Sorry, Jim, but you and your Bombers might have a long season ahead of you.

That's the opinion of AFL officials, who have given Essendon - with new coach James Hird at the helm - a bye in the final round of the 2011 season because they rated the Bombers as longshots to make the finals.

The fixture for next year, which was released by the AFL on Friday morning, features a 24-round season to cater for the new Gold Coast team and incorporates, for the first time since 1994, two byes for each of the 17 teams.  

In announcing the draw, AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan explained the rationale behind giving Essendon the final-round bye, saying the league wanted to give it to one of the bottom-eight sides because it did not want to hand an advantage to one of the top teams on the eve of the finals, by giving them a week's rest.

"From my point of view ... what we decided when we drew up the fixture at the time was that none of the top eight sides (from 2010) would get that bye in round 24. And it was just the luck of the draw which of the bottom eight sides would get it," McLachlan said.

"I think that most people would consider that if you are in the finals and you had a week break leading into it, then it would be an advantage, rather than a disadvantage."

The AFL's head of fixturing Simon Lethlean also appeared to give the high-profile rookie coach little chance of lifting the Bombers into the top half of the ladder in 2011.

"We thought it wouldn't be given to someone who expects to make the finals at this time of the year, which is hard to do. We certainly made sure it wasn't one of the top four or top eight sides," Lethlean said.

"It's only one year, so it will have to do."

It is the first time the AFL has seen a bye introduced into the fixture in 16 years, before being expanded to a sixteen competition with the introduction of Fremantle in 1995.

McLachlan said AFL research into the effects of the bye in 1994 showed that teams lost 56% of the time in their first match after the week's rest.

The introduction of the Greater Western Sydney side in 2012 will see the AFL expand to an eighteen-team competition, meaning the bye will become redundant.

All sides will face two byes over a 24 week season, with the AFL's newest side and the culprit for the fixturing headaches, Gold Coast, having the week off in round 1.

McLachlan said the six drafts were required to finalise the 2011 fixture, with changes being made as late as last night.

"We definitively said each side had to play each other by round 23. No teams will play each other twice before round 10. There will be a minimum before playing teams for a second time, and there will also be a minimum six weeks between a club's first and their second bye," McLachlan said.