Friday night football is very much the showpiece game of the weekend these days, but it hasn’t always been the case.

It wasn’t until this day 35 years ago, on 5 August 1983, that the first Friday night game was even played. It was at the SCG, when the Swans hosted Geelong in what at the time was primarily an experiment in a developing market.

It wasn’t until four years after that game that Friday night football even warranted a semi-regular spot on the AFL fixture, and for a long time it was just another timeslot, dominated by North Melbourne simply because they had pioneered the idea.

It wasn’t seen as anything special, and it certainly wasn’t a big reward. Not until 2000 did the defending premiers have most Friday night games – and that was North. Hardly overwhelming evidence.

Not until 2011 did another premier, Collingwood, head the Friday night game count. And even then, they shared that ‘reward’ with runners-up St Kilda and eighth-placed Carlton.

Since 2011 there has been a stronger correlation, with Geelong in 2012, Hawthorn in 2014 and 2016, and the Western Bulldogs in 2017 suitably rewarded with preferential treatment in the Friday night fixture the year after their ultimate triumph.

But in 2013 Sydney, the 2012 premiers, were allocated only four Friday night games in a fixture in which fourth-placed Collingwood had seven, runners-up Hawthorn had six, 10^th-placed Carlton had five and 11^th-placed Essendon had five.

Richmond, the 2017 premiers, did not play a Friday night home-and-away game in the year they broke their 37-year premiership drought, but this year they have five. So, too, do Adelaide, the 2017 runners-up, and 16^th-placed Carlton.

On four occasions from 1997 through to 2001, the AFL played two Friday night games – usually one in Melbourne or Sydney and one in Perth or Adelaide.

Sydney were involved in a double Friday night header for the first time in Round 7, 1998. They beat Collingwood by 36 points at the MCG, when Tony Lockett kicked 10 goals and Jared Crouch debuted, before Hawthorn beat Fremantle at the WACA by 42 points.

It’s all part of the evolution of a concept that began all those years ago in Round 19, 1983, when 9^th-placed Geelong beat 11^th-placed Sydney 20.21 (141) to 10.15 (75).

The experimental fixture was a milestone feast. Bruce Nankervis played his 250^th game and Terry Bright his 150^th for the Cats coached by Tom Hafey, and Dennis Carroll played his 50^th game for the Swans under Ricky Quade.

Sydney captain Barry Round played his 298^th AFL game and his 163^rd game for the Swans, while Geelong captain Ian Nankervis played his 322^ndgame.

Mark Browning, who a few weeks later won the Swans club championship, had a game-high 33 possessions, while Malcolm Reed (32) and Neville Bruns (30) topped the possession-count for the visitors.

Greg Smith kicked three goals for the Swans while Craig Braddy, who topped the club goal-kicking that year with 48, kicked five behinds. Peter Johnston and Bright kicked four goals for the Cats.

The match pulled a crowd of 12,732. It was the third-biggest of the season at the SCG, behind the 15,432 that turned out to see the Swans play defending premiers Carlton, and the 15,305 that saw the Swans play Collingwood.

The average crowd for the other eight home games was 11,087, with each crowd between 11,916 against Essendon and 10,084 against Hawthorn.

The Friday night test case was well received by all parties, yet there were no Friday night fixtures in 1984, and two only at the MCG in 1985. There were six in 1986, including the Round 12 clash between Sydney and North at the SCG, when the Kangaroos won by 41 points, and a one-off game at VFL Park, Waverley.

Among 17 Friday night games in 1987 the Swans hosted four and posted their first Friday night win in Round 6 against Carlton by seven points in Stephen Wright’s 150^th game. Hafey was the coach.

Friday night games were regularly scheduled at the WACA in Perth from 1987 and at Football Park in Adelaide from 1991.

The Gabba in Brisbane hosted its first Friday night game in ’95, followed by Subiaco in Perth in ’97 and the AFL’s Docklands Stadium in Melbourne in 2000.

In 2013, Friday night football debuted at Stadium Australia, and in 2014 it was played for the first time in Wellington, New Zealand, Adelaide Oval and at Geelong’s Kardinia Park.

In 2016, the League added Hobart’s Bellerive Oval to the list, and in 2017 Canberra’s Manuka Stadium hosted it’s first Friday night game.

In total, the Swans have played 69 Friday night matches, excluding finals, for an aggregate 35 wins, one draw and 33 losses.

They are 23-1-22 in Friday night fixtures at the SCG, 1-1 at Stadium Australia, 7-5 at the MCG, 1-1 at Football Park, 0-1 at the WACA, 1-2 at Docklands, 2-0 at Kardinia Park, and 1-0 at Adelaide Oval.

The Swans’ highest Friday night score and biggest Friday night win came on the same night at the SCG in Round 18, 1987. Sydney kicked 13.12 (198) to Richmond’s 15.17 (107) to win by 91 points.

Warwick Capper and Merv Neagle led 13 Swans goal-kickers with five apiece, while Tony Morwood kicked four, Mark Bayes and Brett Scott three, Stephen Wright, Greg Williams and Barry Mitchell two, and Dennis Carroll, Paul Hawke, David Bolton, Bernard Toohey and Gerard Healy one.

Neagle picked up the three Brownlow Medal votes, while the two votes went to Morwood, and the one vote to Neil Cordy, who was one of the seven Swans players not to kick a goal.