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Pert said the fixture, which the AFL released this morning, is appealing for a number of reasons, not least a series of big occasion matches at the MCG at both the start and end of the campaign.
View Collingwood's 2013 home and away fixture here.
“With four of the first five rounds and five of the last six rounds at the MCG the season is book-ended nicely and I think we have a fantastic start with a run of MCG games against our traditional rivals, highlighted by our round two home match against Carlton,” Pert said.
Notable features of Collingwood’s fixture for 2013 include:
- Seven Friday night matches
- Five Sunday matches
- Five interstate matches
- Two matches against Sydney, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Essendon and Carlton
- 14 matches at the MCG
With a prominent role on Friday nights and Sundays, Pert said Collingwood fans had the opportunity to build a regular attendance habit around the distinct split of matches.
“It’s great to be playing seven matches on Friday nights, with four of them home matches. Friday nights are always popular with our supporters who attend the games or watch it on television,” Pert said.
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“We are playing more Sunday matches next year but given that the majority of them are against some of our biggest rivals I think there is an opportunity to create a blockbuster Sunday routine around them, with an emphasis on drawing lots of families along.”
Pert said that from a pure football perspective, the fixture was also noteworthy for several reasons.
“Having only one trip interstate in the last six weeks also offers us a good run into the finals,” he said.
“(And) In terms of preparing the team, whilst we have six six-day breaks in the schedule, generally they are spread out and offset to a degree by four eight-day breaks and a 10-day lead in to the Queen’s Birthday clash with Melbourne.
“In all we feel we have received a well balanced draw.”
Apart from the round two match against Carlton that will pit Collingwood up against former coach Michael Malthouse for the first time since his departure from the Westpac Centre at the end of 2011, the club will travel to Queensland twice next year, for matches against Brisbane and Gold Coast, but make only one trip to Perth, Adelaide and Sydney for matches against Fremantle, Port Adelaide and the Swans, respectively.
