{"id":611157,"date":"2026-04-16T17:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:33:13","slug":"afl-forced-to-shift-anzac-day-game-times-due-to-tasmanian-government-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611157\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL forced to shift Anzac Day game times due to Tasmanian government legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AFL<\/a> has had to shift the start times of two separate games on Anzac Day due to a 97-year-old Tasmanian law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Next Saturday\u2019s early clash between Hawthorn and Gold Coast at UTAS Stadium in Launceston has been pushed back 15 minutes from 12.15pm AEST to 12.30pm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In their original fixturing, the AFL made an oversight of an almost century-old state government legislation in the Apple Isle that prohibits any sporting events starting before 12.30pm on Anzac Day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-h2mhmv-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The legislation is called Tasmania\u2019s Anzac Day Observance Act, and has been in place since 1929.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">As a result of that tweak, Essendon and Collingwood\u2019s traditional Anzac Day clash at the MCG has been moved back five minutes from 3.15pm AEST to 3.20pm, to minimise overlap with the earlier game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The AFL\u2019s head of scheduling Josh Bowler \u201cthanked clubs, broadcast partner Foxtel, Channel 7, UTAS Stadium and the MCG for collaboratively working together on a solution\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Anzac Day matches have taken place in Tasmania four times, most recently in 2022 and 2011, both of which started at 12.30pm AEST.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Port Adelaide\u2019s Adelaide Oval clash with Geelong at 6.35pm AEST and Fremantle\u2019s Optus Stadium date with Carlton at 8.15pm AEST have had no change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The full 2026 AFL fixture was originally released back in late November.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/brisbane-star-lachie-neale-publicly-addresses-off-season-cheating-scandal-for-the-first-time-c-22150257\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Lachie Neale breaks silence on bombshell scandal that rocked AFL<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">3 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/respected-coaches-ross-lyon-and-sam-mitchell-join-criticism-of-afls-tribunal-debacle-c-22149994\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>AFL in the middle of raging \u2018firestorm\u2019 as coaches get stuck in<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL has had to shift the start times of two separate games on Anzac Day due to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,10133,11231,9130,7492,43,1625,44,3863,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-611157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-collingwood-magpies","10":"tag-essendon-bombers","11":"tag-gold-coast-suns","12":"tag-hawthorn-hawks","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sponsored-content","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611157","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=611157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}