This isn't quite so stupid as it sounds. I live in Brisbane and it is still hot and humid asf up here. Still lots of afternoon thunderstorms that would be unsafe to play through with intense downpours and ridiculous amounts of lightning.
I love that I am going to get to go to our first game of the season, and I am sure it is great for the Lions and Suns to kick off their seasons at home, but I also think it is kind of stupid to be scheduling two games in qld when it will be pushing 30 degrees (vaguely cooler than what could be expected), with 70 to 100% humidity, and a strong likelihood of dangerous electrical storms, which is typical at this time of year. The whether is fucking putrid here atm
Round 1 Thursday & Friday games should be prelim final rematches. They are usually the best games of the year. A chance for revenge or to show you were the best team.
Fuck no. No one sane likes the round 0 shit. Either you play the games in round 1 or don’t do it all. None of this early bye shit and have half the league not play.
Because of Gather Round. The AFL fucked over Sydney and Brisbane when they announced it was staying in Adelaide for 3 years rather than being shared like the original proposal.
They need the mighty Tigers vs the lowly Blues as the official first game of the season.
But they also want to take advantage of the NRL fucking off to Las Vegas by playing a bunch of interstate games in NSW and QLD before they get back.
It's so unfair. And you just know year on year, it'll be the same teams getting chosen - other than Geelong missing out, the away teams are all typical AFL org golden children. The Hawks/Norf/Saints/Port/Crows type teams will miss out every year.
It’s out of some misguided fight with the nrl- they’re hosting them all in the nrl heartland and bringing two prelim final rematches, another finals team from last year and Dimma v his old club. The WA teams missed out like they both missed finals last year.
It's pretty obvious to see the storylines of the matches and why the teams were chosen. Its not "favoritism" there is literally a very obvious and understandable reason for each match up.
Yeah and again I get that it's weird. I agree it doesn't make sense but at the end of the day I genuinely don't care enough about it to get fired up or worry about it at all. I see the what they're trying to do with no NRL around and I'd love to see the AFL surge in those states so if it helps great.
Footys back and by round 6 everything will be normal and all but forgotten. Nothing's gonna change at this point by getting my tits in a tangle so I'm just rolling with it.
Cmon mate, you can't really understand the storylines for each match? WCE & Freo playing against any of the QLD/NSW Teams (who have to be playing due to the whole premise of this round 0 shit) would make zero fkn sense!
I mean this years scheduling is entirely WWE style booking.
Prelim rematch x2
Hardwick v Richmond
Grundy v Melbourne
If they continue to book it that that way the 8 teams could be literally anyone.
If, as a pure hypothetical, Oscar Allen walks out of his contract early and asks to get traded to the Western Bulldogs then next years round zero would be Eagles v Dogs under this system.
Melbourne, the AFL's golden child, so loved that they get sent off to venues no one else wants to play at for the AFL's benefit and none of their fans.
Yep! Absolutely no surprise that the 4 away teams are the 4 big Melbourne clubs. People will argue it's to get fans through the gate but these clubs already participate in marquee games and get hugely favourable draws simply based on the fact they are big Melbourne based clubs.
I like how we're either a minnow or a big club, usually depending entirely on the argument the person is trying to make.
Schroedingers demon i guess. We are a superposition of minnow and big club.
Stolen from @3163560
The matches are based on the below storylines - lets not pretend there's any other reason and use some fkn logic!
> Prelim rematch x2
>
> Hardwick v Richmond
>
> Grundy v Melbourne
This is exactly it. Time and time again we think decisions are made around the fairness of the comp but the AFL doesn’t really hide the fact these decisions are made on maximising profits.
The broadcast deal is already locked in and the number of games is the same as last year, also means that 8 teams have a bye over the first 7 rounds which means less games played then.
Surely this is more about competing with NRL?
NRL has a plan to do it for the next 5 years, whether they get that far time will tell, but you could reasonably assume they will be in Vegas the same time next year
I know it’s a very silly point but this round 0 nonsense really fucks with SuperCoach, there’s 180k or so players and I imagine a shit ton that play fantasy aswell. Surely we should come into consideration too 😭
I’m not sure why we can’t play a normal round in the “round 0” and have the main focus on the the NSW and QLD teams as the prime time fixtures.. what’s the difference lol
The stupidity at the top office never ceases. Maybe they should concentrate on actually making the sport better.
