Corrections

These corrections follow the release notes in date order. Each earlier version stays unchanged, so later work cannot hide it.

Geelong goes home

The first two previews gave Geelong ten listed home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and none at Kardinia Park.

The 14 September correction gave it ten ordinary home games at Kardinia Park and Easter Monday at the MCG. It also had a Gather Round appearance, like every club.

The ten-game Kardinia Park count is a modelled 2027 assumption. Its source describes 2026. The release and rule page both say so.

Every club, eleven and eleven

The same release independently checked each club’s eleven ordinary home games, eleven ordinary away games and extra Gather Round appearance. Earlier versions had those totals too; now a checker confirmed them.

Two start dates, one schedule

The AFL has not announced the 2027 start date. The model therefore has Wednesday 17 March and Thursday 18 March settings.

The corrected release included both. With the slots then available, both produced identical games and actually began on 18 March. Their settings differed; their match details did not.

On 15 September, the Wednesday calendar began producing a different opening. A Wednesday-night slot replaced Round 1’s Sunday-afternoon slot; Thursday stayed.

At the same seed, the calendars differed in four dates and six time slots, all in Round 1. Nothing else changed. The Wednesday opener has no 2026 precedent and is labelled a modelled assumption.

A starting point that could not finish

The 18 September build used two seeds with corrected Sunday-slot rules. Seed 42 produced four complete fixtures.

Seed 43 proved the best answer at Steps 1 to 4 on both calendars. Step 5 then found no slot arrangement satisfying every rule. The release keeps those failed attempts for review, rather than presenting them as fixtures.

Twenty-one Thursdays

The previous release gave Adelaide 21 or 22 Thursday-night games. No rule prevented it.

The 30 September release added Thursday and Friday limits for each club and spread Thursdays across the season. It also set Saturday minimums, Sunday ranges and weekday ranges based on each club’s 2023 to 2026 fixtures.

No club now has more than seven Thursdays on either calendar.

A fixture can obey every rule and still look unusual. The realism report compares weekdays, slots, home grounds and runs without home games against recent AFL fixtures. It flags results far outside each club’s history. Every severe flag in the current release has a stated reason.

What the realism report still flags

The release names these remaining issues:

• Western Australia has seven rounds without a match, compared with the AFL’s recent two or three. The release says a follow-up brings it to three.
• Brisbane Lions have seven breaks of six days or fewer after interstate games on the Thursday-opening calendar. Recent seasons had two to four. Every players’ rest rule is met; a rest-quality limit is a follow-up.
• Essendon has no Friday nights on either calendar. Its games rank low under the declared appeal policy. The release names this result instead of adjusting it.

Listing an unresolved issue makes the remaining work visible.