THE unbalanced nature of the AFL fixture in its current state is always going throw up some quirks.

For example, in a 14-month span between early last season and late this season, West Coast faced GWS four times (five if you include a semi-final) and didn’t play North Melbourne at all.

And Fremantle somehow went seven years from 2010 without being drawn to face Essendon in Melbourne.

But even with the compromised fixture, you’d expect most things to roughly balance themselves out over time.

And that’s where we come to the curious case of clubs travelling – or, indeed, not travelling – to WA.

Every club plays at least one game in Perth per season, with some obviously required to double-up amid a 22-game season.

Since 2003, the debut campaign of the oldest current Docker in Aaron Sandilands, there have been 84 instances of clubs playing both Freo and West Coast in WA in the same home-and-away season.

That’s roughly five teams per year making the twin trips west. No easy feat considering the large travel distance and typical home-ground advantage enjoyed by the Eagles and Dockers for lengthy stretches of that era.

In that 16-year span, Carlton has had the double-up trip to Perth nine times. Fellow power clubs Essendon and Geelong have done the double eight times, as have the Saints.

At the other end of the scale, Sydney has had just two.

As for Collingwood?

They haven’t done it at all.

How can that be? When roughly one-third of the league’s non-WA sides are required to make twin trips across the Nullarbor every year on average in that span, how can the Magpies avoid being among that one-third for 16 consecutive years?

The Pies have also avoided a double-up trip to South Australia better than any other club in recent times, having not travelled there twice in a home-and-away campaign since 2006.

Your cookie settings are preventing this third party content from displaying. If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your Cookie Settings . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.

The flip side of the coin is Collingwood facing Sydney in NSW once every season since 2003, with four secondary trips to battle GWS thrown in. While those trips are shorter, they’re no less difficult.

But the discrepancy between teams making certain trips to certain regions, across such a long span where things have a chance to be evened out, is remarkable.

There’s plenty of debate swirling about the merits and pitfalls of priority draft picks potentially being handed out to lowly clubs in an effort to promote equalisation.

However, the fixture remains such a wildcard in determining clubs’ fortunes from year to year. If we’re not going to move to a 34-game season where everyone plays one another home and away (far too long), or a 17-game season where teams play each other once each (won’t happen for financial reasons), then you’d think we could at least smooth things over so the numbers of who visits where don’t differ so wildly over a significant period of time.

Fairness aside, don’t the members of the considerable Magpie army in WA deserve a chance to see their heroes play here more often? Blues supporters have had the opportunity to watch their team play 25 home-and-away games in Perth since 2003. Pies fans have had just 15.

Pointing all this out is more a question for the league’s fixture-makers than a shot at Collingwood, who are rightly considered a flag contender after performing strongly on the road this season amid a host of injuries to key players.

But it’s fitting that the Pies will become the last of all the AFL teams to make their Optus Stadium debut this weekend against Fremantle. Because they’ve been last on the WA travel priority list for some time.

Double-up trips to WA in home-and-away seasons since 2003

Carl 9

Ess, Geel, StK 8

North, Port, Rich 7

Adel, Dogs 6

Melb, GC 4

Haw, Bris 3

Syd, GWS 2

Coll 0