Roast Has Opening Round been totally botched?

[blitzer]

Can't say I like anything about what they've done with the opening round. Basically it was the epitome of the AFL giving us something that no one was asking for.
Its bad from a draw integrity point of view. Yeah I get that there's lots of fixture inequities already but that doesn't mean we should add more...
Its bad from an anticipation point of view - I can't recall being less excited about the first round of footy ever.
Its just generally annoying in little ways. Case in point being that you can't even look at the ladder and at a quick glance know where your team really sits because you've got like 40% of the competition having played an extra game already.

Don't get me wrong I'm sure I'll still enjoy the footy season as a whole but it would have clearly been better with last years structure.
Change doesn't always equal progress when the actual change is shit.

 

[Smithdogmaddog]

Anything is better than the biggest anti climax game of all time, car v rich, both teams have rarely been good at the same time and it’s usually close until half time then inevitably blows out, one of the more boring match ups in recent times.

 

[El Doederino]

Having the 4 away teams from Melbourne was a big mistake

Port should have been one of the away teams. SA fans are more prepared to get on a plane seeing we do it every other weekend.

The WA clubs currently being poor doesn’t help but when they’re back, one of them should also be involved.

Then it will be reasonable.

 

[Underarm]

Having the 4 away teams from Melbourne was a big mistake

Port should have been one of the away teams. SA fans are more prepared to get on a plane seeing we do it every other weekend.

The WA clubs currently being poor doesn’t help but when they’re back, one of them should also be involved.

Then it will be reareasonable

All 4 games were sold out.

 

[le dominateur]

Adelaide, Perth and the 2 Melbourne grounds were unavailable because of concerts/swap over from cricket season, the AFL decided to start the season 1 week earlier with a few games, cue incessant whinging.


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[El Doederino]

All 4 games were sold out.

They would have sold out regardless

 

[threenewpadlocks]

They would have sold out regardless

No, because in both cases (these specific match-ups, and the home team's respective first game for the season) have recently been played anyway and not been sellouts.

For example, last time Sydney played R1 at home they played Port in 2017 and 33,000 people attended. Sydney also played a Round 4 Thursday Night game against Melbourne in 2019, a direct comparison for what this game would have been had they not done this opening round (given the timing of the byes for the 8 teams), and only 29,000 people turned up.

So to suggest a Sydney vs Melbourne home fixture "would have sold out" is just not true. At all.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

 

[Underarm]

They would have sold out regardless

Why would they? This was the first ever sellout for a non derby game at Giants stadium. It beat the previous record by 5000.

This was the best crowd on the Gold Coast in 10 years.

You don't get that without the focus on the Northern states and the biggest Victorian clubs.

 

[Roo Beauty]

 

[FlyHigh18]

Here we go... "Gold Coast on top of the ladder" comments. Hate this rubbish.
They do it in the EPL as well with teams that have had an extra two games and it shits me

Every article I read they all seem to be patting themselves on the back about how successful it was. Ignoring that the majority of fans dislike it. An easy fix though. Do what they did but instead of 4 games we play 9 games and call it round 1.

 

[hutchy31]

As many others have no doubt said earlier in the thread, the issue is how it provides competitive advantage to some teams. Pies play Swans this week, and Blues play Tigers, so that's probably fair enough. Freo wouldn't be happy that Brisbane have had a proper game, but at least they then need to travel to Perth this week. I, and I'm sure many other dogs supporters, are not that enamoured with the fact that the dees have had their first run out before we've done anything except play the Hawks in a match sim and then in a practice match - but at least we don't need to travel and Melbourne did this week (albeit only to Sydney).

The main problem is that neither GWS or GC need to travel, they've both had a game at home before their round one opponents have played, then get to stay at home as well for this weekend. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances, but Adelaide and North are getting shafted here.

This is presumably the AFL's aim, to "grow the game in NSW and Queensland" while simultaneously giving GWS and GC a head start on top four and top eight respectively. It just feels like blatantly putting their finger on the scales when coupled with the round one fixturing.

 

[PaythePerryman]

As many others have no doubt said earlier in the thread, the issue is how it provides competitive advantage to some teams. Pies play Swans this week, and Blues play Tigers, so that's probably fair enough. Freo wouldn't be happy that Brisbane have had a proper game, but at least they then need to travel to Perth this week. I, and I'm sure many other dogs supporters, are not that enamoured with the fact that the dees have had their first run out before we've done anything except play the Hawks in a match sim and then in a practice match - but at least we don't need to travel and Melbourne did this week (albeit only to Sydney).

The main problem is that neither GWS or GC need to travel, they've both had a game at home before their round one opponents have played, then get to stay at home as well for this weekend. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances, but Adelaide and North are getting shafted here.

This is presumably the AFL's aim, to "grow the game in NSW and Queensland" while simultaneously giving GWS and GC a head start on top four and top eight respectively. It just feels like blatantly putting their finger on the scales when coupled with the round one fixturing.

A competitive advantage in the AFL!? Shock Horror.

 

[maskmcgee]

So to suggest a Sydney vs Melbourne home fixture "would have sold out" is just not true. At all.

