{"id":281808,"date":"2025-11-13T13:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281808\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:19:13","slug":"afl-fixture-list-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281808\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL fixture list 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL will be putting all its chips in on Carlton<\/a> having a successful start to the season with the Blues handed five marquee matches inside the first six rounds.<\/p>\n

Marquee matches have been categorised as Thursday and Friday night fixtures.<\/p>\n

Carlton were tipped for a shot at the top four last season but were thoroughly disappointing, finishing 11th.<\/p>\n

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Michael Voss<\/a> has now lost his key forward Charlie Curnow and other key position stars Jack Silvagni and Tom De Koning.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow is now at the Swans. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Swans forward Will Hayward went the other way in the Curnow deal but the real value came from three first-round picks. That upside is unlikely to be delivered early in the 2026 season, however.<\/p>\n

Ben Ainsworth, Oliver Florent, Campbell Chesser and Liam Reidy have all joined the club but don’t quite match the status of Curnow, Silvagni and De Koning.<\/p>\n

In Opening Round, Carlton will kick off the season against Sydney on Thursday March 5 at 7.30pm (AEDT).<\/p>\n

That match will no doubt be billed as Curnow’s reunion against his old teammates.<\/p>\n

Round one is another marquee Thursday night clash against Richmond.<\/p>\n

In round two the Blues have the bye, followed by a Sunday afternoon match against Melbourne.<\/p>\n

A Good Friday afternoon marquee game with the Kangaroos is next before two Thursday night clashes against Adelaide and then Collingwood. The Adelaide match will start Gather Round.<\/p>\n

Carlton will have another blockbuster match up in round eight against St Kilda on Saturday night. By then, both teams will be an interesting watch.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Voss, senior coach of Carlton.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Saints were aggressive in recruitment and improvement is a must.<\/p>\n

Then comes the Blues’ ladder position. Will ratings be through the roof or fans sick of inconsistency? Time will tell.<\/p>\n

Carlton also has brutal double-up games in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Blues play Brisbane and Collingwood twice along with four teams that should be on the improve: Fremantle, Richmond, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

It won’t take long to work out where Voss is with this side.<\/p>\n

“The pressure is definitely amplified when more people are watching and you’re involved in standalone games or primetime games,” Kane Cornes said on SEN, referencing Voss as well as Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge. The Bulldogs have six marquee matches.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Blues have four Thursday night matches and three on Friday before round 16, beyond which dates and times are to be confirmed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL will be putting all its chips in on Carlton having a successful start to the season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-281808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281808","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=281808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}