Gather Round 2026

[ibd77]

Melbourne Gather Round would go off.

How many to a Port vs Freo at Marvel Stadium?

 

[MelbourneGWS]

Peter Malinauskas’s post about Gather Round arousing the ire of NRL who claim their “Magic Round” is better!

He took to X and posted three images which included Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Barossa Park. The caption simply read: “3 venues. 9 AFL matches. One state - South Australia.”

Whether he meant to go fishing or not, NRL fans took the bait hook, line and sinker as they hit back and stated why Magic Round was the better of the two events.

Mark Gottlieb wrote in response: “1 venue. 8 NRL matches. One state - Queensland.”

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/sa-premiers-post-ignites-fierce-debate-between-afl-and-nrl-fans/news-story/0e0df4efe87edc4193d8b4743e0bb879

 

[FlowersByIrene]

How many to a Port vs Freo at Marvel Stadium?

why would you need to fixture that in a Melbourne Gather Round

 

[Slime Roy]

Crap stadiums, crap crowds, crap camera angles, crap weather, crap games

Sorry for your loss.
We fully thought you had em for a sec

 

[Tandy]

Weather and crowds this year is unfortunate but not SAs fault. They’ll probably get it again

 

[Great8]

Will be announced for another 5 years today seems to be all the noise around town

 

[le dominateur]

The football has been fairly good, even the Barossa and Norwood games were ok on TV.
The so called blockbuster between Hawthorn and Footscray was the worst game so far.

 

[Cmarsh]

Is this reflective of people's experience of going to Adelaide for gather round?

'It's a scam': What the AFL and city of Adelaide won't tell you about Gather Round

Everyone loves to rave about Gather Round. But unless you're in the financial 1%, this weekend-long football festival just isn't meant for you.

www.espn.com.au

 

[Great8]

The football has been fairly good, even the Barossa and Norwood games were ok on TV.
The so called blockbuster between Hawthorn and Footscray was the worst game so far.

Not sure if it was because it ended the streak and we had a lot of built up letdowns but I was at the Bombers game yesterday and the crowd made more noise than what we do at some Marvel games even when we win. Was good fun

 

[Great8]

Is this reflective of people's experience of going to Adelaide for gather round?

'It's a scam': What the AFL and city of Adelaide won't tell you about Gather Round

Everyone loves to rave about Gather Round. But unless you're in the financial 1%, this weekend-long football festival just isn't meant for you.

www.espn.com.au

Airlines and hotels definitely jack up the prices but that’s no different to any other big event in town. Airlines and the major hotel chains have very effective dynamic pricing systems which mean yes plenty get ripped off.
It’s a great week still and numbers of interstate visitors are up so they are doing something right I guess

 

[bomberclifford]

"Oh no, Victorians have to pay for travel to go to the football!" FFS

How is that any different to price hikes for finals in Melbourne? Or Anzac Day, or Kings Birthday, etc?
The Grand Final is virtually inaccessible these days for anyone west of Bordertown.

 

[CarterS]

Peter Malinauskas’s post about Gather Round arousing the ire of NRL who claim their “Magic Round” is better!

He took to X and posted three images which included Adelaide Oval, Norwood Oval and Barossa Park. The caption simply read: “3 venues. 9 AFL matches. One state - South Australia.”

Whether he meant to go fishing or not, NRL fans took the bait hook, line and sinker as they hit back and stated why Magic Round was the better of the two events.

Mark Gottlieb wrote in response: “1 venue. 8 NRL matches. One state - Queensland.”

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/sa-premiers-post-ignites-fierce-debate-between-afl-and-nrl-fans/news-story/0e0df4efe87edc4193d8b4743e0bb879

Every game being at one venue is a great part of Magic Round. You can buy a "saturday" or "sunday" pass and see 3 games each day. Games aren't individually ticketed.

 

[Tadpole]

The football has been fairly good, even the Barossa and Norwood games were ok on TV.
The so called blockbuster between Hawthorn and Footscray was the worst game so far.

Even worse than the so called "effort" of my team against Freo? That's really saying something.

 

[Tadpole]

Melbourne Gather Round would go off.

Like a bucket of prawns in the sun.

 

[le dominateur]

The football has been fairly good, enven the Barossa and Norwood games were ok on TV.
The so called blockbuster between Hawthorn and Footscray was the worst game so far.

