The AFL fixture was released yesterday and as always, there were plenty of talking points to come from it with a great imbalance in difficulty between teams.
According to Champion Data, Carlton and Gold Coast who finished in the bottom three respectively in 2019, have drawn two of the hardest fixtures, while the Bulldogs and Brisbane who both made finals are seemingly on the other end.
Melbourne great Garry Lyon's biggest takeaway from the fixture release is how desperate the AFL is for a season where no team plays each other twice.
โIโm happy to have this argument. Iโve never been more certain that we should be having a 17-game season,โ Lyon toldย SEN Breakfast.
โCome and tell me Iโm an idiot and I know itโs less money and all of that. For me, this is my humblest of opinions, Iโve never been more certain that we need a 17-game season.โ
The difficulty of the fixture for each team and especially the double-up games, should be based on the teams ladder position in the previous season.
But it's impossible to create any sort of fairness with this method due to teams fluctuating at any point in time for example, Melbourne in 2019.
