ON Wednesday Port Adelaide fans will be able to grab their phones or their computers and check out the 2019 AFL fixture.
It’s a time each year when we all set about booking leave to finally get to that game in Shanghai, or we call our engaged friends and make sure their wedding doesn’t fall on the same day as the second Showdown.
It’s a time when we start to look through which clubs Port Adelaide will play, how many times they’ll play them and where to determine how many wins we think the Power could have at the end of the season.
There are the key sticking points like which opposition the club will play twice, how often the side will have to travel back-to-back and how many short breaks there are between games.
There is always a debate over which club has a soft draw or how the Victorian clubs rarely have to travel.
The fixture is a very scientific process these days, with the AFL fixturing department inputting untold data before its computer attempts to satisfy the special requests of 18 clubs while considering venue availability, broadcaster needs, byes, time zones, breaks between games and travel loads, among other factors.
All that with a little AFL tinkering to help maximise attendances, special rivalries and viewer appeal.
It’s been reasonably consistent since the introduction of Gold Coast in 2011 and the GWS Giants in 2012 stretched the competition to 18 teams.
It is a given that Port will play 11 home games at Adelaide Oval, plus a 12th Adelaide Oval game against the Crows and the already confirmed visit to China to take on St Kilda on
Plus, the Power will get four or five games in Victoria, unless the computer follows the 2015 model and allocates Port six games in Victoria.
The rest will be split between Perth, Queensland (Brisbane, Gold Coast and Cairns), Sydney, Tasmania (Hobart and Launceston), Canberra and the NT (Darwin and Alice Springs).
In the past seven years, the Power has played nine times in Perth, six times in Sydney, eight times in Queensland, three times in the Northern Territory, five times in Tasmania and three times in Canberra.
In each of the last five years, Port has had the luxury of three Adelaide Oval games in a row, including the ‘away’ game against the Crows, and at least one other pair of back-to-back games. In 2015 and 2016 the Power had back-to-back home games twice in addition to the triple.
Making the scheduling issue more complicated has been the AFL’s recent push to Thursday night football which led to five Thursday night games between Rounds 13-17 this year and a promise to add even more Thursday night games in 2019.
Historically, Port has been fixtured to play on a Thursday night eight times in 22 years – five at home and one each at Docklands, the SCG and Kardinia Park.
Six have been in the last four years, with two in a row in 2015, one in 2016, two in a row again in 2017, and one in 2018 after one each in 2000 and 2008,
Friday night games will continue to be the League’s weekly showpiece.
Port has had 28 home-and-away Friday night games in 22 years – 20 at home and eight in Melbourne. There were three in the club’s debut season in 1997, and in 2005 and 2018, but that has been the exception. The club missed out on a Friday night game altogether in 1998, 2012 and 2013, and have had only one every other year except 2003, 2015 and 2016 when they had two.
Only once in 22 years has Port played on a Monday – in the Round 4 Anzac Round of 2006 when Josh Mahoney, now head of football at Melbourne, kicked a career-best six goals in a four-point win over St Kilda at Football Park.
The Power will open the season against Melbourne at the MCG for the first time since Ken Hinkley’s first game as Power coach in 2013.
In 22 years, it has played Fremantle in Round 1 four times, and Essendon, North Melbourne and Sydney three times, but it has never tackled Adelaide, Hawthorn, Richmond or the Western Bulldogs to open its season.
Similarly, Fremantle and North have been Port’s first home game four times, and Brisbane and Essendon have been the first home game three times, but Carlton, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond and the Bulldogs have never been part of Port Adelaide’s first home game of the season at Adelaide Oval, or previously Football Park.
There are some other quirks too with Port playing Fremantle twice in the same season 12 times, Melbourne 11 times, and Brisbane and Hawthorn 10 times. And yet the Power has played Collingwood twice in the same season just five times.
Similarly intriguing is that Carlton and Richmond have played against Port in Adelaide 19 times in 22 years, and Brisbane, Hawthorn and Melbourne 17 times. And yet Essendon and Sydney have played Port in Adelaide only 12 times.
Whether these patterns continue will be revealed on Wednesday.
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