Melbourne great Garry Lyon has blasted the AFL's fixturing of round one which sees the Dees face West Coast at Optus Stadium on Sunday at 3:20pm (WA time).
“On the surface it sounds ridiculous to me,” he said on SEN Breakfast on Wednesday.
“I don’t know how hard it is to do the draw. I think (AFL Executive) Travis Auld would have one of the hardest jobs in footy, but Round 1 in Perth in March in the middle of the afternoon sounds stupid to me.
“We’ve trained through hot pre-seasons and people would go, ‘surely that prepares you’ (but) it’s nothing like playing a game in that weather.”
Tim Watson countered by saying, “Melbourne has the opportunity now with a heads up to actually prepare themselves for a hot game over there.”
10 of West Coast's total 13 home games in 2019 were played at night, with the three day games occurring in winter.
Melbourne has won just two of their last 13 against West Coast in Perth.
The last time they played there in a round one day game was in 1991, which The Eagles won 99-20. It was Lyon's first game as Melbourne captain.
Since then, their earliest season encounter came in round two of 2012, which The Eagles won by 108 points. The next year in round three, West Coast won by 94 points despite the game being at the MCG.
In 2019, the teams met at Optus Stadium in Round 9 (Eagles by 16) and TIO Traeger Park in Alice Springs in round 18 (Eagles by 13).
Lyon played 226 games for Melbourne between 1986 and 1999, and kicked 426 goals.
