Fitting 18 teams into 24 rounds is hard enough. You then have to work in byes, long weekends, block buster games and TV rights. It can’t be easy.
But last weekend’s round really amazed me. It was a long weekend, and many country leagues took the opportunity for a bye themselves (including local AusKick competitions).
This gives families, particularly those in the country, the chance to go to the football in Melbourne (or elsewhere) to watch their favourite team – except that six clubs had the bye and many played interstate…..
As I said, the AFL draw must be almost impossible to get right, but surely scheduling all teams to play on a long weekend makes more sense.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just have a football free weekend in the middle of the season, giving all clubs the weekend off and making it fair for everyone? And by everyone I mean SuperCoach 'coaches' who, instead, have three weeks of madness with what amounts to three byes, rather than one.
Or is that just too easy?