Opening Round 2026 and Beyond

[JPetro83]

Opening round is ridiculous. i know the snowflake AFLPA wont like it but why not just add a 24th game to the fixture and have a 24 week fixture? start the season on that 2nd weekend of March. Get rid of the stupid "opening round" theme/gimmick and have Rounds 1 to 24 with each team playing a 24 game season. And scrap the staggered bye weeks.. have Round 12 as a split round.. 5 games 1 week and 4 the next. Thoughts?

 

[Walshawk]

Opening round is ridiculous. i know the snowflake AFLPA wont like it but why not just add a 24th game to the fixture and have a 25 week fixture? start the season on that 2nd weekend of March. Get rid of the stupid "opening round" theme/gimmick and have Rounds 1 to 25 with each team playing a 24 game season. And scrap the staggered bye weeks.. have Round 12 as a split round.. 5 games 1 week and 4 the next. Thoughts?

Just need to be patient. The fixture will change dramatically from 2028 when Tas come in. There will be 24 games (there can’t be an off number with 19 teams) as they will want to keep Gather Round. You can either spread the 38 byes over the season, or bunch them up at the start or end of the season.

 

[The King!]

I hate opening round

 

[flyinghi64]

Opening round is just another AFL idea that doesn't make sense except for adding an extra week for the media endorsements.
It creates an unfair and uneven start to the season. It is just plain fact that nothing compares to an actual proper game to gain game fitness so a team that has had a proper game will have an advantage over a team that is yet to have one.
Either start the season a week earlier or just leave it the F alone.

 

[Jeremias]

Really surprised they've stuck with it for 2025.

It was crap in 2024. The build up to round one is usually great but it felt completely flat this year in Melbourne. Despite my club being a part of it, it was very hard to get excited by it.

It shouldn't be a thing in 2026 or beyond. Open the year with a big game at the MCG and be done with it.

 

[The 747]

Looking forward to Round Minus One!

 

[aCunningPlan]

Screw everyone in Melbourne. Long live Opening Round!

 

[blueiris]

The week is wrong I can see in the future the AFL wanting the Gather round in Sydney at the same time Magic Round is in Queensland either have it then or the week the NRL is actually in LAS VAGES

 

[errant bounce]

Honestly think that Gather Round will end up running out of steam. people will go to Adelaide once, maybe twice for the Barossa, and won't go back. people in Melbourne can go to a weekend's worth of football every week. people in WA love a footy weekend away but the distance is too far to make it affordable and the airline and accomodation prices mean it's just easier – and you can tie it in with a gig or seeing friends or family – to just go to Melbourne a couple of months later.

People won't go up to Sydney or Brisbane en masse and Perth's just way too far, and again pricey, to get to for most of the country.

Throw in people having far less money and the idea of blowing two grand on going to some boring city you never otherwise would to watch your team lose isn't very enticing. you might as well use that on a cheaper, longer, warmer, or more exciting holiday, pay your bills, or keep it in the bank.

I love going to the football and watching a neutral game but the reasons I'm into it are the total opposite reasons you'd go to Gather Round. I can decide on the morning – or an hour before bounce down – if I want to head down; I just scan my AFL membership so it essentially feels like I'm not paying for anything; I can go with mates; or I can spend some time by myself, stretching out, being as idle and mindless as I want/need and not having to talk to anyone, deal with heaps of people, or running around needlessly.

Do not get the appeal and feel if not this year, then next that it fizzles out.

IMO think we end up with an extra round played in neutral venues around the country. that, or a situation where the interstate clubs have 12 home games and all bar the big four + Geelong have 11 in Victoria and two neutral games they sell off.

 

[BobbyMorri]

I just hate the name. and the concept

It is round 1. Call it so!!!
And
Prefer all the teams to play in round 1. I don't think the lift in metrics in NSW/Qld is just special or unique. The first home games are always full of optimism and hope.

 

[CarterS]

Only thing I like about it is that it guarantees us a home game first up.

 

[Bay53]

Really surprised they've stuck with it for 2025.

It was crap in 2024. The build up to round one is usually great but it felt completely flat this year in Melbourne. Despite my club being a part of it, it was very hard to get excited by it.

It shouldn't be a thing in 2026 or beyond. Open the year with a big game at the MCG and be done with it.

Not only did all four Opening Round games sell out, but Round 1 broke the all time attendance record, so it seems that fans actually voted with their feet.

 

[Jeremias]

Not only did all four Opening Round games sell out, but Round 1 broke the all time attendance record, so it seems that fans actually voted with their feet.

Yeah they were all sell outs. That's a great thing.

Carlton played at the Gabba, Richmond on the Gold Coast and Collingwood in Western Sydney.

You could schedule those three teams to play at midnight Wednesday on the moon and they'd draw a crowd.

The 'success' of Opening Round had very little to do with round 1 breaking the attendance record.

 

[L_W_P]

Honestly think that Gather Round will end up running out of steam. people will go to Adelaide once, maybe twice for the Barossa, and won't go back. people in Melbourne can go to a weekend's worth of football every week. people in WA love a footy weekend away but the distance is too far to make it affordable and the airline and accomodation prices mean it's just easier – and you can tie it in with a gig or seeing friends or family – to just go to Melbourne a couple of months later.

People won't go up to Sydney or Brisbane en masse and Perth's just way too far, and again pricey, to get to for most of the country.

Throw in people having far less money and the idea of blowing two grand on going to some boring city you never otherwise would to watch your team lose isn't very enticing. you might as well use that on a cheaper, longer, warmer, or more exciting holiday, pay your bills, or keep it in the bank.

