United and Perth play 4 times.

In addition,

United plays Sydney, SEM and Cairns

Perth plays Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide

So far, SEM looks better than Brisbane....

List of teams who each team plays 4 times:

Adelaide- NZ, Perth, SEM, Cairns

Brisbane- NZ, Perth, Cairns, Illawarra

Cairns- United, Brisbane, Adelaide, Illawarra

Illawarra- NZ, Sydney, Cairns, Brisbane

NZ- SEM, Illawarra, Adelaide, Brisbane.

Perth - United, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide.

SEM- United, NZ, Sydney, Adelaide

Sydney- Perth, United, SEM, Illawarra

United- Perth, Sydney, SEM, Cairns.

United has an away derby vs SEM to finish, SEM home game

SEM have beaten Brisbane by 20, NZ by 25 and Adelaide by 10, hence why they're $1.20 to finish top 4 with TAB Sportsbet.

But yeah you're right, playing SEM 4 times means you got a cruisy fixture!

One thing I forgot to mention above with the fixture analysis. I just went through United's fixture again.

It's such a farce, United got 16 home games and 12 away games this season! Dodgy as....

It just means United and SEM both have 12 true home games, 12 true away games and 4 neutral games.

Every other team has 14 true home games and 14 true away games.

There is a slight travel advantage Of course- United and SEM are the only two teams with another team in their own city. And Melbourne is centrally located.

And of course the NBL was going to schedule 4 derbies!

It doesn't matter how good SEM or United are, they will play as many times as possible every season for the foreseeable future, just like Sixers/Thunder and Stars/Renegades in the BBL.

If SEM and United both finish top 4, then next season I'm guessing you won't be talking about how unfair this is

Playing away games at home is a natural advantage if you're someone like Richmond/Collingwood.

I see this closer to a Crows/Port showdown scenario where realistically anyone can win, they are always danger games. What do you know - SEM won that first game.

Mel/SEM should always have 4 games a season to the extent that anyone ever players 4 games against each other.

With a 10 team league, we'd have 28 games = each team 3 games except for rival 4 games; or each team 4 times = 36 games

[Its the third season in a row that Melbourne have had a home double header in the last round of the season].

Again, it's not a home double header.

It's a weekend when United doesn't have to travel. But that will always happen a lot, for both United and SEM.

Last season there were FIBA qualifiers immediately following the regular season. EVery team who travelled in the last round had two weeks at home before their first playoff game. So it was hardly a meaningful advantage for United.

I think it's fair to say most people felt adding a new team and not adding 4 extra games per team was wrong. NBL's reasoning was that they didn't want to extend the season to compete with AFL, affecting finals' crowds.

Melbourne getting 4 extra games where they don't have to travel is just a by-product of NBL wanting to maximise 'local derbies', with their bigger crowds. AFL does the same thing and it biases that draw too.

As pointed out above, NBA draws and NFL draws are also unbalanced in their own ways.

These are the vagaries and inconsistencies you get with professional sports. They're run on business principles rather than sporting principles. As long as the former don't screw up the product too much, then fans usually accept it. I reckon the imbalance this season will have less impact on where teams finish the regular season than the differences in budgets.

It'll be interesting to see how NBL accommodate any further expansion teams into the draw, if they still refuse to extend the season's length. Now that would be a much bigger balancing act.

"The NBA schedule isn't balanced either."

Pretty sure it is, because of the conferences and divisions.

Never thought about the fixtures till now, but yeah they prob need to do a better job of making it fair in terms of travel or it'll just turn into the A...VFL.

You've got two Melbourne teams- so you open the season with a derby. This will become a tradition I’m guessing- much like Richmond and Carlton always opening the AFL season on a Thursday night. Two power clubs and traditional rivals, guaranteed to get 70,000+ at the MCG.

And you finish the season with a derby too. Even if one of the two teams is out of the playoff mix, it’s always fun knocking your cross town rival down the ladder and harming their playoff chances.

These are just good strategies for building a rivalry and creating buzz. If any of us were running the NBL, we would do the exact same thing.

LV how do you feel about Perth having to travel to Invecargill? Please also count the number of times perth travels to begin a round and then has a "home" game against a fresh team. Then talk about the imbalance.

MBL

This anon going on about United's last round "home double header", what about the fact that United is actually PLAYING TWICE in the last round?

Most teams are only playing once.

I’d much prefer United was playing only ONCE, and at home- like Perth! And Sydney. And NZ. And Brisbane.

Sorry, don’t have time to analyse double headers but good suggestion

"Pretty sure you didn't give this much thought."

