Essendon’s 2020 Anzac Day blockbuster against Collingwood will be played in a twilight slot in a minor shake-up of the traditional match.

This year’s thrilling edition of the annual game was played at 3:20pm and attracted a massive crowd of 92,241 fans, but next year the first bounce will be pushed back an hour to 4:20pm.

The Bombers fell agonisingly short of the Magpies on that occasion, suffering an admirable four-point loss in the 25^th instalment of the match.

The fixture for the 2020 home and away season is beginning to take shape following Tuesday’s announcement of the opening round, where the Dons will kick off their premiership campaign against Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, March 21.

View this post on Instagram

Round one. Fremantle. Marvel Stadium. Saturday afternoon footy. Nothin’ better than a home game to kick it all off

A post shared by Essendon Football Club (@essendonfc) on Oct 29, 2019 at 1:38am PDT

It will follow the 2020 Marsh AFL Community Series, with Essendon set for games against West Coast and Geelong in the pre-season competition.

The full fixture will be revealed on Thursday.