MELBOURNE will host Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, September 6 at 1.10pm in the final round of the home and away season.
The AFL confirmed the dates and times for round 23, which has become a floating fixture in recent years, on Wednesday.
It will be Melbourne’s second clash against GWS this year, after the Giants defeated the Demons in round two in Canberra.
The fixture:
Friday September 4
Richmond v North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, 7.50pm (Channel 7)
Saturday September 5
Geelong Cats v Adelaide Crows at Simonds Stadium, 1.05pm (Foxtel / Fox Sports)
Brisbane Lions v Western Bulldogs at the Gabba, 1.45pm (Channel 7)
Port Adelaide v Fremantle at Adelaide Oval, 3.20pm (Foxtel / Fox Sports)
Hawthorn v Carlton at the MCG, 4.40pm (Foxtel / Fox Sports)
West Coast v St Kilda at Domain Stadium, 5.40pm (Channel 7)
Sydney Swans v Gold Coast Suns at the SCG, 7.20pm (Foxtel / Fox Sports)
Sunday September 6
Melbourne v GWS Giants at Etihad Stadium, 1.10pm (Foxtel / Fox Sports)
Collingwood v Essendon at the MCG, 3.20pm (Channel 7)
AFL statement
It was the AFL’s view that the Richmond v North Melbourne match should be scheduled on the Friday night as this was the only game in round 23 that featured two sides in the current top eight to be playing against each other.
All round 23 games involving the current top-four sides (Fremantle away against Port Adelaide, West Coast hosting St Kilda, Hawthorn hosting Carlton and the Sydney Swans hosting the Gold Coast Suns) were scheduled to be played across Saturday September 5, so that all of these teams were playing on the same lead-in to the opening week of the finals.
As Fremantle, West Coast, and Sydney Swans had all been scheduled to play the previous Sunday in round 22, none of the matches involving those teams could be played on the Friday night as each club would have only had a five-day break before playing on Friday September 4.
Hawthorn v Carlton was scheduled to play on the Saturday as it was felt that since three teams could not be scheduled for Friday, and Hawthorn was not currently in the top two positions on the ladder, all teams in the current top four should therefore be played on the same day on Saturday September 5.
Fremantle’s game at the Adelaide Oval, against Port Adelaide, was fixtured to be a mid-afternoon game, to enable the Dockers to return home that evening, while West Coast and the Sydney Swans were scheduled as night matches, due to the fact that both teams were playing at home.
The remaining matches involving current top-eight sides – Brisbane Lions v fifth-placed Western Bulldogs and eighth-placed Geelong Cats v Adelaide Crows – were each scheduled as day games on Saturday September 5, which will enable the Bulldogs and ninth-placed Crows to return home that evening from Queensland and Victoria respectively.
The last two Sunday match slots – Melbourne v GWS Giants and Collingwood v Essendon - were determined on the basis that both those games involved four sides currently outside the top eight.
