New AFL boss is kicking rugby league where it hurts

Only a handful of official weeks into the job, new AFL boss Andrew Dillon has revealed both his intent to embed his code deeper into the rugby league heartland, and a strategic chutzpah commensurate with his Sydney-based rival, Peter V’landys.

The AFL’s new concept of “Opening Round” – a kind of Gather Round lite – will kick off season 2024 by platforming the Queensland and NSW clubs the same week that the NRL plays part of its first round to confused Americans in Las Vegas.

New AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has come out fighting for eyeballs in the northern states.Credit: Luis Ascui

League has traditionally held the northern states’ exclusive interest in early March because the AFL is still rolling through meaningless practice matches.

But by bringing forward four games for premiership points, Dillon’s plan will go some way to removing this anomaly.

By playing the matches exclusively in NSW and Australian Rugby League’s most fragile realm – south-east Queensland – he is seeking to gain an advantage.

The notion of “code wars” can sometimes be overplayed. Tens of thousands of Brisbane sports fans love the Broncos and the Lions. Both can thrive simultaneously. But the competition between the AFL and ARL hierarchies for money, participants and spectators is genuine and hard-fought.

“Queensland is our turf and I will protect it,” ARL chairman V’landys said in 2021. He later inaugurated the Redcliffe-based Dolphins, coached by none other than Wayne Bennett.

The US strategy, however, is more curious. In a calendar packed with world-class sport, it is hard to imagine enough Americans embracing the spectacle – by either betting on the code or playing it – to make the travelling show a sustainable endeavour.

But V’landys, who recently networked at the White House and hopes for a new team in the strategically located Indo-Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea, has a record of playing a strong long-game.

Masterstroke or misstep, league’s collective attention will nonetheless be diverted from the domestic homelands so coveted by the AFL. And Dillon and co. plan to make hay, exploiting the NRL’s partial absence by sending Victoria’s most-supported clubs north.

While the NRL’s Broncos are returning from Vegas, the Brisbane Lions will take on Carlton and its huge fan base at a sold-out Gabba replay of the epic preliminary final.

It is a marked change from the season just past, when the previous AFL regime saw fit to schedule the Lions’ first home game in the same timeslot as the furiously hyped inaugural “Battle for Brisbane” between the Broncos and Dolphins.

Opening Round, from March 7 next year, will also pit the Gold Coast Suns and coach Damien Hardwick against his old club, Richmond, in an irresistible Saturday afternoon game at Heritage Bank Stadium.

Importantly, Dillon has signalled the league’s embrace of frustrated NSW clubs by scheduling Opening Round home blockbusters between Sydney and Melbourne, and Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood.

The other 10 AFL teams will sit it out until the incongruously named Round One begins the following week.

It is a statement of intent from the AFL and its new chief that the league will play harder in the northern growth markets than it did under former chief executive Gillon McLachlan.

Dillon didn’t quite say it like this. Rather, Opening Round was a “unique opportunity to play these four games in key markets where footy continues to grow in popularity”.

Brisbane Lions’ football manager Danny Daly was more straightforward.

“I think it’s a great concept, and with the NRL heading over to America and Vegas, it gives the opportunity for the AFL to stamp its authority in Queensland and New South Wales,” he said.

“Playing Carlton on a Friday night at a packed Gabba will be a great way to start the season for us, especially off the back of last year’s prelim.

“The atmosphere when we played Carlton in the preliminary final at the Gabba was unbelievable, and I imagine Opening Round will also have a finals-like feel.”

Game on.

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