Why Port Adelaide are somewhat disappointed with their 2025 AFL fixture

Port Adelaide CEO Matthew Richardson admits his feelings are mixed about the club’s 2025 fixture.

The full fixture was released on Thursday, with the Power receiving no Friday night games in the first 15 rounds.

Richardson explained how he and the club break it all down.

“You always look at these things through three lenses. The first lens is footy, from a balance perspective we’ve landed a lot of six and seven-day breaks, which is a good thing,” Richardson told SEN SA’s Sportsday.

“The second lens is your members and your fans and our number one timeslot for our people is Saturday nights and we’re probably a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get one or two more of those, but on the flip side number two for us is Saturday twilight and that’s great for kids and families.

“The third lens is commercial, so we’ve got five Channel 7 games, we play Collingwood at the MCG, we close Gather Round and we’ve got a Saturday night Showdown.

“Through each of those lenses we look at it and go ‘we’ve got enough’, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little bit disappointed with a couple of the elements and a bit disappointed for our people who do an amazing job – I think for the last five years we’ve had the number one ranked game day in the AFL, so to miss out on a couple of those is disappointing.”

Richardson revealed the two primary requests the Power put into the AFL for the 2025 fixture.

“All of the clubs get the chance to put in fixture requests. You get two primary requests. Number one for us is always ANZAC Day because that’s historically and culturally that’s a really important one for us,” he said.

“The second one was the Saturday nights as that’s the best timeslot for our fans and that’s where we didn’t quite get what we’re looking for, but I think the twilight will work as well.

“We certainly would’ve liked a few more primetime games. Thursday night is great commercially, but in Adelaide it’s probably not great from an attendance point of view.

“Friday night the attendance is better, so from our perspective in that first block of games another one or two would’ve been pleasing.”

The Power did not receive a game on ANZAC Day in 2025. The day falls on a Friday, with Collingwood taking on Essendon and Fremantle facing Adelaide in the evening.

Port Adelaide hosts North Melbourne the following day.