Good Riddance to Opening Round, the AFL’s Worst Idea

Well carn the Pies, because someone up at AFL House has finally seen the light. Opening Round is dead, buried and cremated after just two seasons, and I reckon most of the footy world is doing a little dance about it right now.

From 2027 we’re back to all 18 teams running out on the same weekend like footy’s supposed to work. No more stretching the start of the season out over two rounds just so everyone can have a ‘moment’. Just footy, proper footy, all at once.

What even was Opening Round, really?

Be honest with yourself for a second. Could you actually tell me what the point of Opening Round was? I couldn’t, and I write about this caper for a living.

It was sold to us as this big marketing bonanza, a chance to spread games around the country, build hype, get some international flavour happening. Lovely in theory. In practice it just meant half the comp sat on their hands for a week while the other half played, and everyone felt a bit ripped off either way.

Fans in Melbourne were especially filthy. Why should a Magpies supporter have to wait an extra week to see their team just because the fixture gods decided some other match-up was the ‘opener’? It never made sense to me and I don’t think it ever will.

The Pies copped it too, let’s be real

I’ll admit I’m biased here, Collingwood’s my club and always will be. But even putting that aside, our boys got shuffled around in that opening slot more than once and it just threw the whole rhythm of the pre-season out.

You spend all summer building towards round one, the proper round one, and then you get told actually mate, you’re playing in some standalone exhibition-style round that doesn’t even feel like the real start of the season. It’s like turning up to the granny and being told it’s actually a