2026 AFL fixture

[Thunder Shaker]

The AFL fixture for 2026 has been released.

Teams Sydney play twice: Brisbane Lions, GWS Giants, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs.

Byes are in round 3 and round 15.

"Opening round" match is against Carlton.

[Jimitron5000]

Not a great deal in Melbourne either.

[KSAS]

Standard 6 games in Victoria which includes down at Geelong.
3 games at Marvel and 2 at MCG. Wish it was the other way round, but after missing on finals this year probably need to re-earn the right for 3 MCG games?

Concerned with Richmond playing a home game at Tassie next 2 years, instead of Marvel, it will almost certainly be against non Vic teams. Potentialy reducing our games in Melbourne for our strong Melbourne supporter base.

Can umderstand Blues fans frustration in not playing return game against us with Curnow. But can't understand how the AFL scored them 7 games in the prime time Thursday/Friday night timeslots, compared to premiers Brisbane's 2 in the first 15 rounds! (we have 5). I recall this was a ratings disaster few years back when it was similarly fixtured.

Don't know how accurate this is, but heard a SEN caller state in the 5 out of the last 6 seasons Geelong has played 2 of the bottom 3 teams twice.

[Thunder Shaker]

Don't know how accurate this is, but heard a SEN caller state in the 5 out of the last 6 seasons Geelong has played 2 of the bottom 3 teams twice.

Checking this going back several years would take a bit of time, but I have found that next year Geelong will play these teams twice: Adelaide, Brisbane Lions, Collingwood, Fremantle, Gold Coast, North Melbourne. Five of those six teams played finals in 2025.

[Thunder Shaker]

The AFL website has published its annual analysis of each club's fixtures: Double-ups, prime slots, degree of difficulty: We rank your club's fixture.

It rates Sydney's fixture as 10th hardest, which is about right considering Sydney finished 10th.

Hardest fixtures: Geelong, Gold Coast, Collingwood, Brisbane.
Easiest fixtures: Port Adelaide and Richmond (equal), North Melbourne, GWS Giants.

Clubs with most five-day breaks: Hawthorn (3), Adelaide (2), Geelong (2), Melbourne (2), Richmond (2).

[liz]

I thought Richmond were a big Melbourne club, with a huge Tiger Army that turns out to support them. So why are they playing home matches in Tasmania? Is the Army not so committed now they are no longer competing at the pointy end of the league?

[KSAS]

Tactical by Richmond as it sends a message to the AFL that they don't like playing at Marvel, in the hope they will get fixtured 11 "home" games at he MCG.