AFL in-season tournament: Gold Coast Suns CEO Mark Evans’ plan for more games in Perth to even up AFL travel

An AFL in-season tournament would be held in Perth amid a dramatic fixture overhaul designed by Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans to reduce the travel burden on non-Victorian clubs. Fremantle and West Coast are enjoying the unprecedented luxury of four weeks in WA after North Melbourne signed a three-year deal to play home matches in Bunbury and at Optus Stadium. Those games mean the Dockers and Eagles will have 13 matches in WA this season. But that is still significantly less than the 17 games Collingwood, Carlton, Geelong and Richmond will play in Victoria. But Evans told The West Australian, having North Melbourne playing home games in Perth had done little to reduce the advantage for the majority of Victorian teams. He has produced a report highlighting the discrepancies and believes one solution is to hold a mid-season tournament outside of Victoria where teams play for both premiership points and a trophy. “You could come up with a tournament in Perth, a tournament in South-East Queensland and a tournament in Darwin,” Evans told The West Australian. “You could do multiple tournaments. It is probably easier to do groups of teams rather that trying to do a tournament involving every team in one location. “It might be as short as a two-match cycle. The more teams you have the more weeks you would need to get a result. We should try to find ways where it is all for premiership points. “I’ve got no doubt it would create real interest. I could see an incredible bank of travelling fans who would go to something that interesting.” The NBA has incorporated an in-season tournament into its regular season with a trophy and prize money up for grabs each season. Soccer teams also have the ability to compete for multiple trophies. Evans said a tournament would provide teams and fans with something extra to pursue each year. But he said the most important part of the concept was keeping non-Victorian teams at home for longer and requiring clubs who play the majority of their games in Melbourne to spend more time interstate. Sydney and Adelaide are among the teams making two trips to Perth this season, despite already travelling every second week. Excluding years impacted by COVID, Collingwood hasn’t played two home and away games in Perth in the same season since 2002. Evans was an integral part of Hawthorn’s premiership era before moving to work at the AFL and also spent time at Melbourne before taking over the Gold Coast job. He said the travel burden on non-Victorian clubs was a clear issue that needs to be addressed. “The game against Fremantle was our third game on the Gold Coast for the year and it was the last day of May. Our next home game is nearly a month away,” he said. “Some of that is due to a cyclone, byes, Gather Round and matches in Darwin. But Queensland teams understand exactly what West Australian teams go through. It’s hard to understand sometimes unless you can see what someone else has gone through.” The AFL has already shown a desire to make key changes to the fixture in recent seasons. Gather Round was introduced in 2023 with all teams playing in South Australia. Then Opening Round was added to the schedule in 2024 to have the season beginning in New South Wales and Queensland. Having North Melbourne playing two home games in Perth has removed one road trip for the Eagles and Dockers, but they have already played the same number of interstate matches as some Victorian teams will experience for the year. Fremantle and West Coast have fought strongly to have their travel load recognised in recent years. They now travel on charter flights to allow them to depart at times which suit their schedule and the league has reduced the number of times they play interstate at night so the team can fly home on the same day. But they both spent over a week on the road amid successive interstate matches around Gather Round which added to their usual time away from home. Fremantle’s Bailey Banfield told The West Australian that making the travel load easier for WA-based teams should be a key part of the league’s quest to make the competition fairer. “I like the idea of more home state games. That definitely appeals,” Banfield said. “The numbers bear out on how many home state games the Victorian teams play. And even over east, with your Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sydney teams and even Adelaide with the travel distance they have to do. An hour flight is very different to a four or five hour cross-country flight. The more home state games we can get the better. “I think the Kangaroos has been a good solution in the interim between the AFL and them and it has suited us. But what’s going to be more sustainable over the long run is potentially the question.”