Here to stay: League to keep controversial Opening Round after cyclone-doused ‘fizzer’

Cyclone Alfred rained on the AFL’s Opening Round parade, but the league is undeterred: despite outrage from fans in footy heartland, the northern season opener is here to stay.

The AFL’s contentious Opening Round is certain to proceed next year amid bumper TV ratings and membership rises for the four northern-states clubs.

The league is aware of the discord from heartland supporters at the extra weekend of football, which focuses on the four sides north of the border.

But while the league will review the round – and ponder whether to add a Victorian game on the Sunday – there is absolutely no prospect of the round being scrapped.

Around 250,000 fans are expected to attend the MCG for the four contests this weekend and while it will not hit last year’s AFL record for a single round, attendance will be strong.

Fox Footy reported a 29 per cent rise in average audiences compared to last year’s opening round.

Swans fans cheer during Opening Round against Hawthorn. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

It comes with Brisbane, Sydney, Gold Coast and GWS reporting massive growth in year-on-year membership in part because of the early-season attention on their clubs.

Sydney had rarely played a round 1 home game at the SCG in the past decade with the exception from 2016, but has sold out of all corporate hospitality at the venue already this year.

Its membership in the first week of March has gone from 42,939 in 2023 (before Opening Round’s introduction) to 50,662 for the first year of Opening Round to 62,450 this weekend.

Some of that extraordinary 20,000 membership rise is due to organic growth but the Swans believe the AFL’s promotion and the guaranteed early game has turbocharged the membership figures.

Cross-town rival GWS believes the Collingwood opening round game has driven early membership rises at a club that does not play many Engie Stadium games early because of Easter Show commitments.

In 2023 the Giants reached 25,000 members by mid-March, with that figure rising to 30,000 last year and 32,000 this year.

Brisbane went from 39,000 members in round 1 in 2023 to 47,000 this time last year to a current total of 55,000 (with a 2025 aim of 70,000 members)

The club is up 17 per cent on membership this year and recently sold out its full allocation of 16,000 reserved seat membership.

Gold Coast’s membership revenue is also up 11 per cent year on year and its corporate hospitality is up over 16 per cent.

THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST OPENING ROUND

What was meant to begin with a bang instead became a whimper.

The fatal flaw of the AFL’s Opening Round was last week exposed by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, which postponed two of the four fixtures and left New South Wales as the sole state leading the charge, while Queensland braced for impact and the rest of Australia stood by impatiently waiting its turn.

In just its second instalment, this year’s Opening Round experiment was a fizzer. But the AFL is adamant it is here to stay. Let’s unpack why:

WHY IS THERE AN OPENING ROUND?

The AFL has set the lofty goal of 10 million fans and one million participants by 2033 and circled Queensland and New South Wales as the key growth markets to make those dreams a reality.

With the NRL setting sail for the bright lights of Las Vegas to begin its season, the AFL’s intent was to swoop in and pick up the ostracised football fans who had been left behind.

While a great idea in theory the execution does not match the planning, given the NRL returns to Australian shores on the same weekend as Opening Round.

But the reasoning is clear. The AFL wants to make further inroads into the northern market and turning it into the focal point to the start of the season is a way to do that.

For the Queensland and NSW clubs it is a boon. The momentum and interest they receive is unlike any other time of the year, sans a Swans/Lions grand final of course. And it gives them an extra marquee fixture on the calendar, which each of the four clubs have been calling out for.

Tom Barrass celebrates with fans. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

WHO IS FOR AND WHO IS AGAINST OPENING ROUND?

Collingwood coach Craig McRae continues to endorse the initiative. His Pies have travelled to take on the Giants for the past two years, and while he’d like to see other teams given the opportunity to be involved, he believes that it’s vital it continues.

“It’s easy to judge it from afar, but when you’ve lived in the northern states, anything that can promote the game up here is really opportunist,” McRae said on Sunday. “I’d like to see other teams come up here a bit more, too. I don’t know whether it’s us next year; I’m not sure.

“It all flows back into all of us. You can get selfish and protect your own patch, but when the whole game grows, I think we all get the fruits of that.”

Giants fans at Opening Round. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Carlton coach Michael Voss is one of several prominent figures to suggest that the first round of the year should revert back to games in every state.

“What makes us a little bit different is that we’ve got a national game, and I don’t see why we don’t advertise it … launch it in every single state,” he said.

Leigh Montagna echoed Voss’s sentiments on First Crack, stating Opening Round has “missed the mark” and it needs to be scrapped immediately. David King also labelled the concept a “gimmick” and that it’s time to “cut the cord”.

These views are also representative of many footy fans around the country – particularly those in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. There is a frustration that they have to wait an extra week to see the AFL return to their states after an already long off-season.

IS IT HERE TO STAY?

Opening Round is not contractually obligated. As AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon told this masthead last week: “It’s a year-by-year proposition … a scheduling decision that we make, that the AFL does with the clubs.”

Before the chaos and cancellations, Opening Round – in the AFL’s eyes – had been a roaring success.

“There would have to be pretty compelling reasons for us not to do something very similar again,” Dillon declared.

For all the commentary questioning why the AFL would fixture blockbuster games in Queensland in March, it is important to note this was the first cyclone to make landfall in southeast Queensland in 51 years. The league was historically unlucky in this aspect.

Speaking before the Brisbane and Gold Coast games were officially postponed, Dillon said the fallout from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred would not factor into the league’s decision-making regarding the future of Opening Round.

Callan Ward celebrates a win with fans. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION?

No matter what lens you look through, Opening Round does have flaws.

A key one is the lack of balance in the rest of the schedule. The postponement of the Suns’ clash against the Bombers highlights how the concept can be seen as more of a sugar hit, with the 2025 fixture now meaning they will play just once on the Gold Coast until round seven. Any hopes of early season momentum has now disappeared.

It’s a similar scheduling story in NSW, with just one game in the state between rounds two and five.

A simple solution to replace Opening Round could be a more equitable share of prime time games around the country. While attendances and TV ratings are important, it’s clear that these marquee fixtures are invaluable to clubs like the Giants and Suns in particular.

As for fixing Opening Round, with a few tweaks, it could be advanced as a concept. To keep the focus on NSW and Queensland, it’s important that the four matches remain on Thursday, Friday and then two games on Saturday. With Sunday free, that could give the AFL flexibility to schedule one or more games in other markets like Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth.

Other solutions that have been raised, including by Voss, is to return to a nine-game first round of the year where only one match will be played in Victoria. The other extra four games will be played in Adelaide and Perth.