Essendon legend James Hird has called for Opening Round to be scrapped as he joins a chorus of voices urging the AFL to axe its controversial first fixtures of the season.
Hird’s plea came on Nine’s Footy Furnace after it was pointed out the AFL games scheduled to be played across this coming weekend are unlikely to produce high-quality football.
While Geelong vs Adelaide on Thursday night, and then Collingwood vs GWS on Friday night have potential to be high quality and entertaining for fans, the standard drops off on Saturday and Sunday.
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Struggling St Kilda faces two-time reigning premiers Brisbane; Fremantle is $1.03 favourites to belt the rebuilding Richmond; Essendon and North Melbourne are arguably the two worst teams in the competition currently; Port Adelaide is expected to easily account for lowly West Coast; and Carlton and Melbourne finished 11th and 14th last year and have been struggling for form.
Top-four contenders Gold Coast, Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn, and Sydney Swans all have byes in round three.
Giants players walk from the field after defeat against St Kilda. via Getty Images
Last week all of Brisbane, Collingwood, Geelong, and Carlton – some of the biggest clubs in the AFL – all had byes.
The scheduling chaos caused by the AFL’s controversial Opening Round is starving fans of high-quality games and causing players significant distress given the stop-start nature of their campaigns so far.
“I’m sure you can remember what those first couple games of the year are like, when you get the match fitness in and you’re just starting to get into the swing of things and feel good through the last quarters,” Collingwood star Darcy Cameron told Geelong legend Jimmy Bartel on 3AW’s Wide World of Sports on Wednesday night.
“Right now I’m a bit worried about how I’m going to feel in the last quarter (on Friday).
“I’m sure we will be fine, but I definitely like to get into it. I wouldn’t mind a bye four or five weeks in, but two weeks in seems a bit too soon.”
The AFL introduced Opening Round to the schedule last year and it immediately drew criticism from around the game.
The league spruiked it as a way of “robbing the NRL’s house” in the northern states while rugby league kicked off its season in Las Vegas. The problem was Opening Round was held a week too late, when NRL games were actually being played in Queensland and Sydney, too.
Nevertheless the AFL stuck fat with the idea to start 2026, bizarrely adding a Melbourne game to the season-opening weekend even though it clashed with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. It was also, still, held a week after the NRL kicked off its season in Vegas.
Rather than kick the season off with a bang, Opening Round is now wreaking havoc on the AFL’s calendar and many are calling for the league to get rid of it.
Essendon legend James Hird. Nine
With 18 teams in the league, the AFL could play an even nine games each weekend, at least until mid-season when team byes might make more sense. Now, nine of the 25 rounds feature team byes.
“Don’t play Opening Round, and have all nine games played (each weekend) throughout the year,” Hird said on Footy Furnace.
“I think everyone is frustrated with where the ladder’s at, the fact you don’t have the best games… you still want a good game on a Saturday and a good game on a Sunday.
“Yes, we know there are going to be games between cellar dwellers and not-that-good teams, but last weekend we really didn’t have a top eight team playing another top eight team, and this weekend we have it again.”
Hird’s comments follow those of fellow Bombers icon Matthew Lloyd earlier in the week, who also criticised the impact Opening Round is having on the competition.
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuire is among other high-profile people who have criticised the scheduling in recent weeks.
Bartel, who was one of the main spruikers of Opening Round last year, took a much more optimistic view of the round three fixtures.
“I actually think there are some good story lines in those games though,” he replied to Hird.
“St Kilda v Brisbane is tasty because of the byplay going on off the field; and you can’t tell me people aren’t going to watch, and I know a lot of journalists will be watching Essendon v North Melbourne.
“And Carlton v Melbourne is a fascinating watch for me. We haven’t seen Melbourne play for 18 days… so I’m looking forward to that game.”