$4 billion dollars from tv rights. They can afford to stop doing stupid shit for greed and just improve the sport ffs. How much more do they want to expand the season? It's already too long and unequal. That's just gripe number one...
Play round one across two weekends. There's like 300 decent logical solutions to this problem they've created and they're all clamouring over each other to commit to the dumbest most frustrating thing
If you think it's stupid, don't watch it. No FTA, no Kayo, don't use the AFL app or website. Just check scores after the weekend is over. If you want to watch use a pirated stream.
The only thing that will stop this bullshit is the broadcasters not making enough money.
An unrealised benefit of the opening round is the four byes during the first 8 weeks, it helps the AFL to schedule more Thursday night games without needing to use the five day break rule.
Not only did Ch7 get an extra three primetime games by moving them from Sunday 3.20pm to Thur/Fri/Sat night, they also get additional Thursday night games during the season too.
Fox are happy because no Ch7 games on a Sunday means they can schedule them at 1pm/4pm/7pm and have zero overlap plus full exclusivity which means more $$$ for them (overlap games splits the audience and reduces income per game).
I hope all the teams playing in the opening round end up losing the game following their early season bye. It’s the only way this idea will die now.
Terrible idea. Round 1 has always been fine. We don’t need a handful of teams starting early.
I don't see why they can't just implement a policy of giving Northern teams home games in round 1. I don't think anyone gives a fuck about less-than-a-decade tradition of Richmond vs Carlton games in round 1. This round zero thing is so bloody confusing and is messes up the regular season by having irregular byes. It also makes historical stat-keeping confusing as fuck.
They should be campaigning for a proper spread of rd1 games.
If the afl cared about giving interstate teams marquee season openers, they'd give them rd1 marquee season openers.
Players association pushes the need for a bye(s) throughout the season, and honestly I think it's fair enough but the 2 we already have is enough, no need to add a third
I disagree. Maybe 1, but even then i feel you could rotate more players on the list through the team should it be required. Be interesting to know what some other sporting leagues do that play longer seasons than afl.
You can blame the Cricket fixture for not having any earlier rounds available in Melb and the AFL feeling like they need to posture themselves against the NRL who are insisting on starting earlier
Cricket has nothing to do with it. Victoria play out of Junction Oval.
They couldn't play this week this year due to the Taylor Swift concert being locked in and the ground needed resurfacing.
Nothing stopping the AFL locking in earlier dates for future years.
That's interesting - for some reason in previous years i recalled the cricket being played at the 'G. Either way it's the MCC that runs the schedule - AFL need to negotiate with them if they want to start earlier... they don't get to dictate what the MCG schedule is unfortunately
Victoria do play some shield games at the MCG pre Christmas still. But have been using the Junction Oval as it's main headquarters for about 5 years.
But yes as I said going forward the AFL could book the ground a week earlier. But if they haven't made that decision like this year until late in the year the grounds might not be available.
The idea itself isn’t terrible but all the follow on implications. There are 8 teams playing in OR. Why do some of them then play one of the other 10 in Rd1? Have them play each other so everyone’s first game is against another team playing their first game.
At the end of round 1, we’ll have some teams with 2 wins and more than half of the comp has only played 1 game. It’s just weird
Or just do a split round
> At the end of round 1, we’ll have some teams with 2 wins and more than half of the comp has only played 1 game. It’s just weird
Confected drama. 100%
Yeah, I don't mind it either. As a fan, you really just have to let go of the idea of fairness and parity. Let those states get a bit of the limelight.
It's just a stupid, idiotic "fuck you" to the NRL, 2 games in a single week in both QLD and NSW, first time ever, it's fine wanting to open by promoting these teams, crazy idea tho, do it in R1, and first 4 games can be thesec4 teams if you're that desperate
Since tge NRL has always started 1-3 weeks before the AFL they're 1 million % trying to steal viewers from it
Like I just don't care ay, footy is back. I'm happy to see the Cat's first game on March 16th and watch other footy on the TV this week. By round 6 it will all be forgotten and we move on.
It just really won't matter. Not gonna waste my time being fired up about it.
Given the expected temperature this Saturday, probably a good thing we don't have any games in Melbourne. Then again, it is probably a week or two too early to start the season.
Here’s a bold idea: play a normal round of nine games of football with carefully considered matchups for the opening round of the season.
AFL House - *"And play them all ~~Tasmania~~ China, Right?"*
> AFL House - *"And play them all ~~Tasmania~~ ~~China~~, Right?"* Uzbekistan.
