The AFL is expected to open the 2023 home-and-away season by reverting to the Carlton v Richmond blockbuster on Thursday night after a one-season experiment with a game between the previous year’s grand finalists.
AFL sources confirmed that the league intended to revert to beginning the men’s season with the Carlton-Richmond game, which consistently draws a hefty crowd, rather than pitting Geelong and the Sydney Swans, the 2022 grand finalists.
Richmond and Carlton are set to open the 2023 season, not this year’s grand finalists. Credit:AFL Photos
The AFL trialled the grand finalists of the previous season when Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs in March played on the Wednesday night at the MCG, and drew a slightly disappointing attendance of 58,002 in what was the first opportunity for Demons fans to see their historic premiership team at the MCG since the middle of 2021.
The AFL view is that a Geelong-Sydney grand final rematch – at either Geelong or the SCG – would not work as well as Carlton and Richmond, and might not fit the needs of either the Geelong or Sydney fans in their respective cities.
Richmond and Carlton drew 72,179 to their Thursday night game last year and have opened the AFL season on a Thursday night every year since 2008, except for 2021. Carlton’s decade of losses to Richmond had led to criticism of the first game being handed to those clubs every year, but the Blues finally broke through with a comeback victory last year.
The appeal of Carlton and Richmond in March next year would likely be boosted by Carlton’s high expectations of making the finals following last year’s unlucky near-miss, and Richmond’s potential to charge back into contention after the recruitment of ex-Giants teammates and midfielders Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper.
The AFL is introducing an extra “magic round” in April during school holidays in which all games will be played in South Australia, with six likely to be hosted at the Adelaide Oval, and the Barossa Valley under consideration as a venue, along with suburban grounds in Greater Adelaide.
The magic round increases the men’s season to 23 matches over 24 rounds and the league would like to make it annual, with the location of the round moving to other states. Next year, the nine matches will be played from Thursday night, April 13, until late on Sunday, April 16, during the SA school holidays.
The AFL fixture will not be released in full until December. The league will not have floating fixture for the first 15 rounds of next year, having reacted to the wishes and complaints of fans. Crowds had been well below 2019 levels early in 2022, but recovered late in the season, in part due to the surge up the ladder of Collingwood and Carlton, improvement in the game as a spectacle and an apparent reduction in COVID-19 anxiety for public gatherings.
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