Football: Don't get to play either Greater Western Sydney or Gold Coast twice, which is tough on a team that only just finished ahead of the Suns in 2011. Instead, their double-ups are against Hawthorn, Essendon, Adelaide, Richmond and Fremantle. Face a difficult start to the season with four straight games against 2011 top eight teams (St Kilda, the Bombers, the Sydney Swans and Collingwood). Will be happy to have another away game in Darwin (against Melbourne in round 17), but less inviting is the round 14 trip to Geelong. Only five six-day breaks is a win.

Business: Port Adelaide wanted home games against big Victorian clubs and the AFL has delivered St Kilda, Richmond, Carlton, Hawthorn and Essendon - not bad at all. A round one home game should please fans too. But the Power don't have any Friday night games (one of three clubs in that category), and have five matches in the Sunday twilight slot.

Big game: With a tough first month of the season, Port could well get to their first Showdown against Adelaide in round five without a win. That will make them even more desperate to beat their local rival.

To download a pdf version of the 2012 fixture, click here.
RDDATEOPPONENTVENUEH/A LOCAL TIME
1Sunday, April 1 St. KildaAAMI StadiumHome4:10pm
2Saturday, April 7 EssendonEtihad StadiumAway1:45pm
3Saturday, April 14 Sydney SwansAAMI StadiumHome1:40pm
4Saturday, April 21 CollingwoodEtihad StadiumAway2:10pm
5Sunday, April 29 Adelaide CrowsAAMI StadiumAway4:10pm
6Sunday, May 6 RichmondAAMI StadiumHome2:45pm
7Sunday, May 13 FremantlePatersons StadiumAway2:40pm
8Saturday, May 19 North MelbourneAAMI StadiumHome1:15pm
9Saturday, May 26 Gold Coast SUNSMetricon StadiumAway2:10pm
10Saturday, June 2 CarltonAAMI StadiumHome7:10pm
11Sunday, June 10 HawthornAAMI StadiumHome4:10pm
12Sunday, June 17 Western BulldogsEtihad StadiumAway4:40pm
13Bye    
14Sunday, July 1 Geelong CatsSimonds StadiumAway1:10pm
15Saturday, July 7 Adelaide CrowsAAMI StadiumHome7:10pm
16Saturday, July 14 EssendonAAMI StadiumHome1:40pm
17Saturday, July 21 MelbourneTIO StadiumAway7:10pm
18Sunday, July 29 FremantleAAMI StadiumHome12:40pm
19Saturday, August 4 GWS GIANTSSkoda StadiumAway2:10pm
20Sunday, August 12 HawthornAurora StadiumAway1:10pm
21Sunday, August 19 West Coast EaglesAAMI StadiumHome12:40pm
22Saturday, August 25 Brisbane LionsAAMI StadiumHome1:40pm
23TBCRichmondMCGAwayTBC


The views in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs