West Coast Eagles CEO Don Pyke buoyed by reduced travel schedule, welcomes WA Day weekend blockbuster

West Coast plans to turn next year’s WA Day weekend blockbuster home game against Geelong into an annual celebration of WA football. And the Eagles expect their Good Friday clash at Optus Stadium against Essendon will draw a capacity crowd. West Coast CEO Don Pyke said those two fixtures marked the highlight of the club’s 2025 fixtures, released on Thursday by the AFL, along with a month-long mid-yer stint where they will remain in Perth and that will offer more equity in their travel arrangements. “When we were looking at the fixures and the calendar, there has never really been anything targeted around WA Day,” Pyke told The West Australian. “We think it’s a great opportunity. It’s Geelong, it’s the Sunday evening before the Monday holiday, we will look how we activate the concept around WA Day and WA footy and our role within that. “We are hoping we can make that a winner and keep that as an annual part of the calendar.” Fremantle attracted more than 51,000 to its Good Friday win over Adelaide at Optus Stadium this season and the Eagles hope they can also maximise the timeslot. “The Good Friday game last year was really well supported and we think it has got legs and getting a big Melbourne club like Essendon in that fixture will assist in terms of the crowd,” Pyke said. Pyke is buoyed by the fact the Eagles won’t travel to any regional centres and have avoided a trip to Tasmania. The Eagles, however, have missed out on a Thursday night timeslot – for now, with the floating fixture beyond round 15 yet to be confirmed – have only one Friday night match and one game at the MCG and play 11 Sunday games up til round 16, more than any other team. “I know we have a lot of Sunday games … but the reality is we finished 16th,” Pyke said. “It’s up to us to improve our performances and if we improve our performances we’ll get more access to the MCG and more access to slots which are more marquee and more in prime time.” June will provide some travel respite in the meaty part of the season, with the Eagles hosting Geelong, heading south to tackle Bunbury in North Melbourne’s “home” game and returning to Optus Stadium to face Carlton before the bye. They won’t leave the comfort of their own beds til they take on Collingwood at Marvel Stadium in late June. “It’s what we spoke about with competitive balance and inequity around the travel. With the North Melbourne deal landing it gives us the opportunity with the three games at home followed by the bye, it means that reduces that load which is great,” Pyke said. “It’s important we use that to our advantage and attack those games and get some Ws on the board.” The Eagles are expected to repeat their travel arrangements from this year leading into Gather Round when they remained on the road, with a six-day break coming up in 2025 after their round four encounter with GWS in Sydney into their clash with Carlton at Adelaide Oval. “We have to work out the timing, but the feedback from the coaches and playing group on that was really positive,” Pyke said. “They came out on the Saturday and felt like they’d had a good preparation even though it was a six-day break, so we were keen to explore that again and we’ll look at how the logistics work. “After a long initial flight to Sydney it makes sense to us to kill two birds with one stone on that one.” The Eagles have double-up matches against just two of last year’s finalists, GWS and Carlton. The others are Melbourne, Adelaide, Richmond and Fremantle. They open the season with a home game against Gold Coast on Sunday, March 16, before heading to the Gabba to face reigning premier Brisbane but after the GWS-Carlton road trip, the travel burden eases up. “After round four with the Giants game, all our travel is either Adelaide or Melbourne city. It’s a small thing but it takes a little bit of load off. “(We don’t have to) fly then bus either to Geelong or Ballarat or other venues. That’s a little win.” After the Gabba trip, the Eagles host Fremantle in the western derby before travelling back across to Sydney to face GWS, then trek down to Adelaide for Gather Round in a tough opening to the season. “The reality is you are going to play everyone once. The order you don’t really choose because of the magic matrix that everything goes into and it spits it out,” he said. “We have some challenging games early but while everyone has opinions on where people finished this year but we know the ladder changes. “I appreciate Brisbane in Brisbane, the reigning premier, is a big ask early, but what better time to get them when you are fresh and you are ready to go.’