In the 1970s and 1980s, it was common for the draw for the following season to be released before the end of the current season. You could buy the Football Record in round 22 and cut out the fixture for the next year to keep on the fridge all summer long.
Not that there was much drama to the draw until 1987. Every team played each other twice, with either nine or 10 games at home, with the rest at VFL Park. The only variable from year to year was who would play on the public holidays and for the League, the only complication was to ensure that Melbourne and Richmond weren't drawn to play at home at the MCG on the same day; the same for the Blues and the Hawks at Princes Park.
Fast forward to 2012. Bits and pieces about next year's draw are starting to emerge as part of a series of planned leaks by the AFL. Richmond and Carlton will stage their now-traditional Thursday night season opener at the MCG, although it might not be the actual first game of the season with talk of the first Sydney derby, featuring the Giants and the Swans featuring at ANZ Stadium the week before.
We're also getting Hawthorn and Collingwood in a possible Grand Final preview on the Friday night and Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions at the MCG on the Saturday afternoon for the Mitch Clark Cup.
The League has also made it clear that all Victorian-based clubs will play at least five games interstate. Reportedly, that even includes Collingwood, a development the bloggers apparently won't believe until they see it for themselves at 9.30am on Friday.
The draw is a major logistical exercise. Before the AFL purchased fixturing software from the Canadian-based Optimal Planning Solutions, the draw would take several weeks to plan, with whiteboards throughout the AFL offices covered with various options for the season. Lots of green textas and arrows pointing in every single direction.
It is now compressed into a few days, but the software is necessary for the AFL because the fixture gets more complicated every year. Clubs, broadcasters, venues, governments, players and other stakeholders all have their say and all sorts of scenarios need to be ruled out even before the software gets fired up for the first time.
The basic tenets of the draw remain the same each year and are laid out in the fixture booklet - fairness, crowd and TV audience maximisation, game development and player welfare are paramount.
Once the draw arrives in the inboxes of the clubs this week, it will be forensically dissected by just about everyone. The football department will have one perspective; the commercial operations people will have a view of their own.
From a football point of view, it is all about how many matches against last year's finalists and Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. How many interstate trips and how many six-day breaks also come into play.
For the commercial people it is all about exposure for the brand and the sponsors. Friday nights and Saturday nights are better for corporate sales than afternoon games. The home game draw is important, as well. Home games against Collingwood in particular, but also Carlton, Essendon and Geelong will mean good crowds. Gold Coast, the Giants, Port Adelaide and Fremantle, not so much.
The addition of the Giants adds a new twist to this year's fixture and why Friday's release is eagerly anticipated. The ninth game each week will primarily be played as a Saturday twilight fixture. Will the games be shared around or will a few teams try to make this timeslot their own? There are mixed reviews on Sunday twilight footy - this writer likes it - but will Saturday be regarded any better?
The draw for the Giants will be interesting. Essendon is already lobbying for two matches against Kevin Sheedy's side and why not? At least in 2012, two matches against the Giants should mean eight premiership points and a healthy percentage boost to go with it.
But there will be other talking points. St Kilda wants more MCG home games because of the $210,000 extra revenue it makes each time. Will the AFL come to the party?
Carlton and Hawthorn average 48,000 when they play at Etihad. Will commonsense prevail and this fixture be moved to the MCG where the crowd could potentially top 75,000?
North Melbourne plays two games in Hobart from next year but has asked (as has Hawthorn) that the games not be against the Hawks so that the Tasmanian football public gets to see as many different teams as possible. Will the League listen?
Which team is the AFL bullish about? In 2011, the Friday night schedule was full of Carlton games with the League correctly backing in the Blues to be the form team of the competition. Who gets the nod in 2012? Perhaps the Hawks, or perhaps the Demons. Will North receive what it feels is a long overdue increase in its Friday night allotment?
The release of the draw throws up a lot of questions, and most of them get answered. The starting point is always that it is not designed to be perfect and nor will it be entirely fair. Every year, the AFL will admit as much.
But by lunchtime Friday, those who set their calendar around the football season will be sated and able to book their flights and make their hotel reservations. Weddings and barmitzvahs can be scheduled and holidays can be finalised.
What we see on Friday won't please everybody. You can bet the house on that. But spare a thought for the NRL tragics who can only plan to watch their team each year only five weeks ahead. They would kill for a fixture with such certainty and with the fans and players in mind, and which is not created solely with the TV networks in mind.
Last-chance cafe
So Brendan Fevola is playing in Darwin, where he booted a lazy eight goals in his first game for Waratahs. Teammate Waylen Manson (remember the name) booted 10 alongside him. Daniel Motlop was playing for Wanderers, who were on the wrong side of the 89-point thrashing from Waratahs.
Slowly, but surely, the NTFL competition is becoming a second-chance league, a last chance saloon for players hoping to get another look in from the AFL.
But it could be more than that. Is there an opportunity for the NTFL, whose season runs from October to March to also become a developmental league for the AFL?
The model could be - in part - an AFL of a different description. The Arizona Fall League is a baseball league that runs through October and November in the United States, after the regular season of the major leagues, to which clubs send their prospects to further develop their games.
A team might send a pitcher to Arizona with a specific brief to develop some more weapons, or to pitch relief when they usually start.
AFL clubs could use the NTFL in a similar way. Say a prospect missed most of the season because of an injury. They could be sent to Darwin on, say, a four-week contract with a brief to regain some match fitness and get used to playing footy once again. Developing midfielders could be sent north with a view to play a different role. Struggling forwards could go to Darwin to see if they could be converted into key defenders and vice-versa.
There would have to be quotas and other restrictions. Proud and longstanding Darwin clubs would not want to become pure incubators for AFL clubs from the south.
But it would raise the standard of footy in the Top End even further with an injection of quality - and hungry - players from the south.
AFL clubs are forever looking for an edge. And a few weeks in Darwin might be better - and certainly cheaper - than Arizona and Utah, the new off-season destinations of choice.
Flemington's fresh footy faces
If it's Melbourne Cup week then it must be time for…Channel Seven to unveil its new footy line-up for 2012.
Seven introduced Tom Harley as its replacement for Nathan Buckley this time two years ago, with the former Geelong skipper stepping into the studio at Flemington to chat to host Bruce McAvaney between races.
Expect a few footy faces to again be welcomed to Seven over the next week at Flemington. Matthew Lloyd and Luke Darcy appear set to cross from Channel Ten, while Brian Taylor is also expected to move across from Fox Sports.
With four games to cover every week next season instead of just two, Seven needs some fresh blood. And with a big national TV audience watching and punting, what better time to make the announcements.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
You can follow Ashley Browne on Twitter @twitter.com/hashbrowne
