Players catch a break on Thursday

THE AFL will resist the temptation to play more than seven Thursday night games next year as it preserves minimum six-day breaks for clubs.

Next Thursday marks the start of five consecutive Thursday night clashes for the league after two early in the season.

AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking said earlier this week the league was keen to explore an expanded schedule of Thursday footy.

But it is understood the AFL will retain the current seven Thursday games, aware playing more would eat into player recovery.

The league is only able to play five Thursday games midyear because teams coming off byes are able to slot into the Thursday schedule.

The AFLPA and clubs are already attempting to minimise the number of six-day breaks, let alone five-day breaks.

Meanwhile, AFLW clubs will be told in around a month of the competition schedule for the new 10-team AFLW competition.

There are three possibilities, one of which is a five-week home-and-away season with two weeks of finals.

The cost of broadcasting AFLW games remains significant for TV channels, which extract only modest ratings in return. A seven-week homeand-away AFLW season involving 10 teams with two week of finals would increase those costs further.

The AFL’s coaches will meet at Gillon McLachlan’s home on Monday night over short beef ribs and chicken to discuss the state of football.

The look of the game is sure to be on the agenda, with AFL legends consulted on Thursday exiting a meeting adamant significant intervention is coming by October.

The league will next canvass the AFL’s fans.