St Kilda coach Ross Lyon admits he is concerned that playing a Sunday twilight match in Round 22 could have an adverse affect on his club's finals campaign, beginning the following week.
The Saints are the only one of this year's eight finalists that have been scheduled to play on a Sunday in the last home and away round of the season and their match against Essendon won't kick off until 4.40pm - meaning it will not finish until around 7.15pm Sunday night.
In contrast Collingwood - one of the Saints' possible opponents in week one of the finals - play on Friday night while their most likely opponents in next weekend's elimination finals in Sydney and Adelaide both play on Saturday.
Lyon said on Wednesday he hopes the AFL takes the late starting time of his team's Round 22 match into account when it does its all-important fixturing for the first week of the finals.
"I just hope we get a seven day break (leading into the first final) but we can't control that," he said at Moorabbin.
"We will take what comes but in a perfect scenario we would get the regulation (seven day) break."
"But there are so many possibilities who can end up where - the Kangaroos can finish anywhere from fourth to eighth - that we can't even think about it."
The AFL has long been criticised for not playing all of its last round matches at the same time - as is the case in the English Premier League - to ensure all teams have the same amount of rest heading into the finals and that no team has an advantage over another in terms of the finals equation by knowing the other team's results in advance.
This year the AFL did make the concession of playing just two matches on the Sunday - instead of the usual three - with five matches instead of four scheduled for Saturday but the Saints appear to be at a distinct disadvantage by being the only finalist that has to play on the Sunday in round 22 this season.
So the only way the Saints can be given a full week to prepare for their first final since 2006 next week is if the league schedules it for a Sunday - although Saturday night is also a possibility with the AFL confirming this week it will play one final on Friday night, one on Saturday afternoon, one on Saturday night and one on Sunday with minor premiers Geelong likely to play its qualifying final on Saturday while the other qualifying final between Hawthorn and the Bulldogs is likely to be held on Friday night.
Meanwhile Lyon said star midfielder Luke Ball - who has been sidelined since round 18 with a hamstring injury - was unlikely to be risked this weekend with the Saints desperate to have their former skipper ready for the start of the finals.
"He is more unlikely than likely (to play this week) at this stage but he is running pretty strongly," Lyon said of Ball.