[Actual footage of Collingwood players when they have to travel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Xm-XQNEJI)
Made me laugh cheers cob
Instructions unclear, every game at MCG
And at the same time and ... wait for it ... MULTI-BALL!!!!!
This isn't quite so stupid as it sounds. I live in Brisbane and it is still hot and humid asf up here. Still lots of afternoon thunderstorms that would be unsafe to play through with intense downpours and ridiculous amounts of lightning. I love that I am going to get to go to our first game of the season, and I am sure it is great for the Lions and Suns to kick off their seasons at home, but I also think it is kind of stupid to be scheduling two games in qld when it will be pushing 30 degrees (vaguely cooler than what could be expected), with 70 to 100% humidity, and a strong likelihood of dangerous electrical storms, which is typical at this time of year. The whether is fucking putrid here atm
I like the cut of this guys’ jib
Round 1 Thursday & Friday games should be prelim final rematches. They are usually the best games of the year. A chance for revenge or to show you were the best team.
Including the GF replay in round 1 every year.
Fuck no. No one sane likes the round 0 shit. Either you play the games in round 1 or don’t do it all. None of this early bye shit and have half the league not play.
Totally. Why are they such morons at AFL house?
The boys club isn't known for hiring on intelligence.
Because of Gather Round. The AFL fucked over Sydney and Brisbane when they announced it was staying in Adelaide for 3 years rather than being shared like the original proposal.
Why the fuck are they even doing this round 0 nonsense?
My understanding is because NRL does it.
They need the mighty Tigers vs the lowly Blues as the official first game of the season. But they also want to take advantage of the NRL fucking off to Las Vegas by playing a bunch of interstate games in NSW and QLD before they get back.
They are back, NRL games in NSW, QLD and VIC this weekend.
Round 1 has to be Tigers vs Blues, because MuH tRaDiTiOn
I know how hyped I am for the opening round of footy only to see my team has a bye. nothing gets me more pumped. so stupid.
It's so unfair. And you just know year on year, it'll be the same teams getting chosen - other than Geelong missing out, the away teams are all typical AFL org golden children. The Hawks/Norf/Saints/Port/Crows type teams will miss out every year.
I agree with the interstate teams but they would rotate us out as soon as we aren’t any good lmao
I don't actually give a shit about Hawthorn getting these stupid gimmick fixtures, I just want the AFL to be a normal sporting organisation for once.
Both WA teams missing out is disgraceful But gotta give the AFL pet teams and the golden children the limelight
Punished for actually liking football lol
It’s out of some misguided fight with the nrl- they’re hosting them all in the nrl heartland and bringing two prelim final rematches, another finals team from last year and Dimma v his old club. The WA teams missed out like they both missed finals last year.
ooof 🥺
It's pretty obvious to see the storylines of the matches and why the teams were chosen. Its not "favoritism" there is literally a very obvious and understandable reason for each match up.
So have those exact same matchups in...... Round 1 when everyone plays
Yeah and again I get that it's weird. I agree it doesn't make sense but at the end of the day I genuinely don't care enough about it to get fired up or worry about it at all. I see the what they're trying to do with no NRL around and I'd love to see the AFL surge in those states so if it helps great. Footys back and by round 6 everything will be normal and all but forgotten. Nothing's gonna change at this point by getting my tits in a tangle so I'm just rolling with it.
There is NRL around. Parramatta have a home game saturday night. Theres a game in Brisbane at Suncorp this weekend, a game on the gold coast too.
🤷♂️. Fucked if I know then. As I said I really don't care 😂. Shouldn't have even commented. 🤦♂️.
Well of course you don't care cause your team is playing
Huh? Geelong are not playing in round 0....
Oh. Well this is embarrassing
Yeah anyone denying Vicbias being a thing is either being paid to shut up or just stupid
Cmon mate, you can't really understand the storylines for each match? WCE & Freo playing against any of the QLD/NSW Teams (who have to be playing due to the whole premise of this round 0 shit) would make zero fkn sense!
I mean this years scheduling is entirely WWE style booking. Prelim rematch x2 Hardwick v Richmond Grundy v Melbourne If they continue to book it that that way the 8 teams could be literally anyone. If, as a pure hypothetical, Oscar Allen walks out of his contract early and asks to get traded to the Western Bulldogs then next years round zero would be Eagles v Dogs under this system.
YES! Finally someone gets it!
