Round 23 schedule announced

[erica]

Round 23 fixture

Friday, August 29
Collingwood v Hawthorn MCG 7.50pm

Saturday, August 30
Carlton v Essendon MCG 1.45pm
Fremantle v Port Adelaide Patersons Stadium 1.10pm
Sydney Swans v Richmond ANZ Stadium 4.40pm
Geelong Cats v Brisbane Lions Simonds Stadium 7.40pm
North Melbourne v Melbourne Etihad Stadium 7.40pm

Sunday, August 31
Gold Coast Suns v West Coast Eagles Metricon Stadium 1.10pm
Adelaide Crows v St Kilda Adelaide Oval 3.20pm
Western Bulldogs v GWS Etihad Stadium 4.40pm

[joemoore12]

Is anybody else as surprised as I am that the two biggest clubs in Melbourne obviously got their way again. Friday night MCG means longer break before finals.....Hmmmm any equalization issues in fixturing??

[mcs]

Is anybody else as surprised as I am that the two biggest clubs in Melbourne obviously got their way again. Friday night MCG means longer break before finals.....Hmmmm any equalization issues in fixturing??

Surely our game should have been swapped with the Carlton v Essendon game, and that game played on saturday evening, with the Cats game in the Saturday twilight. That would have given the group of teams that will make up the top 4 teams

From that, I think its relatively clear that, if we finish Top 2, our qualifying final will be the second one during the weekend (Saturday night?), with the Melbourne based game (assuming Port don't finish Top 2) the friday night game.

[Untamed Snark]

I was hoping for the Friday night but twilight Saturday isn't too bad

[liz]

I was hoping for the Friday night but twilight Saturday isn't too bad

That was never really on the cards because we play our round 22 game on mid Sunday afternoon. That would give us a 5 day turnaround, which the AFL generally tries to avoid (other than where ANZAC day forces such a schedule).

[barry]

Thats a great result for us. Home game for a start, against a minnow secondly, and on a saturday arvo finally.

As long as we finish top 2, we should be able to stay at home until the (victorian favoured) grand final at the MCG.

Lets hope Hawthorn finish lower than 2nd, so need to win interstate to get to their victorian favoured grand final venue.

[jono2707]

4.40 is a good time for this Homebush match - makes traveling there and back pretty reasonable. Also it's at a good time to get out there early and have a bit of a wander round and lunch prior to the game.

I think it's fine in terms of recovery times for the players as well....

[aardvark]

Collingwood should be playing Sunday with all the other also rans.......

[Jewels]

Collingwood should be playing Sunday with all the other also rans.......

No they shouldn't, after such a fine season they deserve to start their summer holiday nice and early

I'd be a bit annoyed if I were Adelaide, they have as good a chance as Essendon of playing finals yet they're round 23 game is Sunday afternoon.

[dimelb]

No they shouldn't, after such a fine season they deserve to start their summer holiday nice and early

I'd be a bit annoyed if I were Adelaide, they have as good a chance as Essendon of playing finals yet they're round 23 game is Sunday afternoon.

I thought the same thing about the Crows. AFL could do better.

[annew]

Since we have to play round 23 at that awful ground I am glad for the 4.40 time slot, certainly better than Sat night.

[Doctor]

It's a decent draw. Despite what we think of those two clubs, it's quite legitimate that they should get a Friday evening. We're at home so there's no travel afterwards. Freo and Port are both in the finals so they have every right to play an early game. The AFL probably don't want 3 games in Victoria happening at virtually the same time so that's why Carlton and Essendon got the early game.

[Conor_Dillon]

Looking at the AFL finals fixture for the Qualifying finals and the corresponding round of NRL it looks as though there are no games at ANZ which means we would have to play our first final there, assuming we finish top 2. Is this correct?

Apologies if this has already been covered in another thread but it's a real shame...an SCG final would have been awesome.

Could someone who knows more about the NRL season and how it's likely to pan out tell us the liklihood of us getting a prelim final at the SCG should we win the qualifying final?

[Zlatorog]

Judging from the current NRL ladder positions there could be 3 finals in Sydney, which means that 2 NRL games are played at SFS and 1 at ANZ stadium. If 4 games are scheduled in Sydney than most likely the Swans will play at the SCG.

[mcs]

I'd love a final at a packed SCG, but its probably unlikely. As we saw in 2012, the AFL often gets in first and has first dibs over the NRL about ANZ.

I'd say absolutely no hope at all of a prelim at SCG - there are only 2 NRL games the weekend of Prelims, and I'd find it unlikely the NRL would want to play both Prelims at ANZ.

I'd still love to see the Swans play all week 1 finals at SCG, week 3 finals at ANZ, and alternate in regards to week 2 finals.