News Tom Harley: Opening Round is here to stay

[Cmarsh]

Round one proper with every side playing needs to be restored. But that's not the way the AFL sees it.

'Unbelievably important' Opening Round here to stay

Tom Harley says Opening Round is pivotal to the development of the game in NSW and Queensland

www.afl.com.au

 

[rye]

outside of fantasy players and carlton supporters i dont know anyone who thinks opening round is a bad idea

 

[jwikked]

I’m not opposed to opening round, but every team needs to be involved. It’s not good enough to have the ladder not make sense for a few months until every team has their bye.

Have all the games interstate, with a couple in Vic on Sunday.

Having only 4 or 5 games in a round is insanity.

At the end of the day, someone living in Sydney isn’t more likely to watch AFL, because there’s no teams playing in Melbourne that weekend.

 

[STPer18]

I’m not opposed to opening round, but every team needs to be involved. It’s not good enough to have the ladder not make sense for a few months until every team has their bye.

Have all the games interstate, with a couple in Vic on Sunday.

Having only 4 or 5 games in a round is insanity.

At the end of the day, someone living in Sydney isn’t more likely to watch AFL, because there’s no teams playing in Melbourne that weekend.

Most obvious solution of all time. Play the first four games in the two Nepo cities, then the remaining five across WA/SA/Vic.

And then call it 'Round 1' rather than flOpening Round.

 

[Lockyer24]

I’m okay with the interstate clubs getting home games to kick off, but include everyone in round 1.

 

[Altum Volantes]

I reckon it goes back to include all of the clubs once Tasmania join the league
The fixture will need to factor in byes more evenly across the season.

My idea is simple - play an 'opening round' (aka Round 1, lets get real here...) that involves all teams (or at least 18..). Play footy in every state and territory. 'Australia's game, Australia wide' - plays nicely against starting the season in the USA, which is what this whole thing was about anyway...

Adelaide
Brisbane
Melbourne
Sydney
Canberra
Gold Coast
Hobart
Perth
Darwin (weather permitting)

Seems like an easy sell to generate some nation wide coverage to me...

 

[The King!]

It’s ****en stupid, make it round one, just launch with all these games first if you want, why do we need gimmicks to start the year

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Opening round sucks. Fans of half the sides don't see their team play, fans of the teams that do have a pointless bye in the first four weeks that saps the energy out of as well

No one likes it but the nuffies at AFL HQ couldn't care less

 

[Robroy22]

Booooooooooo

 

[The Unforgiven]

Tom, it's a concept that annoys everyone.

 

[Consolaçao]

Round one proper with every side playing needs to be restored. But that's not the way the AFL sees it.

'Unbelievably important' Opening Round here to stay

Tom Harley says Opening Round is pivotal to the development of the game in NSW and Queensland

www.afl.com.au

Come on.
We get 4 games in northern markets with NSW/QLD playing Vic clubs carefully selected so that the games sell out.
The fact these games would sell out if they were played in round 2,5 or 16 is actually irrelevant because it was Andrew Dillon’s special idea and he’ll be super sad if we get rid of it.

 

[Saints4ever]

I’m not opposed to opening round, but every team needs to be involved. It’s not good enough to have the ladder not make sense for a few months until every team has their bye.

Have all the games interstate, with a couple in Vic on Sunday.

Having only 4 or 5 games in a round is insanity.

At the end of the day, someone living in Sydney isn’t more likely to watch AFL, because there’s no teams playing in Melbourne that weekend.

This guy gets it

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

 

[Magpie Since 1986]

I agree with Tom Harley that it is "unbelievably important" as nobody could actually believe it's important .

 

[GC2015]

Round one proper with every side playing needs to be restored. But that's not the way the AFL sees it.

'Unbelievably important' Opening Round here to stay

Tom Harley says Opening Round is pivotal to the development of the game in NSW and Queensland

www.afl.com.au

Tom Harley grew up in South Australia, spent 11 years playing AFL footy in Victoria and captained the Cats during one of their most successful eras, then spent a few years commentating for Channel 7 and has served in admin / COO roles for both GWS & Sydney. Now he's the new COO of the AFL and I think it's fair to say this guy is very knowledgable in terms of what is and isn't a priority for football around Australia.

