\n All the details have been locked in for the opening round of the 2026 Smithy’s VFL season\n <\/p>\n
Geelong will kick off their 2026 VFL season with a blockbuster clash under lights, set to take on Essendon at GMHBA Stadium in Round 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The match will be played on Friday, March 20 with the opening bounce at 7.05pm AEDT, set to be the second match on the opening day of the VFL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 1 will be played across three days, with the Box Hill Hawks and Sydney Swans launching the season at the Kennedy Community Centre, prior to Geelong’s clash with the Bombers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cats will be looking to extend their strong form in the first game of a new year, winning four of their last five season openers by an average margin of 39 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their most recent clash against Essendon came in Round 20 last year at GMHBA Stadium, with the Cats winning by 14 points in a tight battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a landmark occasion, Tasmania Football Club will play its first match for competition points when it hosts Coburg at North Hobart Oval on Saturday, March 21. As announced last September, Tasmania will join the VFL and VFLW competitions on a full-time basis this season as the club continues preparations for entry into the AFL and AFLW after being awarded the 19th licence in 2023.<\/p>\n
Full fixtures for the 2026 Smithy\u2019s VFL season and 2026 VFLW season will be released in coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Smithy\u2019s VFL Round 1<\/p>\n
Friday, March 20<\/p>\n
Box Hill Hawks vs Sydney Swans \u2013 Kennedy Community Centre, 12:35pm<\/p>\n
Geelong Cats vs Essendon \u2013 GMHBA Stadium, 7:05pm<\/p>\n
Frankston vs Williamstown \u2013 Kinetic Stadium, 7:35pm<\/p>\n
Saturday, March 21<\/p>\n
GWS Giants vs St Kilda \u2013 Tom Wills Oval, 11:05am<\/p>\n
Richmond vs Southport Sharks \u2013 Kinetic Stadium, 12:05pm<\/p>\n
Tasmania vs Coburg \u2013 North Hobart Oval, 1:05pm<\/p>\n
Footscray Bulldogs vs Casey Demons \u2013 Mission Whitten Oval, 2:05pm<\/p>\n
Sunday, March 22<\/p>\n
Gold Coast Suns vs Werribee \u2013 People First Stadium, 11:05am<\/p>\n
Sandringham vs Port Melbourne \u2013 Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval, 2:05pm<\/p>\n
Bye: Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Collingwood, North Melbourne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All the details have been locked in for the opening round of the 2026 Smithy’s VFL season Geelong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-451728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}