The 2015 AFL Grand Final will be in October, Good Friday will remain footy-free and there will be only one bye, AFL chief Gillon McLachlan announced yesterday.
The scheduling reflects Cricket’s World Cup final being staged at the MCG on March 29.
As a result, the AFL season will not start until April 2, the day before Good Friday.
The Grand Final has been moved back to October 3 from its traditional last Saturday in September.
“There won’t be Good Friday football in 2015,” McLachlan told reporters.
“We’re committed to starting the season with Richmond-Carlton on Easter Thursday. We’re committed to Hawthorn and Geelong playing on Easter Monday.
“Our view is that 2015, starting the season at Easter, it’s not appropriate to start (Good Friday football).
“Hopefully, the players will understand that with the Cricket World Cup, we want to start with all our venues available and that means we’ll be starting at Easter.
“By definition starting late, we’re not going to finish until we’re in October and hopefully they understand why there would only be one bye next year.”
The AFLPA’s player-relations manager Brett Murphy said the association was conscious of the practical difficulties which had forced the removal of the second bye in 2015.
“The key concern from the players’ perspective is to ensure the return of the second bye in 2016,” Murphy said.
“The second bye – which was specifically introduced for reasons of player health and welfare – has proved to be of enormous benefit to players and other club staff this year.”
McLachlan must also grapple with the hot potato of fans’ anger over the affordability of a day at the football.
“We’re trying to address that,” the first-year AFL chief said.
“Whether it’s affordability or just general accessibility, and there’s a whole series of things in that.
“There will be change. What that looks like, we’ll see in the next couple of months.
“At the lower point, our game is very affordable. But it’s the layers of cost, whether it’s parking or food or ticketing, general issues around access, reserved seats.
“It has got complicated and layered, and that’s what we’re committed to doing, is removing a lot of that to the best extent we can.”
McLachlan defended the Sunday twilight fixture, which has drawn heavy criticism for being unfriendly for families.
“It has been in the gun for the last two weeks,” he said. “It has been around for eight years.
“It has been a very successful slot both for attendance and for television for a long time and I don’t see that slot is under challenge.
“Maybe playing at the MCG in the middle of the winter is a challenge but I don’t think the slot specifically is the question.”
KEY DATES FOR THE AFL 2015 SEASON:
* Opening round: Thursday, April 2, to Monday, April 6
* Anzac Day: five matches scheduled for April 25
* Round 23: September 4 to 6
* Grand final: October 3
