Fox and Seven get a large input over the allocation of matches to certain slots. We could see a Showdown on a Thursday night again in 2025, but it’s highly unlikely we’d see a Q-Clash or Sydney Derby on a Thursday or Friday night.
Given GWS and the Swans performance, I would say there could be a chance - still a small chance, but higher than if they were both losing games every week.
No chance in hell. Even if the AFL won’t admit it their priority is a commercially driven fixture. No matter how well the Swans and Giants are doing on the field, it cannot be justified putting them in primetime on national TV given the low viewership it will attract.
It’s worth noting that the inaugural Sydney Derby (also the Giants’ inaugural AFL match) was held as a standalone Saturday night match to start the 2012 AFL season.
Since then there have been four Sydney Derby finals, but no regular season FTA Derbies outside of New South Wales.
There has also never been a FTA QClash aired outside of Queensland, and there hasn’t been a FTA Western Derby (held as a standalone match on a Friday night) since 2005.