{"id":168717,"date":"2021-12-03T19:45:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T20:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=168717"},"modified":"2021-12-04T06:00:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T06:00:27","slug":"afl-confirms-radical-fixture-switch-for-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=168717","title":{"rendered":"AFL confirms radical fixture switch for 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2022 AFL season is set to get underway with a Victorian 'Footy Festival' that will see all 10 Victorian teams playing at home in Round 1.<\/p>\n

Reigning premiers Melbourne<\/a> will open the season with a grand final rematch against the Western Bulldogs<\/a>, with the AFL breaking away from the traditional Carlton-Richmond curtain raiser at the MCG.<\/p>\n

It will be the first time since Round 20 of the 2016 season where all 10 Victorian AFL clubs will play matches in their home state in the same round.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Broad's brilliant admission as hostile Gabba crowd awaits<\/a><\/p>\n

The Victorian 'Footy Festival' will commence on March 11, when all 14 AFLW sides play their matches in the state until March 13, before the AFL season opener on March 16.<\/p>\n

"The footy festival will bring people together and to be able to give all Victorians and footy fans from regional Victoria and interstate an opportunity to come to a game and see their AFLW and AFL teams across a 10-day period is a significant step bouncing back from a challenging year,"\u00a0AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Melbourne<\/p>\n

"We want to get big crowds back to the footy, the weekly ritual of being able to go to a game and the sense of community it creates, connecting families and friends is something we have missed in the state.<\/p>\n

"We look forward to seeing fans return to our venues in huge numbers as well as to all the surrounding business and venues that rely on footy and big events being staged across the city. \u00a0<\/p>\n

"To finish our NAB AFLW season in Victoria and have these matches possibly determine final placings is huge, and then launch the biggest start to an AFL season ever, including our first ever Wednesday night season opener is going to give us a lot of momentum for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

"Footy can hopefully help bring the heartbeat of the city back to Melbourne and back to the state of Victoria."<\/p>\n

FULL ROUND ONE AFL FIXTURE FOR 2022<\/h3>\n

Wednesday, March 16
<\/strong>Melbourne v Western Bulldogs, MCG, 7.10 pm AEDT<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 17
<\/strong>Carlton v Richmond, MCG, 7.25pm AEDT<\/p>\n

Friday, March 18
<\/strong>St Kilda v Collingwood, Marvel Stadium, 7.50pm AEDT<\/p>\n

Saturday, March 19
<\/strong>Geelong v Essendon, MCG, 2.10pm AEDT
GWS Giants v Sydney Swans, Accor Stadium, 5.10pm AEDT
Brisbane Lions v Port Adelaide, Gabba, 8.10pm AEDT<\/p>\n

Sunday, March 20
<\/strong>Hawthorn v North Melbourne, MCG, 1.10pm AEDT
Adelaide Crows v Fremantle, Adelaide Oval, 4.10pm AEDT
West Coast v Gold Coast, Optus Stadium, 7.40pm AEDT<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2022 AFL season is set to get underway with a Victorian 'Footy Festival' that will see all 10 Victorian teams playing at home in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168720,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168717\/revisions\/168720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}