There has to be a better way to schedule the season with a balance between commercial imperatives, high performance and fairness
The AFL fixture is designed with broadcast and attendances front of mind to leave inequities that are exposed as the season plays out.The AFL fixture is designed with broadcast and attendances front of mind to leave inequities that are exposed as the season plays out.executives on an NFL Super Bowl junket were sitting next to Canadian software guru Rick Stone. For years, the AFL fixture had been done by hand, and then on a spreadsheet.
Demetriou’s successor Gillon McLachlan negotiated a $4.5bn broadcast rights deal that handed an extraordinary amount of power to the host broadcasters. They want double-up, blockbuster games between big-drawing traditional rivals. They want to play every Thursday night. Hell, they’d make them play every night if they could get away with it. A semblance of evenness, fairness and clarity are pushed well down the list of priorities.
By the second week of August, Carlton will have played Collingwood, North Melbourne, Richmond, Port Adelaide, GWS and Geelong twice. But they won’t yet have played Hawthorn, West Coast or St Kilda. Similarly, the Giants just played their second Sydney derby in seven weeks, but don’t play Fremantle for the first time until round 23.
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