Rules · Balance · Must-follow · the model’s own rule

Thursday and Friday caps per club

internal:date.DATE-PRIMETIME-CLUB-CAP

What it means

No club has more than seven Thursday games, eight Friday games, or thirteen of the two combined in a season.

Why it exists

Stops the model giving one club almost every prime-time night. It was added after an earlier version gave Adelaide 21 or 22 Thursday nightThe week's first game. The 2027 model has 24 of them, plus one Wednesday night on the 17 March calendar.Read more in the glossary.

For example

Adelaide can have at most seven Thursday nights, not twenty-one.

How strictly it applies

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

Must-follow. The caps are the biggest counts any club had in the 2023 to 2025 fixtures, a modelled assumptionA value we chose because the AFL has not published the 2027 fact, or because a convention is only visible in past fixtures.Read more in the glossary, not an announced AFLAustralian Football League.Read more in the glossary rule. Checked from the 30 September release.

Where to see it

Teams played twice shows how this plays out across the season.

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.

13 Sep13 Sep 2026Preview 13 September2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
13 Sep13 Sep 2026Preview 14 September (seed 42)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
14 Sep14 Sep 2026Repeat-qualified (seed 42)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
14 Sep14 Sep 2026Corrected (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
14 Sep14 Sep 2026Rules release (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
15 Sep15 Sep 2026B009 nominal (seed 43)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
18 Sep18 Sep 2026B010 nominal (weight 0.10)2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
19 Sep19 Sep 2026B011 nominal2027 · Generated
This version has no recorded result for this rule.
30 Sep30 Sep 2026B012 Wednesday opening2027 · Generated
Met, met
20252025 season as played2025 · As played
Off, switched off by these settings
rule source not recorded

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

For analysts: catalogue text and codes

Rule id: internal:date.DATE-PRIMETIME-CLUB-CAP
Catalogue text: No club has more than seven Thursday games, eight Friday games, or thirteen of the two combined in a season.
Catalogue type: modelled rule (not a catalogue row)
Catalogue family: internal
Class: hard · The fixture must never break it.
Step: S2_5 · Step 3: dates
Recorded status: met · source row evaluated
Catalogue reason: A modelled assumption calibrated to the 2023 to 2025 per-club maxima, added after an earlier release gave one club 21 to 22 Thursdays.