Even worse than the so called "effort" of my team against Freo? That's really saying something.

Yes, both Freo or Pies could have won.
Hawks dominated the Bulldogs from the start.

 

[pjcrows]

Gather Round belongs in Adelaide but will lose its "must attend" edge pretty quickly unless they do something different next year. There's only so many drone shots of vineyards you can broadcast. What that "different" is, I'm not sure.

Having a handful of disgusting teams doesn't help

 

[Dirty Bird]

why would you need to fixture that in a Melbourne Gather Round

Because we cant be having vic vs non-vic games. It's an extra home game

 

[Dirty Bird]

Gather Round belongs in Adelaide but will lose its "must attend" edge pretty quickly unless they do something different next year. There's only so many drone shots of vineyards you can broadcast. What that "different" is, I'm not sure.

Having a handful of disgusting teams doesn't help

I honestly think it's as simple as - Give us something new

Do we want to see Essendon vs Melbourne or Brisbane vs North Melbourne every year?

Do we want to just see Norwood Oval as the extra ground? What about Prospect? or Glenelg?

Also - Ticket prices have increased year on year. 1st year it was free for members, was this year $15 or $25?
Dont want to go much higher than where it is now.


But one thing is for sure. It's executed immensely better than Opening Round.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

The Melbourne V Essendon game had a deplorable crowd at AO with so many empty seats.

I know Essendon supporters hope and pray that they play Melbourne every Gather Round from now on, but the AFL surely scraps this fixture or move it to Norwood.

To have this fixture 3 times in 4 years is bizzare fixturing. Likewise Brisbane and North.

 

[The Feeder Club]

From an admittedly small sample size of four, this has been the worst one IMO. Underwhelming

 

[Dirty Bird]

From an admittedly small sample size of four, this has been the worst one IMO. Underwhelming

2023 - It had the novelty factor which drew alot of interest. But they were desperate to palm off tickets for Richmond vs Sydney late. And by having Melbourne vs Essendon and Port Adelaide vs Western BUlldogs as a double header from a ticketing perspective, but a long break in between, it lead to an embarrassing crowd vs Melbourne vs Essendon from memory. There was also some comments behind the scenes from clubs like Hawthorn that grew this perception that giving the SA teams a 13th game instate (compared to 16 that the Vic teams have) is an unfair advantage so requested to only play and secondary grounds to avoid playing Adelaide or Port Adleaide.

2024 - The league added to it by splitting the Saturday games into separately ticketed events, expanding the festival feel by setting up the area at Turkey Flat, as well as setting up the Norwood Wine and Food festival.

2025 - It didn't really add much, but by replacing Mt Barker with Lyndoch, it created that feel of change, something new. Plus it played on ignorant interstaters to go, ah sweet, a trip to the Barossa for a game and going to the Wineries, that's amazing (ignoring the fact that Mt Barker is in the Adelaide Hills, another of our great wine regions). Was it also this year they added the Pepsi Collective at ADelaide Oval games? Something new!

2026 - Didn't have anything new, but by giving us Adelaide vs Carlton again, by giving us North Melbourne vs Brisbane again, by giving us Essendon vs Melbourne again (Which is probably the 2nd time the AFL has been desperate to palm off tickets). It kind of has an air of staleness. But that's more to do with the AFL in my honest opinion. Give us something different.

I'd probably rate them as
1. 2025
2. 2024
3. 2026
4. 2023

2023 was flawed, and they bettered it for 2024, and really got people interested in 2025 which made it amazing. But the AFL giving us the same has made 2026 drop a little.

 

[Shane Heard]

It’s a gigantic sizzle ..but in the end all you get is fatty chops.
Great for the punters at the matches..the rest of the country in tv land is half interested as they make other plans for entertainment.

 

[pattymalone00]

 

[Billy ray]

They need to fixture every other round of the season first leaving gather round out. And then televised event with 16 balls for each team other than adelaide and port.
Draw 16 balls in order with first ball playing adelaide thirsday night and last ball playing port sunday night.
Other 14 balls are the randomly chosen match ups in order.
So ball 2 v 3 in game 2. Ball 4 v 5 in game 3. Etc. purely. Random.

 

[Angus Young]

"Oh no, Victorians have to pay for travel to go to the football!" FFS

No they have to pay to go a shit boring city that no one would ever otherwise pay to go to for a holiday.

Put it in a decent city for a start not a morgue with no options.