When the Tasmanian AFL team enters the mix, how should the league structure a 19-team competition?
Back in 2011 when Gold Coast was formed (but GWS was still a year away), the league simply put one team on bye every week and kept the standard format.
Will they go back to that fixture at 19 teams?
Adelaide great Mark Bickley believes a rolling fixture may be a better way.
This would keep things fluid as games are played during the week, more akin to what we see in the NBA, and without structured weekly rounds.
“The other option is a rolling fixture. You’d play a game every Thursday night and across the weekend, maybe have another crack at a Monday night game,” Bickley told SEN SA Breakfast.
“What happens is you may play Thursday one week and then Thursday the next week and then there may be a mid-week game in school holidays on a Wednesday.
“So your team won’t miss out. They might play a Sunday into a Wednesday the following week, giving you a longer break.
“The ladder will look all over the shop. There will be teams that have played 11 games and others that have played 10 and it’ll be uneven, but I’m not sure we can just have this pure round of footy with one team missing out every week.
“There’s something in a rolling fixture.”
A rolling fixture would solve the issue of a team missing out on Gather Round and also allow for an adjustment to the total amount of games played.