I love going to the football and watching a neutral game but the reasons I'm into it are the total opposite reasons you'd go to Gather Round. I can decide on the morning – or an hour before bounce down – if I want to head down; I just scan my AFL membership so it essentially feels like I'm not paying for anything; I can go with mates; or I can spend some time by myself, stretching out, being as idle and mindless as I want/need and not having to talk to anyone, deal with heaps of people, or running around needlessly.

Do not get the appeal and feel if not this year, then next that it fizzles out.

IMO think we end up with an extra round played in neutral venues around the country. that, or a situation where the interstate clubs have 12 home games and all bar the big four + Geelong have 11 in Victoria and two neutral games they sell off.

Agree with a lot of this.

Once all the airlines & hotels started price gouging I was out. If I wanted to watch half a dozen neutral teams I have the luxury of doing that already.

Get the feeling it'll become more and more corporate as time goes on. Just another junket weekend for the AFL, their sponsors, and the hangers on who get 'gifted' accommodations & tickets.

As for opening round:

It creates an imbalance in an already imbalanced fixture.

With 20 teams we could play 19 games - 9 home, 9 away + 1 neutral for "Gather Round" but they won't do it.

It'll remain 23-24 games so we can get all the derby/showdown/clash doubles as well as the Pies/Blues/Bombers etc and the cycle will continue.

 

[errant bounce]

Agree with a lot of this.

Once all the airlines & hotels started price gouging I was out. If I wanted to watch half a dozen neutral teams I have the luxury of doing that already.

Get the feeling it'll become more and more corporate as time goes on. Just another junket weekend for the AFL, their sponsors, and the hangers on who get 'gifted' accommodations & tickets.

As for opening round:

It creates an imbalance in an already imbalanced fixture.

With 20 teams we could play 19 games - 9 home, 9 away + 1 neutral for "Gather Round" but they won't do it.

It'll remain 23-24 games so we can get all the derby/showdown/clash doubles as well as the Pies/Blues/Bombers etc and the cycle will continue.

I don't know, why do you want to go to Adelaide v Carlton in Adelaide over that at the MCG or Etihad? and then tack on a neutral game (Victorians don't go to neutral games because there's about 15 opportunities to see their own club play every year)?

It's a concept that will die out very soon. paying 1300 bucks to go to a city most outer suburban bogans would usually shit on to watch footy you can do every single weekend?

It's ****in stupid.

 

[Run n Spread]

Just need to be patient. The fixture will change dramatically from 2028 when Tas come in. There will be 24 games (there can’t be an off number with 19 teams) as they will want to keep Gather Round. You can either spread the 38 byes over the season, or bunch them up at the start or end of the season.

There will be 3 gather round with each team having a bye for 1.
So 11 home11 away 2gr
Season will need to be 27-28 rounds to cater for the byes needed each week

 

[NeutralFan]

I don't mind what they're going for. I see no reason why they can't hand primetime games for NSW/QLD teams and all four to have home games round 1. See no point not having 5 other games on though. Fans will still watch their first game whichever slot and they will pack out first home games round 2

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Opening round is ridiculous. i know the snowflake AFLPA wont like it but why not just add a 24th game to the fixture and have a 24 week fixture? start the season on that 2nd weekend of March. Get rid of the stupid "opening round" theme/gimmick and have Rounds 1 to 24 with each team playing a 24 game season. And scrap the staggered bye weeks.. have Round 12 as a split round.. 5 games 1 week and 4 the next. Thoughts?

Won't change. They live in a deluded bubble and think that all non big 4/NW club supporters feel privileged to watch the darling clubs play a stand alone round while we patiently wait for our less important seasons to start.

 

[Walshawk]

There will be 3 gather round with each team having a bye for 1.
So 11 home11 away 2gr
Season will need to be 27-28 rounds to cater for the byes needed each week

You could still do that over 26 weeks.

 

[Ivelisse]

Really surprised they've stuck with it for 2025.

It was crap in 2024. The build up to round one is usually great but it felt completely flat this year in Melbourne. Despite my club being a part of it, it was very hard to get excited by it.

It shouldn't be a thing in 2026 or beyond. Open the year with a big game at the MCG and be done with it.

AFL is provincial enough as it is it doesn't need to be more Melbourne-centric

 

[powerrrrrrrrrrrr]

How hard is it for them to organise that if they want to do an opening round for the Northern clubs, just make it a split round.

This crap of giving teams a bye 4 weeks in is just another ridiculous anomaly added to an already lopsided fixture.

And call it what it is, it’s round 1. Opening round is just an idiotic term that sounds like it was dreamed up by some committee or working group that just had to find a way to be involved.

Should have been canned anyway after last years fail but it’s not a surprise to see it back.

 

[dylan93]

I mean they're only doing it cause the NRL are playing games internationally.

If you can't beat em, you could join them?

Try to play a couple games in different countries to showcase the game, or not, I couldn't really care less.

Would prefer a fairer fixture.

 

[Jeremias]

AFL is provincial enough as it is it doesn't need to be more Melbourne-centric

Who said anything about it becoming more Melbourne-centric?

 

[Ivelisse]

You said the season should start in Melbourne

 

[Jeremias]

You said the season should start in Melbourne

As it has for years. That's not advocating for the league becoming "more Melbourne-centric".

If there's a push to move away from that - though there shouldn't be, because it very clearly works - I'd be fine with the league deciding to start the season with a grand final rematch at the home of the victorious side.