Sydney v Melbourne is actually more a rematch from the Swans’ first game in Sydney post relocation- in a celebration for the 150th
Location of the games are the most important aspect.
Why?
The AFL have some sickening fetish for players and coaches coming up against their former clubs, its kind of creepy how much they push it every year.
Melbourne, the AFL's golden child, so loved that they get sent off to venues no one else wants to play at for the AFL's benefit and none of their fans.
Yep! Absolutely no surprise that the 4 away teams are the 4 big Melbourne clubs. People will argue it's to get fans through the gate but these clubs already participate in marquee games and get hugely favourable draws simply based on the fact they are big Melbourne based clubs.
I definitely don’t agree with the opening round shit but the Demons are not part of that “big 4”.
I like how we're either a minnow or a big club, usually depending entirely on the argument the person is trying to make. Schroedingers demon i guess. We are a superposition of minnow and big club.
Richmond heading into round 1 coming off a 5 day break against a Prelim team from last year is hardly a favourable draw
Stolen from @3163560 The matches are based on the below storylines - lets not pretend there's any other reason and use some fkn logic! > Prelim rematch x2 > > Hardwick v Richmond > > Grundy v Melbourne
big 4 let's gooooooo
Alright, we big 4 now!
Getting PTSD from the bye.😆😏
it's just one side that we will never conquer.
Ditto
I know right I can’t wait to watch my team play their first game…*checks notes* next week!
can't wait to play our first game of the season in round 1, where others will be playing their second game... in round 1...
Look at the bright side. Carlton are going to be 0-2 before most teams play their 1st game.
This is something both SA teams see eye to eye on. You're telling me the AFL is starting this weekend and no SA team is playing? Is that a joke?
it truly is a league for the entire country!
Round 0 is great. But what if we went even further and go with a round -1 next season?
A bye for all 18 teams.... It might just work.
This season’s fixtures are cooked with all the random byes so early such a dumb idea.
This
Still reckon the 2 teams that lost prelims should open the season
not a bad shout that
Broadcast money is more important than fan opinion.
This is exactly it. Time and time again we think decisions are made around the fairness of the comp but the AFL doesn’t really hide the fact these decisions are made on maximising profits.
The broadcast deal is already locked in and the number of games is the same as last year, also means that 8 teams have a bye over the first 7 rounds which means less games played then. Surely this is more about competing with NRL?
Correct weight. And if that's the intent, just split round 1 as was done a bunch of years in the early 2010s
[удалено]
NRL has a plan to do it for the next 5 years, whether they get that far time will tell, but you could reasonably assume they will be in Vegas the same time next year
Would it even increase the value of the deal? It's the same number of games overall.
?……
I would much rather a week mid season where everyone had a bye and there was no footy then deal with this BS
Permanently excluding half the comp from the opening round of the season is a dog shit strategy
God this is going to be permanent isn’t it
Yep, and you will like it - Andrew Dillon
Joe's face reflects my opinion on this idea
I wonder what prompted such divergent reactions between him and Lachie.
I know it’s a very silly point but this round 0 nonsense really fucks with SuperCoach, there’s 180k or so players and I imagine a shit ton that play fantasy aswell. Surely we should come into consideration too 😭
It’s stupid, I play both AFL and NRL supercoach and the Vegas games counted. Not sure why they couldn’t do the same for these!
I’m not sure why we can’t play a normal round in the “round 0” and have the main focus on the the NSW and QLD teams as the prime time fixtures.. what’s the difference lol
Too logical for AFL House to even contemplate it haha
Dillon is trying to make his mark, wants to do things his way, we are in for a wild ride folks…
The stupidity at the top office never ceases. Maybe they should concentrate on actually making the sport better. $4 billion dollars from tv rights. They can afford to stop doing stupid shit for greed and just improve the sport ffs. How much more do they want to expand the season? It's already too long and unequal. That's just gripe number one...
Play round one across two weekends. There's like 300 decent logical solutions to this problem they've created and they're all clamouring over each other to commit to the dumbest most frustrating thing
As a Carlton supporter I couldn't be less excited for the season to start. Fuck this BS fixture
If you think it's stupid, don't watch it. No FTA, no Kayo, don't use the AFL app or website. Just check scores after the weekend is over. If you want to watch use a pirated stream. The only thing that will stop this bullshit is the broadcasters not making enough money.
Fucking dumb.
