Darwin in May, Alice Springs in winter
SM-04Catalogue name: Darwin in the dry season, Alice Springs in winter
What it means
Darwin games are played in May, early in the dry season, and Alice Springs games in June. For 2027 the model dates Melbourne's Alice Springs game between late May and mid-July as a day game.
Why it exists
Climate, and a long-standing convention for the Northern Territory games.
For example
Melbourne's Alice Springs home game lands somewhere between 29 May and 18 July, in daylight.
How strictly it applies
Preference An aim the model balances against other preferences. Missing an aim is not a rule failure.
A preferenceAn aim the model balances against other aims within the must-follow rules. Release notes also call it a soft rule or objective.Read more in the glossary in the catalogue, but the 2027 model turns the Alice Springs part into a must-follow date window (see the Melbourne Alice Springs rule). The Darwin timing is handled by the Gold Coast Darwin rule. Checked from the 30 September release.
Where to see it
Who plays where shows how this plays out across the season.
How it played out across versions
One cell per release, oldest first. Each shows the verdict that release recorded for this rule; a release with no row for the rule says so.
- Preview 13 September2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- Preview 14 September (seed 42)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- Repeat-qualified (seed 42)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- Corrected (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- Rules release (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- B009 nominal (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- B010 nominal (weight 0.10)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- B011 nominal2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
- B012 Wednesday opening2027 · Generated
Met, met
- 20252025 season as played2025 · As played
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
First checked independently in Realism rules added, 30 Sep 2026.
Related
For analysts: catalogue text and codes
- Rule id
SM-04- Catalogue text
- Darwin games in May (early dry season); Alice Springs games in June.
- Catalogue type
- Soft / convention
- Catalogue family
- Sold/Relocated Match Constraints
- Class
soft· An aim the model balances against other preferences.- Step
S3· Step 4: home ground and venue- Recorded status
met· source rowevaluated- Catalogue reason
- Climate and a long-standing scheduling convention for the Northern Territory games.