PLAYING FAIR

AFL vowing to share around plum night slots

WITH North Melbourne locked in to play Melbourne in Hobart in round seven, the AFL pledged to share around its marquee Thursday and Friday night slots under its 2021 floating fixture despite handing Richmond two prime clashes in its next fixture release.

And the league says it is hopeful it can continue shifting games away from COVID-afsaid fected states rather than postponing rounds if the pandemic continues to affect the schedule.

The league released its Rounds 7-8 games on Thursday and plans to drip-feed remaining rounds in two and three-week blocks.

But the AFL has temporarily moved away from Thursday

night games past Round 5 despite strong ratings and fan support.

AFL head of broadcasting and scheduling Marcus King told the Mercury there could be as many as five Thursday night games later in the season around the bye period.

The Tigers will host the Western Bulldogs on the Friday

of Round 7 at the MCG, then take on Geelong as the home club on Friday May 7 at the MCG in Round 8.

In the first five weeks alone the Tigers will have played three Thursday or Friday night contests and the Anzac Dayeve clash against Melbourne.

North Melbourne’s poor start to the season has seen it slotted into off-Broadway games in Rounds 7 and 8.

The Roos will host Melbourne in Hobart at 1.10pm on the Sunday of Round 7 and then play Collingwood in a 4.35pm Saturday timeslot in Round 8.

North Melbourne would seem long odds to feature in any marquee contests but King

the benefit of a floating fixture was that it allowed a broader spread of teams to fight for marquee slots.

In essence, teams such as Carlton and Essendon can win their way back into the primetime schedule by playing attractive football after starting the season with winless fortnights.

“Traditionally those Thursday and Friday night slots have been reserved for teams performing well,” King said.