back to you.
A thread that has drawn major discussion and debate so far has been on the merits of a 25 round season in relation to a 2x9 conference system - where each team plays its own conference twice (16 games) and the other once (9 games).
The AFL does not have any thought to extending the season out as far as 25 rounds, and it’s our view that the season should extend between 22 weeks and an upper limit of 24 weeks. A primary reason for this limitation, aside to player welfare (heat, workload etc), is the AFL’s access to venues.
For example, if we were to extend the 2010 season by 3 rounds (from 22 over 23 weeks, to 25 over 26 weeks), and assuming the Grand Final remained on the last Saturday in September, the season would require a start on Thursday March 4th. This would mean the first 3 rounds without use of the MCG, SCG or Gabba, who each have contracts with cricket up until the end of March.
As you can imagine, this would create some significant issues within the fixture, considering the number of games we currently schedule at those venues - in the first 3 rounds of 2010 there were 11 matches at those 3 grounds, which we would need to find alternative venues for.
When you consider the existing workload on Etihad Stadium, and the reluctance of Victorian, NSW or QLD teams to play home games in other states, a 25+ round season is not currently in our plans.
Tell us what you think or if you have any suggestions using the comments field below.
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