The AFL today announced it had written to each of the 17 AFL clubs, along with the AFL’s broadcast partners, venues and other key partners, to outline the likely key dates for the 2011 Toyota AFL Premiership Season and to begin the work of the construction of the fixture.

AFL Chief Operating Officer Gillon McLachlan said he had written to all major stakeholders seeking their input and it was expected the fixture would be completed in mid to late October 2010, as per the schedule of recent seasons.

“The introduction of the Gold Coast Football Club for the 2011 season as the 17th club in the AFL competition will mean that our season will require 187 matches to complete a full round of 11 home games and 11 away games for every club, with each club having two byes across a 24-week season before the commencement of the finals,” Mr McLachlan said.

“There are several different options on how we can construct the fixture to play 22 matches for each club.

“We can play the season under one model which has 22 weeks with a standard eight matches, with one team having a bye for each of those 22 rounds, along with one round where five matches are played with seven teams having byes and one round where six matches are played with five teams having byes, to fulfill the requirement for 187 games and two byes per Club.

“We can also play the season under a model whereby we play 19 rounds of eight matches per week, and then five rounds of seven matches per week where three teams have a bye each week for those rounds.

“Aside from the construction of each round of matches, the AFL is still having detailed discussions around the start date to the season, as part of the requirement for the premiership season to be extended by one week in length from the 2010 year, where the 22 rounds are played across 23 weeks.

"The AFL is still working through the start date for the 2011 year but we may require to play into October for next year, which would place the 2011 Toyota AFL Grand Final on Saturday October 1,” he said.

Mr McLachlan said the AFL remained in discussions with Cricket Australia but it was not expected the start of the season would be brought forward by one week (to retain the Grand Final on the last Saturday in September for the 2011 year), as cricket commitments at the SCG, the MCG and the Gabba for the Shield Final in the week of 17 March 2011 meant each of those venues were unavailable for AFL matches (early April in the case of the SCG).

The AFL did not wish to start the season without the use of three key venues, as Gold Coast Stadium at Carrara would also be unavailable in the early part of the season due to redevelopment work.

“We fully respect the commitments that Cricket Australia has in March and it was the AFL’s view that it was not appropriate that we begin the season without the use of three key grounds, which are still required to be available for cricket at that time of the year,” Mr McLachlan said.

“Gold Coast Stadium will be completed after the start of the 2011 season and it would be too great a restriction on the production of the fixture to be requiring up to half of the clubs in the competition to all be set down for away games for the first 1-2 rounds of the season, and therefore it is likely we will elect to start the premiership season in the last week of March and play through to the first Saturday in October for the 2011 year.

“In 2012, when team GWS is set to join the competition as the 18th club, there will not be the requirement to schedule byes into the season and, as per this year, we will only require 23 weeks to play 22 rounds of matches.”

The likely key dates for each part of the 2011 season have therefore been advised at this stage to be as follows:

NAB Cup R1 over 2 weekends - 12 and 19 February 2010
NAB Cup - Grand Final Weekend of 12 March 2011 (Seven Network)
Toyota AFL Premiership Season - Round 1 Thursday 24 March 2011 - Sunday 27 March 2011
Easter - Round 5 Thursday 21 April 2011 - Monday 25 April 2011
ANZAC Day - Round 5 Monday 25 April 2011 (also Easter Monday)
Mother’s Day - Round 7 Sunday 7 May 2011
Queen’s Birthday (except WA) - Round 12 Monday 12 June 2011
Toyota AFL Premiership Season - Round 24 Friday 2 September - Sunday 4 September 2011
Toyota AFL Finals Series - Week 1 Friday 9 September 2011
Toyota AFL Grand Final Saturday 1 October 2011 (Network Ten)

Mr McLachlan said the letter to all key stakeholders on the fixture production had set out the key parameters of the broadcasting agreement, as well as other primary considerations for the AFL.

“The AFL’s arrangements with its broadcasters contain many specific scheduling obligations in relation to free to air and subscription television broadcast of Victorian and non-Victorian Clubs, match selection priorities for broadcasters as well as certain strategic imperatives for expansion markets.

“Other considerations for the AFL are: AFL and AFL Club contractual obligations with stadia; Player welfare issues/six-day break minimums; Travel considerations for Clubs; Maximising attendances; Continuation of “blockbuster” and “themed” matches; Maintaining consistency of start times; Balancing the number of match-ups between top and bottom-placed Clubs from 2010 (where possible) and Expansion market objectives,” Mr McLachlan said.

All parties have been asked to respond by Monday August 2.