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<\/p>\nAFL Head of Strategy and Scheduling Josh Bowler has explained the quirks of the 2026 AFL fixture, including the curious decision to host two back-to-back games in Western Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
West Australian fans noticed a rare occurrence in Thursday\u2019s fixture announcement, with West Coast and Fremantle set to play in different matches on the same day in round 13, both games based in WA.<\/p>\n
Fremantle heads to Bunbury to play North Melbourne, who hosts two home games in WA as part of a three-year deal with the AFL, WA government and Tourism WA. In the evening, West Coast then hosts Port Adelaide at Optus Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fixturing raises interesting questions, particularly for broadcast and media logistics, with outlets having to divide their resources across the two games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking to\u00a0SportFM,\u00a0Bowler says the decision was made with other marquee fixtures surrounding the King\u2019s Birthday public holiday in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important that we got the North Melbourne game to the Saturday, which was a point of difference from the Sunday the year prior in Bunbury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that Sunday is the lead-up in the Eastern States to the King\u2019s Birthday holiday, Sydney is hosting a King\u2019s Birthday Eve marquee, and then that leads into Essendon vs Carlton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis meant the other game in Perth was also going to be played on the Saturday. Obviously, the week prior, there\u2019s the Sunday night marquee with West Coast playing against Essendon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowler also says there is scope for West Coast and Fremantle to be involved in the Opening Round in the future, despite their primary goal being growth in Australia\u2019s Northern states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Victoria will enter Opening Round this season due to demand and is scheduled to host a Sunday night clash between Collingwood and St Kilda at the MCG hours after the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, the Western Australian teams will have to wait, with the AFC Women\u2019s Asian Cup keeping both West Coast and Fremantle out of Optus Stadium during the Opening Round and Round One of the AFL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur idea was to build marquees in New South Wales and Queensland, and we\u2019ve done that. We\u2019ve seen record participation and memberships for those clubs in those states,\u201d said Bowler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was feedback coming through around wanting to see games in Victoria and other states. Based on venue availability, we\u2019ve made the calls this year to expand it and have a game in Victoria on the Sunday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for other sports using Optus Stadium and Adelaide Oval, we may have looked at that as well. It\u2019s a really strong start to the season, and our competition will continue to evolve, and Opening Round will likely evolve with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another new feature of the 2026 fixture is more Friday night doubleheaders, with Fremantle set to feature in three of the six rounds, including one home game against St Kilda in round 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bowler says their addition to the fixture has been well received by the clubs and will allow clubs to bolster their viewership and crowd numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, what it does is provide a game that would be overlapping with another one on a Sunday and onto a Friday night prime time slot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Perth, those fans can watch Fremantle play St Kilda on Channel 7 on a Friday night, which is a big win for the local fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases, for Mother\u2019s Day weekend, for example, it just means for Port Adelaide, where they would have been playing a game on Mother\u2019s Day, where fans have a lot of conflicting things on that given day, can then play that on a Friday night instead and maximise their crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season starts on Thursday, March 5th, with Sydney vs Carlton at the SCG. Fremantle open its season against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday, March 14th, while West Coast will close round 1 against Gold Coast at People First Stadium.<\/p>\n
IMAGE: AFL Photos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL Head of Strategy and Scheduling Josh Bowler has explained the quirks of the 2026 AFL fixture, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-283627","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\/283627","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=283627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}