Not entirely, but I was thinking about the travel aspect only as any team can beat any team on a given night especially in an 82 game season. Travel is a much bigger issue than who you're playing, maybe a team like Toronto would do more mile over a season than maybe an LA team? In the sense of travel, it's not perfect, but I would think it's more balanced than clubs like Perth or NZ having to travel.

[hahahahahahaha they have a three day break between games. PLAYING TWICE is not going to impact them as much as any team playing one home and one away game. or any away game for that matter.]

Wait, you're saying you'd rather play two games without travel, instead of one away game?

Are you suggesting two plane trips is harder on the body than an extra game?

Haha. Seriously?

There's only one team playing away and home, SEM. Cairns plays two away games.

NZ, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth have the luxury of one home game. Illawarra plays once away (in Sydney- short trip). Adelaide plays once away.

If you're Perth traveling to Auckland, yeah maybe

But if you're Illawarra traveling to Sydney- which is actually happening this season- of course you'd rather than playing the extra game

Having 2 opponents also means United coaching staff are less able to start preparing for possible playoff opponents

Go on, keep trying to convince yourself that having two games is favorable compared to most other teams having one game.

I'm having fun reading your stories.

If you look at the last 2 rounds, Perth has the most favourable fixture- they are the only team who:

1. Doesn't have to travel

AND

2. Doesn't play a double header over the last two weeks.

Fit that little factoid into your next story, please.

In the 2nd last round, Perth plays at home against Brisbane, who will be coming off a home game in Brisbane on the Friday night.

In the last round, Perth plays at home against Adelaide.

So, two home games against middle of the road teams.

Yet we have a Perth fan claiming that the fixture is rigged to give United a cushy finish!

Hahaha, this is brilliant stuff.

Having two teams in the same city will always result in natural advantages for those teams.

Thanks Captain Obvious

SEM only has to leave Melbourne once in the first 8 weeks of the season! October 25 in Perth. Their next game outside Melbourne is November 30 in Brisvegas. So if travelling is the issue, they've got it easiest.

United flew back from the USA and played the next day. How does that fit into your "United has it easy" theory?

"Wait, you're saying you'd rather play two games without travel, instead of one away game?"

Ask West Coast Eagles players and Dockers players how much the travel effects their bodies and careers. Rarely see WA based players reaching the same milestone games as those over east. Travel has a huge effect on the body. Playing at home he get straight into recovery, playing away you're straight on a plane, straight to bed, then onto recovery.

In fact, United started their season in Melbourne, flew to Perth to play Perth. Went to the USA, played 2 games there, returned to Melbourne and played the next day.

5 games in 17 days to start the season- Melbourne, Perth, all across the USA and back to Melbourne.

It's a good thing they're favouring United....I'd hate to see them give United a tough fixture.

United did choke and gave up HCA. But it wouldn't have mattered as the Cats cut down the nets in Melbourne anyway.

LV....United CHOSE to play the NBA games knowing its within the NBL season.

All impacts of games and travelling is on them.

But hey you're going to ignore inconvenient facts anyway right?

"In fact, United started their season in Melbourne, flew to Perth to play Perth. Went to the USA, played 2 games there, returned to Melbourne and played the next day."

Didn't they lose their first 4 games? Yep, travel the non factor...

[LV....United CHOSE to play the NBA games knowing its within the NBL season.

All impacts of games and travelling is on them.]

Adelaide had a 7 day turnaround between their USA game and their first NBL game.

NZ had 8 days.

United had 3 days.

So yeah, you could say United had it the toughest.

Again...United chose the NBA games knowing its implications.

It's tantamount to having sex bareback then complaining about pregnancy.

I wonder if with 10 teams, we will drop to 27 games? ie each other team 3 teams?
Given that would create a H/A imbalance, I would imagine it will be more likley each other team three times plus rival 4 times.
So SEM v MU, Bris V Cairns, Syd v Ill..
I guess Oerth V Adelaide and Tas v NZ

tl;dr version

28/(8-1)=4

but now

28/(9-1)≠ a round number

zomg!

PeterJohn nailed it above- it's a business schedule, not just a sporting schedule. This is an entertainment business above all else. So don't always expect completely equitable scheduling.

Although, it is pretty fair sporting schedule. The top teams from last year - Sydney, Perth, United- all play each other 4 times. This is what the AFL does- the higher you finish, the tougher your fixture is. Perth are the reigning champions, so they can't expect any favours.

Interestingly though, SEM has arguably the toughest group of 4 time matchups of anyone.