Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs face the prospect of a short break leading into the first week of the finals after the AFL confirmed on Wednesday night that it won't change its Round 22 scheduling.

AFL media manager Patrick Keane confirmed to Sportal that the Bulldogs-Pies match would remain in its current timeslot of 4.40pm Sunday in Round 22.

"The match isn't changing," Keane said.

The league's decision comes after it was unable to reach an agreement with its broadcasters to allow for the Pies-Dogs' match to be moved, which would have given the AFL more flexibility with regards to its finals schedule for week one.

With unbeaten league leaders St Kilda also playing on the Sunday in Round 22 - the league's decision means that both the Pies and the Bulldogs are likely to face just a six day break between games leading into their first finals match.

With the Saints guaranteed to finish on top, Ross Lyon's team is also guaranteed to play its opening final on a Sunday - ensuring it has a full seven days to prepare - as a reward for its dominant season.

So that leaves the Pies and the Dogs - whose Round 22 match won't even finish until about 7.30pm on the Sunday night - having to back up either the following Saturday afternoon or Saturday night for their first final.

And given no team can have a five day break leading into a match - the AFL also faces the possibility of having to allocate potentially its least attractive match-up of the four first week finals to the prized Friday night slot.

If the Pies, Dogs and Saints all find themselves in separate finals matches in week one - as appears likely - that leaves the AFL with just one other final to be played on the Friday night and that could even turn out to be an all non-Victorian affair between a combination of Brisbane, Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

Such an outcome would not please Channel Seven, which will show the Friday night and Sunday final in week one, while Channel Ten will telecast the two Saturday finals.

The AFL had been hoping to transfer the Dogs-Collingwood match in Round 22 to the Friday night - giving both teams a longer break heading into the finals and giving the AFL more potential options in regards to the scheduling of its Friday night final in week one.

As part of the switch, the meaningless West Coast-Richmond game scheduled for Friday night in Round 22 would have been moved to the Sunday.

However Fox Sports, which has the exclusive broadcast rights to the eagerly-awaited Dogs-Pies' clash - which could decide fourth spot on the ladder - did not want to give up such an important game in return for a game between two teams out of contention.

It is not the first time the AFL has failed to correct an anomaly in its fixture this year following the public outcry over the scheduling of its Round 14 St Kilda-Geelong match.

That clash between what was then two unbeaten teams remained at the 54,000 capacity Etihad Stadium - instead of being transferred to the 100,000 capacity MCG which was vacant that day - after stadium operators at the Docklands' venue threatened to sue the AFL if the match was shifted.