When local games return to live TV

What it means

Local Saturday games return to live free-to-air (show definition)free-to-airTelevision anyone can watch without a subscription.Read more in the glossary from Round 9 in South Australia and Western Australia. In Queensland and New South Wales, they return from Round 11. Each club also has a yearly limit on delayed games (show definition)delayed gameA game shown on free-to-air after it has finished, rather than live.Read more in the glossary.

Why it exists

Fans outside Victoria should not spend half the season watching their own club on delay.

How strictly it applies

Must-follow The fixture must obey this rule. A separate checker tests the finished fixture afterwards.

The return rounds are must-follow. The AFL (show definition)AFLAustralian Football League.Read more in the glossary has not published the 2027 delayed-game limits. The current release reports each club’s count beside the 2025 figure instead of enforcing it. Before 30 September, this gap kept the whole rule switched off (show definition)switched offNo checker could test this rule in this version. Not a verdict on the fixture.Read more in the glossary.

Live-return rounds are must-follow. The AFL has not published 2027 delayed-game quotas. The release reports each club’s counts beside 2025 figures without enforcing them. This gap kept the rule switched off before 30 September.

How it played out across versions

One cell per release, oldest first. Each shows the verdict that release recorded for this rule; a release with no row for the rule says so.

First checked independently in Realism rules added, 30 Sep 2026.

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