Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has called for a more "equitable draw" as the AFL weighs up its fixturing options once Tasmania enters the competition in 2028.
Beveridge believes the best path forward is every team playing each other once, but understands that is unfeasible to reduce the number of games for financial and other reasons.
“Without being too prescriptive, I think if we can at least allow people to play each other once before things change," Beveridge told media on Wednesday.
“We've got to turn it into a bit more of an equitable draw.
“Even when you think about history into the future, history doesn't repeat.
“So current fixtures based on history, where the top teams aren't playing the bottom teams as much — those sort of connotations don't work, because no one can predict the future.
“The way that you settle it is to give everyone an even chance — everyone plays each other once. The next year, you do it all again, but you play at the alternate venue.
“Ideally, it finishes and you go into a finals series - I know that's not going to work, I know they're going to be after more games.
“I think another 18-game season, with Tasmania coming in, would be enough.”
Beveridge is unconcerned by the likelihood of contact training limits set to be introduced from next season as the AFL prioritises player safety.
“No one wants to dance around the seriousness of concussion.
“I don't think you'll ever be able to eliminate the risk, but mitigating it is important," Beveridge said.
“I think every team, every club has their own instructions.
“We go about our training drills in a certain way to do our best to mitigate the circumstances where you lose someone to a head knock in training.
“You do need to train it because players need to familiarise themselves with it — they need to rehearse it.
“We play match practice pretty early in the pre-season. I've had a look at some of the categories and I wouldn't imagine we need to change too much.
“I think we should be OK.”
The Bulldogs coach also indicated Cody Weightman should be fit to play, while Marcus Bontempelli is feeling "healthy and strong" after the bye having played through injury in the first half of the season.
He added that Liberatore may yet play beyond 2026 despite many believing he is in his last year.
“He's not preparing for a final assault," Beveridge said.
“One game under his belt and we kind of managed his minutes.
“He'll probably keep playing that sort of exposure, I'd say - around that 70–75% game time.
“I think in his mind, he feels as though he'd like to play beyond this year, and this next series of games will help with how he's thinking about his future.”
