Friday nights for Carlton a huge blue

THE AFL has its fixture release down to such a fine art it is normally a stretch to confect some outrage.

A weighted formula means the toughest draw goes to the top-six teams and the best teams deservedly get the marquee Friday night slots.

Which is why several key elements of this year’s fixture were so jarring when released yesterday.

No matter how you spin it, the AFL cannot justify gifting Carlton four Friday night games next year.

Especially when the Blues already have a Thursday night season opener against Richmond as well.

Carlton might have a good sprinkling of exciting kids and those Friday night games will be done by Round 11.

But this is a team that finished 16th, which was 18th for scoring, which for all its poten- tial plays a sedate, defence-first risk-free game plan.

North Melbourne, Brisbane Lions, Fremantle and Gold Coast have no Friday night games, and GWS, Hawthorn, Melbourne and West Coast one each.

So when eight including Hawthorn teams, have a combined four Friday nights, its impossible to justify Carlton receiving four.

In 2015 Carlton’s Friday night losing margins were 69 points, 75, 77, 60, 30 and 138.

This year it played a bunch of kids and lost by 90 points to Port Adelaide in its only Friday night game, having lost by 43 points to the Tigers in the season opener.

The league will hope to sell those games on Charlie Curnow’s improvement and tight contests, but a fixture should not be built on hope. It is plain wrong. Let us hope Carlton transforms itself over the summer.