News Tom Harley: Opening Round is here to stay

[Elixuh]

Aren't the Saints playing Pies at the MCG?

Is Vic a Northern state now.

That’s a sympathy game to calm the vfl supporters down.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Its not round 1 because of the last administration stupidly signing a contract woth Carlton and Richmond that they get the first game of round 1

It's a myth. They may have a contract with the MCG for this but they don't have a contract with Carlton and Richmond - there are no multi-year AFL-club contracts regarding fixtures. Any fixture can be changed any year.

And I doubt the MCG contract too. Contract law is all about substance, not form. You can't sign a contract to have the first game of the year at MCG then "get around it" by saying "no we are calling this opening round".

The term "Opening Round" is just marketing wank designed to make it appear something special. Like it's not a regular round of footy, it's something extra. It's just bizarre however, they could call it "Opening Round"and then go straight into Round 2.

 

[Jezzitizle]

Isn’t it all about getting the tv ratings for games in the northern markets? Footy starved public around the country tune in, those teams ratings go up?

I for one have been saying the afl doesn’t go near far enough in terms of tipping the scales.

They should also look at other similarly sensible things like only letting north state sides qualify for prelims, because grow the game.

 

[Scotland]

"Opening round" is just a marketing gimmick. Whether you call it opening round + rounds 1-24 or just rounds 1-25 it means the same thing.

There are 25 rounds and each team plays 23 games. You play 17 teams once then another 6 teams twice. And if you are WC last year you get to play Carlton twice in the space of 10 games within the first 15 rounds but then do not play Sydney until the last round because in a competition as manufactured as the AFL that doesn't even rate a mention as a fixture quirk. This year we don't play in opening round and we don't play in round 16. Cool. I'm sure those well timed breaks will really impact our final ladder position. We also play Hawthorn once and not until the last around because why not.

Gather Round is to get money from the SA govt and add 9 games of footy to the TV schedule.
Opening Round is to extend the season an extra week so there are more prime timeslots in the TV schedule.
The "rolling fixture" is to ensure that late in the season you can shuffle off dud games (not WC vs Syd for some reason) from prime timeslots in the TV schedule.

Etc.

 

[blitzer]

Opening round is a pointless load of crap and I don't know anyone in real life who actually likes it (living in WA).
They literally took the simplest possible thing - having every team play in the first week which used to garner great tv ratings and crowds and turned it into something that actively pisses off half its fanbase and then call it a win.
I guess we have to wait for management to change at AFL before they will see sense.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Id they really wanted to put the prime time games in Qld and NSW, and relefate everything else to dead time, still seems incredibly dubious there is any benefit, but fine I guess. Not having all teams play is just madness. They can't even get the mid year byes right, so now they mess up the start of the year as well.

 

[Bay53]

I love opening round.

Those that attended the 4 sell out games in 2024 probably did too. Those that travelled on the Victorian long weekend probably had a good weekend away.

And in 2025, Round 1 was the highest drawing round ever.

Sounds to me like the AFL is doing something right.

 

[jwikked]

That’s a sympathy game to calm the vfl supporters down.

That’s just stupid, north Melbourne supporters are still frustrated they can’t watch their team, despite 1 game being scheduled in Victoria.

The only people in appeased are St Kilda and Collingwood supporters. Every team should be involved in this round.

 

[Partridge]

Or he is just peddling the party line?

He wants the top job he isn't going to say anything outside AFL policy is he?

It's a boys club. Everyone knows it. And the AFL don't care.

That's exactly it. Now that he has that job he's absolutely not going to say anything else. Shame.

 

[Purple Suit]

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.

How about Freo or Adelaide for having to play round 1 against teams coming off a game? Freo have been scheduled this for three seasons in a row. Giving sides a big advantage in the first game is insane, especially when the rest of the top 12 teams from last year are playing including Saints & Carlton.

Imagine what the comp would be like if it was fair.

 

[Romeoh1]

Don’t like it.

 

[Cam Payne]

I used to hate Tom Harley just for being, but thankfully he's given me more acceptable reasons to hate him.

 

[Crankyhawk]

opening round with only half the teams playing is dumb as ****. Which doesn't surprise with this iteration of the AFL administration.
by all means play 4 games in the northern states but also play the other games (2 in WA, 2 in SA, one in vic which rotates between clubs to be stand alone - or do it as a winner stays on style whatever)

 

[SleepingGiant]

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

What is it with the AFL HQ and lack of accountability and admission of fault when things go wrong. Honestly I loved the season opener we had but even rotating it with former preliminary finalists etc would be better than this. The reason the old round 1 game worked is Richmond and Carlton with big fan bases had hope and didn't know they were truely going to be shit yet so it was a good spectacle and everyone showed up.

 

[SleepingGiant]

I used to hate Tom Harley just for being, but thankfully he's given me more acceptable reasons to hate him.

Tom Harley is an elitist private school lover and is perfect for the boys club. Came to a private school I won't name and loved being centre stage with year 12 captains around him. Brendan Gale should be running the AFL right now, and every single bit of pain you feel is because the private school boys club wanted their lawyer yes man running the show. You all and I included sat back and didn't protest so we gotta bite down hard and suck it up.

 

[Teen Wolf]

The reason the old round 1 game worked is Richmond and Carlton with big fan bases had hope and didn't know they were truely going to be shit yet so it was a good spectacle and everyone showed up.

Nonsense. Most of those games were widely criticised for either being a mismatch or a cripple fight. Not lauded as good spectacles.

As for the "everyone showed up" line...

2008: 72k
2010: 72k
2011: 60k
2012: 78k
2016: 75k
2017: 73k

They drew 74k this year in the second week of the season.

The 85k+ crowds have only occurred when fans of one or both clubs were optimistic, which clearly has not been every year.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

Not against opening round as a concept highlighting the games in the northern states it just needs to involve every club so we dont have the entire first half of the season spread out with byes.

A round 1 fixture that is spread over 2 weeks something like this with standalone games all played at night, its still summer and too hot to play during the day..
first week -
Thursday, Sydney v Essendon
Friday, Brisbane v St Kilda
Saturday, GWS v Footscray
Sunday, Gold Coast v Freo
Monday - Collingwood v Hawthorn - labour day weekend

2nd week
Thursday - Carlton v Richmond
Friday - Adelaide v Geelong
Saturday - North v Port
Sunday - Eagles v Melbourne

This fixture gives everyone what they want/need, allows the focus to be firmly on the northern states with the opening 4 games, a standalone blockbuster in the home of footy on Labour Day to end the first week, and then have a 3 day hiatus before Richmond V Carlton kick of their traditional opening games, a game in Perth and Adelaide ensure all states feature in the opening round.