THE REVAMPED fixture for the 2022 NAB AFLW season has thrown up a few curveballs, including the possibility of teams now playing twice in the one round.

The need to condense parts of the fixture – in response to the Western Australian Government's decision to delay the opening of the border – has seen Fremantle and West Coast scheduled for multiple games a week.

Football traditionally falls into a rhythm: games from Friday night to Sunday night, with weekly awards announced on a Monday or Tuesday.

2022 FIXTURE Every match, every round

But if we've learnt anything from the past two years, COVID-19 has a habit of throwing tradition out the window.

We've already seen games scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday nights – when players, coaches and staff, who have external work and study commitments, would usually be training – and there are sure to be more in the future.

So, what does that mean for the definition of a "round" of football?

And what has happened to weekly awards?

In order to draw a line in the sand, the AFL has decided a round constitutes games played from a Wednesday to the following Tuesday.

The three weekly Mark and Goal of the Year nominees will be drawn from matches played in that period, while selectors for the two weekly NAB AFLW Rising Star nominees will consider performances in the same timeframe.

The announcement of these nominees will take place the day after the final game of the round.

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NAB AFLW RISING STAR: Zimmorlei Farquharson and Megan Fitzsimon star in R3

Watch the highlights and find out why Zimmorlei Farquharson and Megan Fitzsimon get the NAB AFLW Rising Star in round three

Round four, which started on Thursday night, will see Collingwood, Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs play twice, with the three sides backing up on Tuesday.

An unavoidable knock-on effect will be a somewhat lopsided ladder, until teams get back on an even keel in terms of the number of games each has played.

AFLW LADDER Where is your team sitting?

Looking for a specific game in the AFLW match centre on either womens.afl or the AFLW Official App?

If it's an "additional game" that's been moved forward and it’s the second game that round for a team, (e.g. Western Bulldogs v Fremantle on Tuesday night), a technical issue means it will be displayed in the round in which it was originally scheduled (in this case, round 10).

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