Friday night in Perth on cards
Friday night matches in Perth could become more regular in 2016, with the AFL investigating double-headers during winter.
The league yesterday released its 2015 fixtures and made fan enjoyment a priority.
Blockbusters in Melbourne will be played throughout the afternoons and Sunday night and Monday night games were abandoned.
Five Thursday night matches will be played and night games will start earlier to accommodate families. Matches at Patersons Stadium will predominantly be played on Sunday afternoon and Saturday night.
Fremantle and West Coast will host one Friday night match each, while the Dockers will also have a home game on a Thursday night.
The league did not schedule a match in conjunction with WA Day, preferring to stick with its decision to avoid Sunday night and Monday night football.
But after abandoning the Monday night game over the Mother's Day weekend, the AFL did consider playing two Friday night matches in round six - in Adelaide and Perth.
AFL broadcasting, scheduling and major projects general manager Simon Lethlean said it was too difficult to organise for next year, but it had opened the door for a new style of fixture in 2016.
He said playing a second game at 8.40pm in Perth was possible.
"We could do a double-header," Lethlean said.
"We'd call it 5.40 Adelaide time into 8.40 Perth time. It is absolutely doable. You've got to find the right teams coming off the right days break prior to it and at the right times - the middle of winter is best.
"We'll have a look at it in 2016, but it was a bit hard this year to get it done among everything we were doing. It'd be great. We'll have a good look at it next year."
The AFL trialled Friday night double-headers from 1998-2001, but those matches overlapped.
Fremantle hosted Hawthorn in 1998 in a game which started one hour after the opening bounce of the Collingwood-Sydney match at the MCG.
The matches in 1999 and 2000 were played in Victoria and South Australia, while the 2001 games were scheduled at the same time to allow Essendon and Collingwood to have a similar amount of break before their Anzac Day clash the following Wednesday.
AFL chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan promised to listen to the fans when he succeeded Andrew Demetriou earlier in the year.
"Things weren't ideal for our fans," McLachlan said.
"We've done a hell of a lot of work to understand where we made mistakes.
"We've been listening and I'm really pleased with the way the fixture has come out this year."
