THE FIXTURING gods have smiled on the AFL for its inaugural Gather Round, with more than 200,000 tickets sold and eight of the nine games sold out for the League's migration to South Australia.

The entire AFL competition will shift to Adelaide for the historic first Festival of Footy, which will see all 18 teams play in the same state on the same weekend for the very first time.

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And what looked to be a good weekend of games when the schedule was announced four months ago is now looming as the best round of the season to date.

Headlining that shift from solid to spectacular is the final game of the round between St Kilda and Collingwood at Adelaide Oval. What many would have predicted to be a one-sided affair between the injury-hit Saints and the high-flying Magpies is instead a battle between Ross Lyon's ladder-leading side – the only team in the competition with a 100 per cent record – and the fifth-placed Pies.

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Similarly, the Saturday twilight match between Melbourne (third) and Essendon (fourth) is shaping as a blockbuster, with the Bombers' strong start to the season making this a battle between two top-four sides.

Six of the top seven teams on the ladder after four rounds will face each other this weekend, with the Gather Round opener on Thursday night pitting the unbeaten Blues (second) against the in-form Crows (seventh).

Even those games between the sides in the bottom half of the ladder have plenty of intrigue, with Fremantle v Gold Coast, Geelong v West Coast and GWS v Hawthorn all games featuring teams with a 1-3 record after four rounds.

In fact, had Richmond edged past Carlton in what turned out to be a drawn season-opener, eight of the nine games this weekend would have featured teams with identical records from the first month of the season.

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Whether by good fortune or good management, the exciting fixture for the inaugural event has clearly struck a chord; tickets for eight of the nine games have been exhausted, with the Friday night match between Richmond and Sydney at Adelaide Oval the only match remaining that has tickets still available.

A total of 202,000 tickets have been sold, with 57,000 purchased by people outside South Australia.

GATHER ROUND FIXTURE

Thursday, April 13
Adelaide (2-2) v Carlton (2-1-1) at Adelaide Oval, 7.10pm local

Friday, April 14
Fremantle (1-3) v Gold Coast (1-3) at Norwood Oval, 4.40pm local
Richmond (1-1-2) v Sydney (2-2) at Adelaide Oval, 7.40pm local

Saturday April 15
Brisbane (2-2) v North Melbourne (2-2) at Mount Barker, 12.40pm local
Essendon (3-1) v Melbourne (3-1) at Adelaide Oval, 3.40pm local
Port Adelaide (2-2) v Western Bulldogs (2-2) at Adelaide Oval, 7.20pm local

Sunday April 16
Geelong (1-3) v West Coast (1-3) at Adelaide Oval, 12.40pm local
GWS (1-3) v Hawthorn (1-3) at Norwood Oval, 2.50pm local
Collingwood (3-1) v St Kilda (4-0) at Adelaide Oval, 4.20pm local

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