Apart from Round 24 last year when they got a bigger crowd, no that matchup at the SCG never sells out

 

[BigFrizz36]

Here we go... "Gold Coast on top of the ladder" comments. Hate this rubbish.
They do it in the EPL as well with teams that have had an extra two games and it shits me

Every article I read they all seem to be patting themselves on the back about how successful it was. Ignoring that the majority of fans dislike it. An easy fix though. Do what they did but instead of 4 games we play 9 games and call it round 1.

Where would you play them? No grounds available elsewhere, would you have another 5 games in NSW/Qld? Imagine the whinging then.

 

[Dangerousfield]

Adelaide, Perth and the 2 Melbourne grounds were unavailable because of concerts/swap over from cricket season, the AFL decided to start the season 1 week earlier with a few games, cue incessant whinging ... from the entitled Vic supporters.

FTFY

 

[Doc1763]

absolutely it was botched, we were supposed to win!!!

 

[threenewpadlocks]

As many others have no doubt said earlier in the thread, the issue is how it provides competitive advantage to some teams. Pies play Swans this week, and Blues play Tigers, so that's probably fair enough. Freo wouldn't be happy that Brisbane have had a proper game, but at least they then need to travel to Perth this week. I, and I'm sure many other dogs supporters, are not that enamoured with the fact that the dees have had their first run out before we've done anything except play the Hawks in a match sim and then in a practice match - but at least we don't need to travel and Melbourne did this week (albeit only to Sydney).

The main problem is that neither GWS or GC need to travel, they've both had a game at home before their round one opponents have played, then get to stay at home as well for this weekend. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances, but Adelaide and North are getting shafted here.

This is presumably the AFL's aim, to "grow the game in NSW and Queensland" while simultaneously giving GWS and GC a head start on top four and top eight respectively. It just feels like blatantly putting their finger on the scales when coupled with the round one fixturing.

I'm not exactly sure this argument is entirely true. I can post the counter-argument that I'd much rather be a fresh team for this upcoming week than a team that has already gotten some knocks from last week. Your battle-hardened is my battle-weary.

Though this is not to say that these 8 teams aren't advantaged compared to the other 10, for the rest of the season, due to the timing of the byes.

Given all teams are playing 23 total games in a 25 week window, it makes sense to want the two weeks where teams are not playing to be in the middle of the season, somewhere. Yet 10 of the 18 teams are forced to have that week off be in addition to the entire pre-season (where the addional week off is of no value). Collingwood and Sydney have byes in R5, and Richmond and Melbourne have byes in R6. As a player I'd much rather play five games then have a rest, helps with fatigue, niggles etc. for the rest of the season. While other clubs have to decide to rotate a player an actual game or lose, or let their player take knocks and accumulate fatigue and only have one week off in a 24 week window.

Given that opening round exists I'm surprised the AFL just didn't force four teams to take byes in each of R2 and R3, to minimise this risk (accepting that R1 has to contain all 9 games due to marquee fixtures).

 

[juss]

If you want to give Northern States a boost why not just have a normal round 1, and those teams can still keep the marquee fixtures.

You could have the extra 2x 110pm games on the Saturday and 3x games on the Sunday, a 110pm, a 330pm, and a Sunday night game, there's your 9x games and it doesn't change the opening round fixtures, they're still stand alone games in marquee timeslots.

 

[Roobs321]

Too weird to me that some clubs will be two games in before others even play their first. Freo debuts in the 13th match of the season, which feels unfair to their fans. I’m sure there are good reasons and I’m not concerned about competitive advantage this early in, but this coming weekend just feels wrong.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

The real test will be tv viewing numbers for next round, will Carlton v Richmond still draw as big of a crowd and as many eye balls because the initial interest of footy being back has been removed.

It’s a stupid concept and it’s ‘interesting’ how quiet the usual AFL media have been on what a dud it has been..

 

[Roobs321]

Swans in 1991-93 seem to have opened with bye and played R2 second last or last.

 

[Doc1763]

Regardless of who the reigning premier is, they should play their first game at home to unfurl their flag.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

There is one other factor to Opening Round and that's the terms of the new 2025 rights deal, assuming that this will be repeated next year.

Under the terms of the deal, Fox get to show all Saturday games in first 8 rounds of the season exclusively live nationwide Furthermore, now three games which the four Northern teams play will have to be on delay on Channel 7/7mate in those states (those channels used to show all games live).

Therefore, we can infer for both to be simultaneously true, the four northern teams are only allowed to play exactly three Saturday games each within the first 8 rounds, and they have to be in the afternoon/evening time slots (you can't delay a night game to the middle of the night), with those games the ones delayed. Therefore for the four teams, 5 of the 8 first games have to be on Thursday, Friday or Sunday, which naturally creates forced fixturing headaches.

Opening round with the Thursday and Friday makes this difficult fixturing somewhat easier by creating an additional Thursday and Friday slot (e.g 9 Thursday night games in the opening "8 rounds"/9 weeks, rather than 8), taking away some games from the Saturday, and making the extra money they got from the TV rights deal easier to workaround.

I don't doubt the AFL, contractually forced to adhere to the TV rights deal contract from 2025 and looking ahead to how they will fixture (given all of their other rules about teams that finished high on the ladder doubling up against other teams that also finished higher on the ladder the following year etc.), not wanting to give teams five-day breaks, etc. saw the difficulty of it and saw the Opening Round as an opportunity to make the fixture possible while adhering to the TV contracts for next year.

 

[Aussie in exile]

Which games were sellouts?

None were of any football code