Friday night lights to shine on Blues
CARLTON’S shock Friday night fixture gift comes despite the Blues enduring a nine-match losing streak in footy’s most lucrative timeslot.
The Blues were yesterday at the centre of the biggest surprise of the 2018 draw, awarded four Friday nights despite being belted by an average of 72 points in nine games dating to Round 21, 2014.
Carlton has also been entrusted with the Thursday night season-opener against Richmond, meaning only the Tigers (eight), Adelaide and Sydney (seven) were awarded more Thursday and Friday nights than this year’s 16th-placed outfit.
On the flip side, Brendon Bolton’s battlers were confronted with seven sixday breaks, the secondmost in the competition behind the Swans, and will also go interstate six times.
But after no Friday night games this year they have inexplicably vaulted back on to Broadway.
AFL fixturing boss Travis Auld conceded Carlton had one or two more Thursday and Friday night games than the league had anticipated, but said: “That’s how it rolls out sometimes.
“It’s important that they honour that slot and play some competitive football and they’d be well aware of that.”
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan admitted the Blues could be sitting ducks if they reproduced their 2017 form, but was hopeful they were on the rise.
“I think there’s a vulnerability there,” McLachlan said.
“We’ve lost a bit of flexibility with the Anzac Day game being on a Wednesday and we’re playing the pre-match Anzac Day game on a Tuesday night with Melbourne and Richmond, that knocks on for a number of weeks.
“So I think Carlton is probably a bit of a standout to have the four Friday nights and the Thursday night — [but] the majority are pretty early [in the season].
“But I think we’ve seen in the last few years you don’t know where teams are going really, that’s the beauty of the fixture and the evenness of our competition in the last three years. Teams are up and down.
“There’s clearly a bit of risk in them if you took the end of 2017 [as a guide on their form next season], but I think Carlton are building a strong team.”