So when Harley says it's "unbelievably important" to retain Opening Round in its current format because it's crucial for growing the game in the northern markets, I tend to believe he knows what he's talking about.

 

[koshjjennedy723]

The AFL is the ultimate version of Australian corporate culture.
Best man for the job? Nah I know a bloke
The consumers don't like our product? Nah, it's my bosses idea, it's the children that must be wrong!
Someone's breaking the rules? It's okay, he's a great bloke/club!

 

[Cmarsh]

Tom Harley grew up in South Australia, spent 11 years playing AFL footy in Victoria and captained the Cats during one of their most successful eras, then spent a few years commentating for Channel 7 and has served in admin / COO roles for both GWS & Sydney. Now he's the new COO of the AFL and I think it's fair to say this guy is very knowledgable in terms of what is and isn't a priority for football around Australia.

So when Harley says it's "unbelievably important" to retain Opening Round in its current format because it's crucial for growing the game in the northern markets, I tend to believe he knows what he's talking about.

As other posters have said, I think you can retain the home games of the four northern state clubs without making opening round exclusive to them.
The AFL have gone a step to recognising that this year wirh st Kilda vs Collingwood at the MCG. The extension of that would be to play in SA and WA as well. This wouldn't take away from the northern club home games.

 

[ferball]

As other posters have said, I think you can retain the home games of the four northern state clubs without making opening round exclusive to them.
The AFL have gone a step to recognising that this year wirh st Kilda vs Collingwood at the MCG. The extension of that would be to play in SA and WA as well. This wouldn't take away from the northern club home games.

Opening round - where we exclusively target Northern markets the week before the AFL Season officially starts to make them feel special is so important the last game will involve Collingwood at the MCG.

 

[Pacman82]

I guess the clubs waiting till rd.1 are happy with it, an extra week to prepare etc. Or they'd be jumping up n down, or at least requesting to be part of rd 0 when they put in their list of fixture requests.

 

[Elixuh]

I’m not opposed to opening round, but every team needs to be involved. It’s not good enough to have the ladder not make sense for a few months until every team has their bye.

Have all the games interstate, with a couple in Vic on Sunday.

Having only 4 or 5 games in a round is insanity.

At the end of the day, someone living in Sydney isn’t more likely to watch AFL, because there’s no teams playing in Melbourne that weekend.

Just have all of the games played in the Northern states. Everyone’s happy.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Ill say it again - national round is opening round

No games in Victoria, 2 games in each of the other states

With tassie coming in that changes slightly but will still work

 

[GC2015]

As other posters have said, I think you can retain the home games of the four northern state clubs without making opening round exclusive to them.
The AFL have gone a step to recognising that this year wirh st Kilda vs Collingwood at the MCG. The extension of that would be to play in SA and WA as well. This wouldn't take away from the northern club home games.

It depends on what you're trying to achieve with Opening Round. My understanding is the league wants the AFL media's attention to be squarely on the northern markets in Opening Round and they're essentially forcing journalists all over Australia to travel to the northern markets to cover these games when they may not have otherwise. Adding more games means less attention on the northern markets and just defeats the whole purpose of it to begin with.

Letting Collingwood (and St Kilda) play at the MCG in OR this year feels like a reward for the Pies being good sports about traveling to Western Sydney for two consecutive years to open their season, one of which was as the defending premiers. Collingwood did what was asked of them to ensure sell out crowds in Western Sydney and the AFL has rewarded them for doing so. No other non-northern club has really done anything to deserve a home game in a round that's specifically designed to grow the game in the northern markets. St Kilda just got lucky that they were the ones who were picked to face the Pies at the G.

 

[Partridge]

It’s ****en stupid, make it round one, just launch with all these games first if you want, why do we need gimmicks to start the year

Because it's a way to create some marketing nonsense, and gouge more money out of fans.

 

[jwikked]

Just have all of the games played in the Northern states. Everyone’s happy.

There’s not enough teams for that. Why should any Victorian team be forced to play a home game in Queensland?

 

[Elixuh]

There’s not enough teams for that. Why should any Victorian team be forced to play a home game in Queensland?

Because that’s the point of opening round.