AFL blames lacklustre Sunday fixtures on prioritising Thursday matches

AFL fixtures boss Josh Bowler says the league opted to prioritise the scheduling of marquee fixtures on a Thursday night in the first half of the season, reducing the number of Sunday matches as a result.

They have opted to fixture more marquees matches in the 3:20pm Sunday slot in the final eight rounds of the season, with Thursday fixtures not a feature of the recently released Rounds 16 to 23 schedule.

Click PLAY to hear Josh Bowler’s full interview on 3AW with Matthew Richardson and Sam McClure 

“To be able to get the 14 Thursday nights in a row to the start the season -we had to reduce the amount of Sunday games,” Bowler said on Wide World of Sports.

“What you see now in the back part (of the season) is the return to the tradiitonal fixture structure which means we have the three games (on a Sunday back).”

Image: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos