With the hysteria building around James Hird and his high-flying Bombers, it's worth noting an interesting quirk with the AFL's 2011 fixture - a quirk that could end up being a big help to Essendon should the club, in fact, keep up its form and finish in the top eight.

Faced with the issue of having to introduce a bye each week this season (given the odd number of teams with Gold Coast's introduction), the league was presented with a problem: which team should they give the Round 24 bye to?

On the face of it, this doesn't seem a particularly important question. Bye schmye.

But, as any club will tell you, there's a clear advantage in having a week's rest before gearing up for a gruelling finals campaign.

So when the AFL got around to addressing this issue last October, they immediately ruled out the top eight sides from 2010, figuring they were a good chance to be involved in September action again. And they didn't want to give Collingwood, say, a bye in round 24 when St Kilda, say, was having a tough hitout against another top side that same weekend. Imagine the outcry then.

So they looked at the bottom clubs from last season. And their beady eye was immediately fixed upon the red-and-black brigade from Windy Hill. Not much chance of James Hird's Bombers making the finals, they figured, so Essendon was slotted in for the week's rest in Round 24.

In announcing the draw last October, AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan explained the rationale behind the decision (which effectively revealed the league's expectations for the Bombers  in 2011).

"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 Hird, 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."

Yes, it will have to do. But we wonder how the other top-ranking clubs will feel about that in late August when their injury list is mounting and they are gearing up for a tough, final-round hitout - while the Bombers are stretched out on their banana lounges, daiquiri in hand, waiting for week one of the finals to start.