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The AFL has unexpectedly delayed the release of the 2019 fixture, which was slated for Wednesday.
The AFL has taken the unusual step of delaying the release of the 2019 season fixture amid reports some unhappy clubs demanded changes after seeing draft copies of the schedule.
The league had been set to release the much-anticipated fixture on Wednesday but pushed it back by 24 hours in a media release sent out just after 5pm AEDT on Tuesday.
Months of work goes into building the extremely complex AFL fixture every year.
Late adjustments are routinely made but it is understood the number of last-minute requests from clubs this year has caused a delay.
When the fixture is released, Essendon and Melbourne are set to take centre stage.
The league is desperate to bring back the excitement of Friday night football after too many games in the blockbuster time slot proved fizzers last season.
Premiers West Coast and beaten grand finalists Collingwood will rightfully see plenty of prime time action in 2019, but fixturing chief Travis Auld is also a fan of the brand of football the Bombers and Demons played this year.
"We want to bolster Friday nights, we want to make sure that Thursday and Fridays are really strong, that those feature events are there," Auld said.
"We want to reward teams that have been playing really good football.
"West Coast and Collingwood are the two obvious ones but Melbourne and Essendon look quite exciting after trade period.
"So we want to feature them in the right spots as often as we can."
The league has enjoyed some success with a limited move into the Thursday night time slot and will be able to schedule more next year after the players' association agreed to allow more five-day breaks.
The AFL has already released the round one schedule, the season starting with the now-annual Thursday night Richmond-Carlton clash at the MCG.
The struggling Blues were a big factor in Friday night flops this season, but Auld argued the season-opening clash was a stand-alone fixture guaranteed to draw a big crowd and TV audience.
The Magpies will host Geelong in the first Friday night game of the year - a clash that, on paper at least, should get Friday nights off on the right foot.
Auld is charged with the nigh-impossible task of devising a way to have 18 teams play 22 games each per season and making it fair and equitable for all.
The AFL does this using a formula based on splitting the 18 teams as they finished on the ladder into three groups of six - the top, middle and bottom.
The 'weighted rule' method limits the amount of times a bottom-ranked team plays clubs from the top group and vice versa.
The league announced its pre-season series fixture on Monday, with clubs to play two warm-up games once again.
The league hasn't settled on the format or dates for AFLX games but is adamant the experiment will continue in some shape or form.
