Melbourne great Garry Lyon wants a 17-game season.

The AFL released the 2020 fixture on Thursday morning, and the problem for Lyon wasn’t draw difficulty, nor who plays who twice, nor travel.

It was that the season must be reduced from 22 games to 17.

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Finals Week 1

In his view, no team should be playing each other twice during the season, preventing an imbalance of difficulty for certain teams during the season.

“I’m happy to have this argument,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.

“I’ve never been more certain that we should be having a 17-game season.”

“Come and tell me I’m an idiot and I know it’s less money and all of that.

“For me, this is my humblest of opinions, I’ve never been more certain that we need a 17-game season.”

While a 17-game season looks unlikely, AFL general manager of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld said he remained open to a 17-5 fixture model at Thursday’s 2020 fixture reveal.

The 17-5 model is the idea that all 18 teams would play each other once in the first 17 rounds before a reset in the final five rounds, which would ensure even matches take place.



Garry Lyon has called for a shorter season. Source: News Limited

“I think there’s something there, (but) I don’t know what it looks like,” Auld said.

“We continue to push it (fixture possibilities) every way we can each year, think about different concepts.

“We spend a lot of time and it generates a lot of interest in the industry, so we get clubs involved and some of the players involved at times in the conversations.

“I don’t know the answer (on 17-5), but we’ll continue to explore it.

“There is a lot of historical elements that make it difficult, potentially the biggest one is guaranteeing clubs 11 home and 11 away games.”