AFL fans have the Friday night Blues .... again
The AFL didn't necessarily want it this way either. Bottom-of-the-ladder Carlton in another showcase Friday night game.
It's the third of the Blues' four Friday night games of the year and the most ominous opponent of all in the Sydney Swans. The last time the played Sydney, Lance Franklin kicked 10 goals and the Swans won by 81 points.
AFL executive in charge of fixturing, Travis Auld, said the Blues' four Friday night games was a quirk of this season but the match was important to Sydney for their Marngrook game.
Auld said the AFL had already admitted the draw was not ideal in terms of the number of Friday night games for Carlton but that was a product of the unusual timing of Anzac Day on a Wednesday this year.
The mid-week timing had an impact on the ability to schedule those four teams - Richmond, Melbourne, Collingwood and Essendon - in the lead up to Anzac Day and afterwards. Three of them are big drawing teams and the fourth, Melbourne, is rising and playing attractive watchable football this year.
"We called out this game and a few others where we thought the match-up didn't quite follow what we would like but it is an important game for the Sydney Swans in terms of the Marngrook game," Auld said.
"Carlton fell into one or two (more) Friday nights and that's the impact of the mid-week Anzac round .... hence we called out some of these games at the release of the fixture.
"Melbourne and Richmond the way they are playing ... not being able to get them back into the Friday night pattern until the second half of the year.
The early timing of Easter this year and being locked into Hawthorn-Geelong on Easter Monday also had an impact on the ability to schedule them on Friday nights Auld said.
"West Coast we could not play Thursday or Friday nights until the middle of the season because the bridge (outside the ground) is out of action," he said.
Carlton CEO Cain Liddle said on SEN the club was pleased to be on Friday nights.
"I’m not embarrassed about our Friday night schedule. In fact, some of our players like (Patrick) Cripps and (Charlie) Curnow are the players you want to watch on a Friday night. We have one of the biggest fan bases in the AFL and a lot of Friday night is about TV audience," Liddle said.
Auld pointed out that top teams do not always generate the best games as the anticipated Melbourne-Adelaide blow out in Alice Springs on Sunday proved.
Broadcaster Channel Seven can only now promote what it has.
"There's a whole bunch of fixturing reasons which Carlton are not involved in and all of a sudden they find themselves popped out of the process this year," Seven head of football Lewis Martin said.
''But the thing is in footy no one knows what will happen. A lot of people thought Adelaide-Melbourne would be a nail biter and look what happened. And then Brisbane-Hawthorn was a great game."
Of interest on Friday night, Neale Daniher will announce on air the first of the 'sliders' for this year's MND Big Freeze.