{"id":827099,"date":"2026-07-27T14:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827099\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:30:11","slug":"afl-locks-in-historic-mcg-double-header-to-solve-round-23-fixture-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827099\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL locks in historic MCG double-header to solve Round 23 fixture crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MCG is set to host two AFL<\/a> men\u2019s games on the same day for the fourth time in VFL\/AFL history.<\/p>\n

7NEWS understands a Round 23 double-header has been locked in for Saturday, August 15, the penultimate weekend of the season.<\/p>\n

Though the exact timings are still to be determined, Essendon v Sydney and Richmond v St Kilda are slated to be the two matches the same day at the MCG. <\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

One will be in the early afternoon, and the other at night. <\/p>\n

Hawthorn v Collingwood is expected to be on the Sunday afternoon of August 16, also at the MCG and live and free on Channel 7 and 7plus Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The moves follow the AFL\u2019s decision to leave Thursday, August 13 free of men\u2019s football.<\/p>\n

Instead, Melbourne and Hawthorn will play an AFLW fixture that evening, giving the women\u2019s competition a night of clear air in its opening round.<\/p>\n

It means the league has to squish nine AFL games into three days, including the three at the MCG.<\/p>\n

Fremantle will host Adelaide in Perth on Friday, August 14.<\/p>\n

The other Round 23 games are: <\/p>\n

Brisbane v Gold Coast <\/p>\n

GWS v West Coast <\/p>\n

North Melbourne v Geelong <\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs v Carlton <\/p>\n

Port Adelaide v Melbourne <\/p>\n

While the league has scheduled double-headers at Marvel Stadium this year, they haven\u2019t done so at the MCG since Round 16 in 2021. <\/p>\n

COVID meant that Melbourne faced GWS in game one, while Fremantle\u2019s clash against Carlton was moved from Perth to the MCG and staged at night.<\/p>\n

Previously, the only other men\u2019s double-headers at the MCG took place back in 1986.<\/p>\n

One occurred in Round 5, and the other in Round 19. <\/p>\n

The AFL will release the full Round 23 and Round 24 fixtures on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MCG is set to host two AFL men\u2019s games on the same day for the fourth time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10133,11231,7492,1625,672,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-827099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-lifestyle","tag-richmond-tigers","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827099","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=827099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}