Hello Gentlemen, I hope everyone is well, and enjoyed their Christmas and New Years celebrations! I assume everyone is still keen on participating in the ORFFU in 2025? @insider @Wolffy84 @HOLKY @bryzza @eagle_eyed @ddsaints @DamoH @tyze1 @ron swanson @YAD69 @wrightbrendan @Tylo @Mick @fresh @choppers @Batfink @martyg Our friends at AFL HQ have organised pre-season matches for all clubs commencing on Tuesday 25 February, with the idiocrasy that is opening round commencing Thursday 6 March, and the season proper commencing Thursday 13 March. We normally have our PSD completed before the pre-season matches begin, so giving us two weeks for that, we'd have to commence some time around Monday 10 February. That's less than 4 weeks away. We got through the 2024 PSD in only a week, so maybe we should start our PSD this year on Monday 17 February. Byes are scattered across the first few rounds to make up for the opening round, which we'll just have to manage as player unavailability hoping that enough of everyone's squad is available each week to field a team. Proper byes and the mid season commence Round 12, Thursday 29 May, and end with the commencement of Round 17, dates still TBA but likely Friday 4 July. This would then mean that we complete our 17 weeks at the end of Round 22, giving us only Rounds 23 and 24 for Finals (we'd want another round). The best thing to do is either start our mid season a week later (include R12 in the fixtures, with Blues, North, Port, Dogs on the bye), or come back a week early (include R16 in the fixtures, with Bris, Cats, Dons, GWS on the bye). They really haven't made it easy this year. The other option may be to include AFL R13 in our fixture (only Freo and Saints on the bye), and either take a week off (R12) with no activity, or have a split mid-season... Does anyone have any preferences for the management of byes and our fixtures? Thanks All
I'm certainly around again for the 2025 season. In terms of the season setup, I'd be in favour of the 'split' mid season break. We don't need a 5 week mid season break to get through trading and the MSD. Let's play round 13.
What if we do not have any byes? We start MSD on a Monday run it up until next game if the MSD has not concluded then we take pause and restart on the next Monday ?
Thus far having a split break in play, and using the AFL R13 as a live ORFFU round appears to be the preferred path forwards.
The problem with this is that it creates unevenness and unfairness in the league. If everything happens between two rounds of ORFFU then every coach has had equal opportunity to make changes to their side. Splitting a trade / draft period with an ORFFU round in the middle, does not necessarily achieve this.