Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.<\/a><\/p>\nMeanwhile arguably the biggest QClash ever between Gold Coast and Brisbane on Saturday afternoon (1.20pm) isn\u2019t on prime time at all, yet Carlton and Essendon, who won\u2019t play finals, play in marquee slot on Thursday and Friday night respectively. <\/p>\n
And despite there only being two games on Sunday \u2014 Richmond v Collingwood (2.10pm) and St Kilda v Melbourne (3.15pm) \u2014 they cross over. <\/p>\n
It was much to the dismay of Whateley, who suggested the planning of the entire round didn\u2019t make sense. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan I just put up how odd the scheduling and inconsistent with the patterns of the season this is,\u201d Whateley began on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a starting point, the addiction to Carlton and Essendon in prime time is laid clear. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe insults to the Giants and Swans and putting the Sydney Derby tucked underneath (Essendon v Western Bulldogs) at 7.50pm Homebush is of no help whatsoever.<\/p>\n
\u201cGold Coast has just played its biggest home game against Collingwood (a fortnight ago). How do you build momentum? Well, how about for the most important QClash ever, we\u2019ll give you the really strange 1.20pm Saturday afternoon, as if trying to thwart a huge crowd. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just plain weird the West Derby is in the Saturday twilight slot, 2.15pm over in the west. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s disrespecting the Showdown to have placed it where it is \u2014 underneath an all-Victorian clash \u2014 when it can carry so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
GUILTY! May 3-match ban stands | 01:18<\/p>\n
Whateley was most critical of Sunday\u2019s overlapping games given it\u2019s a rare opportunity for the two matches to get stand-alone slots. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut the pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance is what they have done on Sunday. There are only two games, they are both in Melbourne at venues nearby and we haven\u2019t been able to find clear air,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe only 2.10pm start time of the year is Richmond v Collingwood, then we\u2019re going to start St Kilda v Melbourne just to make sure they\u2019re covered right over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your kids brought you this fixture, you would send them back to their room and say: \u2018Start again!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Melbourne legend Garry Lyon was also critical of the Round 20 fixture.<\/p>\n
\u201cSack \u2018em all, Gerard!,\u201d Lyon facetiously said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGet that famous saying of yours out from Gather Round. That\u2019s patently ridiculous. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things there. The Sunday situation is just mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL ROUND 20 FIXTURE<\/p>\n
Thursday July 24<\/p>\n
Hawthorn v Carlton, MCG (7.30pm)<\/p>\n
Friday July 25<\/p>\n
Essendon v Western Bulldogs, Marvel Stadium (7.10pm)<\/p>\n
GWS Giants v Sydney Swans, ENGIE Stadium (7.50pm)<\/p>\n
Saturday July 26<\/p>\n
Gold Coast Suns v Brisbane Lions, People First Stadium (1.20pm)<\/p>\n
Fremantle v West Coast Eagles, Optus Stadium (4.15pm)<\/p>\n
North Melbourne v Geelong Cats, Marvel Stadium (7.35pm)<\/p>\n
Adelaide Crows v Port Adelaide, Adelaide Oval (8.10pm)<\/p>\n
Sunday July 27<\/p>\n
Richmond v Collingwood, MCG (2.10pm)<\/p>\n
St Kilda v Melbourne, Marvel Stadium (3.20pm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Respected broadcaster Gerard Whateley has slammed the AFL\u2019s \u201codd\u201d and \u201cinconsistent\u201d Round 20 fixture. The upcoming round features…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18621,64,63,689,684,651,1129,18623,10145,61,2485,18617,18619,18624,647,3257,673,677,701,18618,85,1122,18622,6750,8018,670,18620,660,698],"class_list":["post-17513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-victorian-clash","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-cotton","tag-brisbane","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-fixture-problem","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-gold-coast","tag-highlight-matchups","tag-home-game","tag-marquee-slot","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-voss","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-queensland","tag-respected-broadcaster","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-stand-alone-slots","tag-start-time","tag-steven-may","tag-sydney","tag-twilight-slot","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}