FULL AFL FIXTURE FOR SEASON 2011

Friday, 29 October, 2010

AFL football will be played in Queensland on 22 weeks of a hectic 24-week 2011 Toyota AFL premiership season.

And every interstate AFL team will play in Queensland, including Adelaide, Geelong, North Melbourne, St.Kilda and Sydney twice.

Only in Rounds 3 and 6 will there be no ‘home’ football in Queensland in a 23-match schedule, and on Round 17 there will be two games – one in Cairns and one at the Gabba.

The eagerly-awaited and still to be named matches between the two Queensland teams will be at the Gabba in Round 7 (Saturday night, 7 May) and Round 21 (Saturday night, 13 August).

Overall, there will be 14 games at the Gabba, eight at Gold Coast Stadium, Carrara, and an historic first match at Cazaly’s Stadium, Cairns, as per the full draw released by the AFL today.

The Gabba schedule will include the Lions’ now traditional Easter Thursday night game, this year against St.Kilda, plus 10 Saturday night games and three Sunday afternoon games.

The Carrara schedule will include one Saturday afternoon game, six Saturday night games, and a ‘to be confirmed’ Round 24 game against Hawthorn which will be allocated a time-slot in the lead-up to the finals, as was the policy for the final round of matches in 2010.

The Gold Coast, with a bye in Round 1 and Round 9, will play three ‘home’ games at the Gabba in the first nine weeks of the season before their first real home game at Carrara in Round 10 against Geelong, when superstar signing Gary Ablett will be opposed to his former side for the first time.

Gold Coast ‘home’ games at the Gabba will be against Carlton, Melbourne and Brisbane, while Adelaide, Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, St.Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs will play at Carrara. The Suns will play Richmond in Cairns in an ‘away’ game.

Brisbane, with a bye in Round 4 and round 19, will host Adelaide, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, Gold Coast, North, Port Adelaide, Richmond, St.Kilda, Sydney and West Coast at the Gabba. Also, they will be the ‘away’ side against Gold Coast at the Gabba.

Gold Coast’s travel schedule will take them four times to Melbourne to play twice at Etihad Stadium, once at Skilled Stadium (Geelong) and once at the MCG (Round 23). Also, they will travel twice to Adelaide and Perth, and once each to Cairns and Launceston.

Brisbane’s travel schedule will include six games in Melbourne – three each at Etihad and the MCG – and one-off trips to Adelaide, Perth, where the old Subiaco Oval is now Patersons Stadium, Launceston and Sydney.

Each club will have one taste of back-to-back travel – Brisbane will go twice in a row to Melbourne in Rounds 2-3, and Gold Coast will go Adelaide/Melbourne in Rounds 5-6.

In what is a significant change from recent years, Brisbane will play nine and possibly 10 day games (depending on Round 24), and five consecutive day games from Rounds 15-20.

Gold Coast will play 13 and possibly 14 days games, including four in a row in Rounds 3-6, and three in a row in Rounds 13-15.

The 2011 AFL season will kick off with a pair of blockbuster matches at the MCG, with Carlton and Richmond to play the opening game for the fourth year in a row on Thursday, 24 March, followed by Geelong against St Kilda at the ‘G the following evening.

According to AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan, the 2011 season structure features 19 rounds of eight matches with one bye, and five rounds of seven matches with three byes, to best manage the spread of byes for all clubs.

“Our game is privileged to have membership and attendance support that is unmatched in Australia.

“With the support of our broadcast partners, we aim to have the widest possible coverage of all 187 home and away games, along with the nine matches of the finals series.”

The grand final has been scheduled for the first Saturday in October.

In other highlights of the 2011 fixture:-

* All teams, except the Gold Coast Suns, to play at least one match on either Thursday or Friday night.

* The Sydney Swans to play their first Friday night home and away game at the SCG since 2003.

* Every club to play at least one match at the MCG.

* Two Anzac Day matches with Essendon to host Collingwood at the MCG and Fremantle hosting the Western Bulldogs in the Len Hall tribute game.

* 2010 grand finalists Collingwood and St Kilda to meet at the MCG in round 11 and at Etihad Stadium in round 21.

* Geelong to play North Melbourne at Skilled Stadium in round seven, which will see twin brothers Chris and Brad Scott go to head to head in the coaches’ boxes.

* A floating fixture for round 24.