AFL chief Gillon McLachlan says he hopes players understand why clubs will have only one bye in 2015.
And there will be no breakthrough on scheduling a game on Good Friday – not next year at least.
Cricket’s World Cup final will be staged at the MCG on March 29. The AFL announced on Thursday its 2015 season would not start until April 2, the day before Good Friday.
The grand final has been moved back to October 3 from its traditional last Saturday in September.
“There won’t be Good Friday football in 2015,” McLachlan told reporters on Thursday.
“We’re committed to starting the season with Richmond-Carlton on Easter Thursday. We’re committed to Hawthorn and Geelong playing on Easter Monday.
“Our view is that 2015, starting the season at Easter, it’s not appropriate to start (Good Friday football).
“Hopefully, the players will understand that with the Cricket World Cup, we want to start with all our venues available and that means we’ll be starting at Easter.
“By definition starting late, we’re not going to finish until we’re in October and hopefully they understand why there would only be one bye next year.”
The return of a second bye and the inclusion of Good Friday football will come under consideration for the 2016 season.
But McLachlan has bigger fish to fry at the moment, including dealing with fans’ anger over affordability.
“We’re trying to address that,” the first-year AFL chief said.
“Whether it’s affordability or just general accessibility, and there’s a whole series of things in that.
“We are committed to working through all of that.
“There will be change, a hundred per cent. What that looks like, we’ll see in the next couple of months.
“At the lower point, our game is very affordable. But it’s the layers of cost, whether it’s parking or food or ticketing, general issues around access, reserved seats.
“It has got complicated and layered and, that’s what we’re committed to doing, is removing a lot of that to the best extent we can.”
McLachlan strongly defended the Sunday twilight fixture which has drawn heavy criticism as being unfriendly for families.
“It has been in the gun for the last two weeks,” he said.
“It has been around for eight years and I’ve never heard anyone really reference it.
“It has been a very successful slot both for attendance and for television for a long time and I don’t see that slot is under challenge.
“Maybe playing at the MCG in the middle of the winter is a challenge but I don’t think the slot specifically is the question.”
Since the VFL/AFL began in 1897, the grand final has been played in October 25 times including twice since 1995.
The most-recent October grand final was in 2011, when the debut of Gold Coast meant an uneven number of teams which necessitated a bye every week.
KEY DATES FOR THE AFL 2015 SEASON:
* Opening round: Thursday April 2 to Monday April 6
* Anzac Day: five matches scheduled for April 25
* Round 23: September 4 to 6
* Grand final: October 3
