The AFL is looking at ensuring a competitive balance in the league (something that should be strived toward every year), but has its delayed quest benefitted one particular team?
League powerbrokers went around to all 18 clubs during the summer to identify problem areas that plague the country's favoured game.
Teams were asked to answer questions, make suggestions and submit ideas as part of the league's all-encompassing, wide-ranging, competitive balance review.
Broadly, the review aims to address contentious concerns and realign the competition on issues impacting clubs and the fairness of the league.
A heavily debated part of the conversation is the supposed injustice non-Victorian clubs face when it comes to travel and amount of "home" games they feature in.
But amid all the discourse, has one team benefitted more than others so far in 2024?
Sticking purely to the opening 13 weeks of the season, a case could be made that Sydney are reaping the rewards of the AFL's fixturing, which has already seen rival clubs' cause for concern.
It'd be wrong to attribute the Swans' 10-1 start to the outlay of games up until the halfway mark.
It'd also be remiss to ignore the fact that the Swans made the 2022 AFL Grand Final and backed up their defeat with a seventh placing after last year's home and away season, alluding to the talent on their list.
So the benchmark for John Longmire's men was always high, as it has been since he took over in 2011, missing the finals twice (2019 and 2020) in his tenure.
Plus the natural progression of star players such as Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden immediately springs to mind, while key forwards Logan McDonald and Joel Amartey are relishing the 'Buddy-less' forward line, which may have something to do with the club's form.
Not to mention the acquisition of Brodie Grundy, James Jordon and Taylor Adams, which has ultimately seen veteran Luke Parker feature in more VFL games than ever before.
So let's take a deep dive.
For starters, the introduction of Opening Round that gave Queensland and New South Wales an AFL taste was a great initiative to help grow the game along the East Coast.
To kick their season off, Sydney, who hosted Melbourne at a packed-out SCG, have won 91 games out of 129 (71%) under Longmire at the venue and got their campaign underway with an emphatic victory.
SEE MORE: How long will each AFL team spend in the air during 2024?
Since then, the club has made six interstate trips, of which four have been to Melbourne (short plane ride) while a matchup with West Coast during Gather Round at the Adelaide Hills in Mount Barker was easy pickings for a flag fancy and was followed by a bye.
A solitary trip west to face Fremantle was a successful junket and will be their only one for the year.
Heading into Round 12 and Sydney's second bye, the club's fixture has book-ended trips away (Round 4 in SA; Round 11 in Vic) with weeks off, providing the club a chance to freshen up against Gold Coast (Round 6) and the upcoming Geelong clash (Round 13).
At the conclusion of the bye rounds (Round 15), the Swans will have the equal most (8) longer breaks (+7 days) between games in the competition whilst also boasting the second-least amount of shorter turnarounds (less than 7 days), bettered only by Adelaide (2).
| Team | Round 1 Bye | Shorter break (-7 days) | Even (7 days) | Longer break (+7 days) |
| Adelaideย |
2 |
4 |
7 |
|
| Brisbane |
1 |
3 | 1 |
8 |
| Carltonย |
3 |
5 |
5 |
|
| Collingwoodย |
5 |
2 |
6 |
|
| Essendonย |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
| Fremantleย |
7 |
2 |
4 |
|
| Geelongย |
6 |
4 |
3 |
|
| Gold Coast |
1 |
6 | 3 |
3 |
| GWS |
1 |
3 | 6 |
3 |
| Hawthornย |
8 |
3 |
2 |
|
| Melbourne |
1 |
6 | 0 |
6 |
| North Melbourneย |
6 |
2 |
5 |
|
| Port Adelaideย |
5 |
3 |
5 |
|
| Richmondย |
5 |
3 |
5 |
|
| St Kildaย |
4 |
2 |
7 |
|
| Sydneyย |
3 |
2 |
8 |
|
| West Coastย |
7 |
3 |
3 |
|
| Western Bulldogsย |
5 |
3 |
5 |
(
Sydney is also one of five clubs that will not face a five-day break in the opening 23 rounds of 2024 and appear unlikely to, pending the release of the Round 24 fixture.
But like the old-age question; what comes first? The chicken, or the egg?
Are the Swans taking full advantage of the situation that they didn't decide? Or is the AFL's fixturing indicative of Sydney's impressive form and subsequent premiership favouritism?
The answer will never truly be revealed but the statistics do tell a story.
