Despite their incredible 2022 season, Collingwood will miss out on many of the AFL’s primetime Thursday and Friday slots to accommodate their annual Anzac Day clash against Essendon, which falls on a Tuesday.
The Pies feature only three times in the league’s popular Thursday and Friday matches in the first half of the season, playing twice on a Friday night and once on a Thursday as the AFL tries to give clubs adequate breaks between rounds.
Essendon’s Jordan Ridley and Collingwood’s Darcy Cameron at last year’s ANZAC day clash. Credit:AFL Photos
The full 2023 fixture of 23 matches per club across 24 weeks was unveiled on Saturday, but only the first 15 rounds have confirmed timeslots.
Last season more than 84,000 fans filled the MCG for the blockbuster Anzac Day match, which was watched by a national average of 1.35 million viewers across both free-to-air and streaming coverage.
AFL fixture boss Travis Auld said because Anzac Day falls on a Tuesday next year, the sides will forfeit the Thursday, Friday and Saturday slots “for a good four weeks” to give the teams adequate breaks between each round.
“You can gradually get them back, but through the process of a number of weeks. [Collingwood play] a number of Sunday games for that reason,” he said.
“The clubs are very committed to [the match]. They accept the consequences of an unbelievable day of football on our calendar, but it has an impact not just for them, but for other clubs.”
Collingwood’s interim boss Graham Wright, said the club looked forward to hosting the annual match, describing it as an “important day for our nation”.
Meanwhile, Essendon have no Thursday or Friday matches for the first 15 rounds. Instead, the club will play seven Sunday matches and six Saturday matches. The Dons garnered an average viewership of 534,000 last season.
Richmond and Melbourne will also forfeit those primetime slots for their Anzac Day eve match, which has been a feature of the league’s fixture since 2015. More than 70,000 were in attendance at last year’s MCG clash.
Melbourne, the 2021 premiers, will play three Friday night games and one on Thursday night in the first 15 rounds.
Auld also said the Friday night 7.50pm kick off, which was criticised last year for being a non-family friendly time slot, will be an ongoing conversation between the AFL and Channel Seven, who have the broadcasting rights to the match.
“We want to provide as much access as we can for fans to get to a game, and so I think we’re still learning a bit through COVID about having people in the office on a Friday, and how that’s impacting patterns of attendance. But Seven are very committed to that 7.50 slot,” he said.
