Football: The Saints start with a trip to South Australia, but eight of the next nine matches are in Melbourne. All up there are six interstate travels, and pleasingly only one of those is to Perth. Scott Watters' men play none of the 2011 top four twice, with double-ups against Carlton, the Sydney Swans, Gold Coast, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne. They'll also enjoy a comfortable run home, with their last six matches all in Melbourne. One negative is the nine six-day breaks (the most of any club), including a tough turnaround between a Saturday twilight match on the Gold Coast in round 11 and a Friday night against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in round 12.

Business: Have two MCG home games - against Hawthorn and Melbourne - and Etihad Stadium home games against Carlton, Essendon and Richmond. The Blues clash is in the now-traditional post-Mothers' Day Monday night-spot (round seven). Counter-balancing those profitable fixtures will be small home crowds against Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney and Fremantle. A nice spread of timeslots, with Friday night (four games), Saturday night (six) and Sunday twilight (four) most prominent. Will appear on free to air TV 12 times.

Big game: No doubt it's the round four Friday night clash with Fremantle at Etihad Stadium, when former coach Ross Lyon will return to try and burst the St Kilda 'bubble' that he helped to create.

To download a pdf version of the 2012 fixture, click here.
RDDATEOPPONENTVENUEH/A LOCAL TIME
1Sunday, April 1 Port AdelaideAAMI StadiumAway4:10pm
2Sunday, April 8 Gold Coast SUNSEtihad StadiumHome4:40pm
3Saturday, April 14 Western BulldogsEtihad StadiumAway7:40pm
4Friday, April 20 FremantleEtihad StadiumHome7:50pm
5Saturday, April 28 MelbourneMCGAway7:40pm
6Saturday, May 5 HawthornMCGHome7:40pm
7Monday, May 14 CarltonEtihad StadiumHome7:40pm
8Sunday, May 20 West Coast EaglesPatersons StadiumAway2:40pm
9Saturday, May 26 Sydney SwansEtihad StadiumHome4:40pm
10Friday, June 1 RichmondEtihad StadiumHome7:50pm
11Saturday, June 9 Gold Coast SUNSMetricon StadiumAway4:40pm
12Friday, June 15 Adelaide CrowsAAMI StadiumAway8:10pm
13Bye    
14Sunday, July 1 North MelbourneEtihad StadiumHome4:40pm
15Saturday, July 7 EssendonEtihad StadiumHome7:40pm
16Saturday, July 14 Brisbane LionsGabbaAway7:40pm
17Sunday, July 22 Sydney SwansSCGAway1:10pm
18Sunday, July 29 Western BulldogsEtihad StadiumHome3:15pm
19Saturday, August 4 CollingwoodMCGAway7:40pm
20Saturday, August 11 MelbourneMCGHome1:45pm
21Friday, August 17 Geelong CatsEtihad StadiumAway7:50pm
22Saturday, August 25 GWS GIANTSEtihad StadiumHome1:45pm
23TBCCarltonEtihad StadiumAwayTBC


The views in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs