AFL must fix fixturing flaws

Flexible fixturing for round 22 of the AFL home-and-away season needs to be put on the league's match scheduling agenda sooner rather than later.

In an already compromised draw, the benefits of making the final home-and-away round a 'floating' set of eight games are many – headlined by a fairer system of allocating week one finals dates if top eight teams are spared from the final Sunday of the regular season.

In a perfect world, the AFL should follow the English Premier League's lead and play all of its final weekend matches at the same time on the same day.

Okay, so that ain't going to happen, but it is still possible to play all games on the same day (Saturday), with staggered starts from, say, 1.10pm AEST in Launceston to 7.30pm WST in Perth. Five day and three night matches on a 'Super Saturday' is possible across three television networks and at eight different venues.

Apart from easing the scheduling issues with week one of the finals (this year we have three finalists – Sydney, Hawthorn and the Kangaroos – playing on the final Sunday, which precludes them from playing in the Friday night final after a five-day break), the slightly different idea of a 'floating' draw eliminates teams receiving an unfair advantage in regard to knowing exactly what they need to do to finish in a certain position.

This year's example involves Port Adelaide and West Coast, and the not-so-minor matter of who finishes second and hosts a qualifying final next week.

The Power and the Eagles are currently separated by just 0.4 per cent, but the men from Alberton will have the luxury of knowing exactly what they need to do to maintain that slender advantage over the reigning premiers given their AAMI Stadium clash with Fremantle begins an hour after the West Coast-Essendon encounter at Subiaco has concluded.

If a 'floating' fixture system for round 22 was being utilised, Port Adelaide and West Coast need to be playing their matches at the same time to eradicate any perceived advantage to the side playing second.

And in terms of the finalists, for teams ensconced in the top eight with two or three rounds to go, the AFL could massage the final round by swapping games involving those teams from a Sunday to a Saturday, while matches scheduled for the Saturday that have two confirmed non-finalists meeting each other could be moved to the Sunday.

Now maybe the television networks would jump up and down with all this 'confusion' surrounding the scheduling of round 22 on an annual basis, but for the sake of fairness, and integrity, these two suggestions should – at the very least – be discussed at length by the AFL's football operations department (in conjunction with Channels 7, 10 and Foxtel) to come up with an even better finale to each home-and-away campaign.