But from The Age
Richmond to face Collingwood in second-round blockbuster
By Jake Niall30 October 2018 — 4:36pm
Richmond will host Collingwood in a Thursday-night blockbuster to begin the second round of the 2019 AFL season.
And Essendon will move into a Good Friday slot, to play North Melbourne in place of St Kilda.
The scheduling of last year’s preliminary finalists and fierce rivals on the Thursday night means the Tigers will play consecutive Thursday night games to start the season. Richmond, as usual, will play Carlton in the first game of the year.
Clearly, the AFL is capitalising on the strong form and popularity of the Magpies and Tigers, who reprised a century-old rivalry last year when the clubs made the top four and played off in a preliminary final, in which Collingwood upset the flag favourites.
Richmond, therefore, have at least four stand-alone blockbuster games: the opening two rounds, Anzac eve against a resurgent Melbourne, and the well-established Dreamtime at the ’G game against another competition giant, Essendon.
That will be the Tigers only game against Essendon in the home and away season with the Bombers set to meet Collingwood twice.
Collingwood will open their season in a Friday night clash with Geelong, the AFL having released the opening-round fixture earlier this week
The Magpies will be financially rewarded with more prime-time slots in next year’s fixture as a reward for their rise to the grand final. But their draw is expected to be more difficult, in terms of the quality of opponents they will face twice.
As the 13th team in 2017, they played the Brisbane Lions, Carlton and Fremantle twice last season, in addition to Richmond and Essendon.
The Tigers will be the away team to Carlton in the opening round, but will be the home side for round two. It is also their turn to host the Demons in the Anzac eve game, which has mushroomed into one of the season’s marquee matches in the space of only a few short seasons.
The Bombers will have a high number of stand-alone games, with the Good Friday clash their latest marquee fixture. They are also expected to play Collingwood twice, but have only one outing against Richmond, in the Dreamtime game.
Conversely, Carlton are set to be largely stripped of prime-time slots next season, having been surprisingly handed one Thursday night and four Friday night games last season.
St Kilda will also lose their prime fixture on Good Friday against North Melbourne, while Greater Western Sydney is expected to once again play a Friday night game in Canberra.
The complete 2019 AFL draw is set to be released on Thursday.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-to-face-collingwood-in-second-round-blockbuster-20181030-p50cyd.html