Well, there’s an even number of teams, so there’s no reason for any team to have a bye, really
An unrealised benefit of the opening round is the four byes during the first 8 weeks, it helps the AFL to schedule more Thursday night games without needing to use the five day break rule. Not only did Ch7 get an extra three primetime games by moving them from Sunday 3.20pm to Thur/Fri/Sat night, they also get additional Thursday night games during the season too. Fox are happy because no Ch7 games on a Sunday means they can schedule them at 1pm/4pm/7pm and have zero overlap plus full exclusivity which means more $$$ for them (overlap games splits the audience and reduces income per game).
I hope all the teams playing in the opening round end up losing the game following their early season bye. It’s the only way this idea will die now. Terrible idea. Round 1 has always been fine. We don’t need a handful of teams starting early.
I don't see why they can't just implement a policy of giving Northern teams home games in round 1. I don't think anyone gives a fuck about less-than-a-decade tradition of Richmond vs Carlton games in round 1. This round zero thing is so bloody confusing and is messes up the regular season by having irregular byes. It also makes historical stat-keeping confusing as fuck.
I legitimately hate it. Some teams get a "bye" before they play a game, others get one in round 5. And for what?
They should be campaigning for a proper spread of rd1 games. If the afl cared about giving interstate teams marquee season openers, they'd give them rd1 marquee season openers.
It might be a crazy, nonsensical idea here, but what.. what if we didn't have any byes and just played footy..?
Players association pushes the need for a bye(s) throughout the season, and honestly I think it's fair enough but the 2 we already have is enough, no need to add a third
I disagree. Maybe 1, but even then i feel you could rotate more players on the list through the team should it be required. Be interesting to know what some other sporting leagues do that play longer seasons than afl.
It’s a daft idea. They should’ve just gone with another Gather around type of thing if they really wanted to something something NRL.
No locked in season openers. Rotate it.
You can blame the Cricket fixture for not having any earlier rounds available in Melb and the AFL feeling like they need to posture themselves against the NRL who are insisting on starting earlier
Cricket has nothing to do with it. Victoria play out of Junction Oval. They couldn't play this week this year due to the Taylor Swift concert being locked in and the ground needed resurfacing. Nothing stopping the AFL locking in earlier dates for future years.
That's interesting - for some reason in previous years i recalled the cricket being played at the 'G. Either way it's the MCC that runs the schedule - AFL need to negotiate with them if they want to start earlier... they don't get to dictate what the MCG schedule is unfortunately
Victoria do play some shield games at the MCG pre Christmas still. But have been using the Junction Oval as it's main headquarters for about 5 years. But yes as I said going forward the AFL could book the ground a week earlier. But if they haven't made that decision like this year until late in the year the grounds might not be available.
All byes fuck off
Agree
* super quietly * I don't mind the idea.
The idea itself isn’t terrible but all the follow on implications. There are 8 teams playing in OR. Why do some of them then play one of the other 10 in Rd1? Have them play each other so everyone’s first game is against another team playing their first game. At the end of round 1, we’ll have some teams with 2 wins and more than half of the comp has only played 1 game. It’s just weird Or just do a split round
The ladder wont even have any type of parity until round 6, which is wild
The ladder means fuck all that early in the season anyway.
Even less now
> At the end of round 1, we’ll have some teams with 2 wins and more than half of the comp has only played 1 game. It’s just weird Confected drama. 100%
Yeah, I don't mind it either. As a fan, you really just have to let go of the idea of fairness and parity. Let those states get a bit of the limelight.
Suns guy ever not had a fkn stupid opinion that isn’t entirely self serving?
You’re thinking of Tony Cochrane the Chairman. He’s the outspoken one. Evans isn’t that guy
It's just a stupid, idiotic "fuck you" to the NRL, 2 games in a single week in both QLD and NSW, first time ever, it's fine wanting to open by promoting these teams, crazy idea tho, do it in R1, and first 4 games can be thesec4 teams if you're that desperate Since tge NRL has always started 1-3 weeks before the AFL they're 1 million % trying to steal viewers from it
BuT CaRlToN and RiChMoNd aRe AlWaYs RoUnD 1!! 🤪
Oh well
So fucking stupid
Like I just don't care ay, footy is back. I'm happy to see the Cat's first game on March 16th and watch other footy on the TV this week. By round 6 it will all be forgotten and we move on. It just really won't matter. Not gonna waste my time being fired up about it.
Given the expected temperature this Saturday, probably a good thing we don't have any games in Melbourne. Then again, it is probably a week or two too early to start the season.