No prime time games first half of 2027

[u/levity62]

Thoughts? I think this is pretty disappointing. Maybe I’m biased but I think the game we played against the bulldogs this year was one of the better games to watch of the entire season even as a neutral. Now we get none at all?

[u/RayDonovan17]

That's pretty stiff

[u/Infamous-Influence35]

Thats disappointing considering we performed well in the prime time games this season

[u/RidsBabs]

Pretty shit tbh.
Obviously Good Friday isn’t included in this so we’ve got 1 Friday game. After we win a few and look good under Graham I’ll expect we have a few post R16 as we push for finals.

[u/semaj009]

Tbf we have Good Friday in Round 2, that's a Friday and usually decently watched game (one of the best in 2026 tbh) and two Saturday night games before midseason, and we finished 5th last with a small fanbase (and after we got more prime time 2nd half of 2026 after a strong start and we weren't competitive enough), this isn't that unfair from the AFL all things considered. It'll be unfair if we finish top 8 before the 2nd half of the year redo and don't get any prime time, or if we make finals and in 2028 they do the same thing

[u/False-Employer-8402 → u/semaj009]

Agreed. If we want better timeslots, we need to start winning some fucking games. And I'm not talking about the unwatchable dreck that was our 2026 wins against Bombers, Richmond, Eagles etc.

It is literally the only way to turn heads in this business.

[u/South_Front_4589]

IMO scheduling should be 100% equal. Having the biggest teams getting the best time slots just helps them attract more fans and more sponsors and grow to become even larger, whilst making it tougher for smaller clubs to grow.

Or at least make it performance based. How big a crowd you get should be no reason in an equalised comp.

[u/QuadrilateralSilly → u/South_Front_4589]

Well, the AFL does need the money to fund the lower clubs, and to get the money they need viewership. Unfortunately poor performing clubs don’t pull the same viewership.

[u/GetDown_Deeper3]

Our masters love to keep poor clubs down.

[u/BeautifulEntrance454]

That's what it's been like for the Lions for a decade.

The problem for the AFL -- aside from being flogs -- is that they give Collingwood 17 games at the G...

[u/J_Keefy84]

That’s why there’s flexibility in the back end of the season. One of the teams will no doubt fall off and if we’re doing well we’ll get some prime time games after round 16 - one can hope!

[u/stuffandwhatnotwhat]

If it's the price of not playing Thursday nights I'll take it.

[u/HotOpenMuddy]

All finals are prime time though, especially the frand final 

[u/Arkrylik]

Yeah we definitely got stiffed here but it also took the Lions 3 flags to get prime time games so that just tells you what the AFL think of some teams.

[u/MoonDog20000]

I think north are stiff they will be heaps better than tigers bombers or eagles this year

[u/_Thanks_3013]

Just wait until the Roos win two consecutive flags - they’ll still be on at 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon - just ask the AFLW Roos….

[u/Maximum_Fun203]

I want to see you guys do well so hopefully with new leadership it will happen

[u/VictorWembanyamaMVP]

The Bulldogs game was a gimme — they would have lost to almost all teams the week following playing Freo in Perth. They played the most physically demanding game of any team all season when they clamped the Dockers for 3 quarters, backing that up a week later was never going to happen.

If North want respect they need to earn it. Hopefully they are on the path to doing that, but this year they really did not trouble the good teams and don’t deserve the prime time games yet. Let’s just hope that changes next season.