Monday night games on cards as AFL ponders its fixture options

THE AFL will release the next rounds of its fixture as soon as this week as it explores the possibility of more Monday night matches later in the season.

The league has scheduled the Round 7 clash between Adelaide and St Kilda for a Monday night at Adelaide Oval, in part to allow the Saints 14 days’ quarantine before they fly to South Australia.

The AFL is hoping to retain its Thursday to Sunday structure but is open to some Monday night games if they help to manage quarantine periods for teams moving between states.

Despite the continual fluid nature of the fixture, the AFL has so far recorded extraordinary TV ratings.

News Corp understands the AFL sent a letter to clubs explaining that TV audiences were up 21 per cent on 2019 figures.

In NSW there was a 16 per cent increase in ratings across Fox Footy and Seven combined, while in Brisbane freeto-air audiences were up 38 per cent.

The Thursday night average of 1.2 million viewers is up 16 per cent — boosted by the 1.62 million viewers who tuned in for the Richmond-Collingwood Round 2 clash.

That game, which restarted the season after a COVID-19 suspension, recorded the biggest Thursday night TV ratings in AFL history.

Friday night averages are up nine per cent to 1.1 million.

The AFL is beating the NRL by 38 per cent on a Thursday night and 28 per cent on Friday nights.

AFL fixture boss Travis Auld has guaranteed clubs they will return to their Melbourne bases for at least a week in early August.

The AFL might have to introduce a bye for a week or a split round to hand Victorian clubs a break given they would have to re-quarantine if COVID-19 numbers remain high. “We are open-minded to what it might look like after this batch of five games,” he said. “If we need to give the competition a week off or teams in Victoria a week off that’s what we will do to meet our commitment.”

Auld also raised the prospect of chasing finals crowds interstate if Melbourne was still unable to host crowds, saying the AFL and its players would prefer to play in front of crowds. He said that while the AFL had a contract to play at the MCG until well into the future, nothing was set in stone given the strong relationship between the league and footy’s biggest venue.