{"id":542090,"date":"2026-03-15T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542090\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:14:16","slug":"fremantle-coach-justin-longmuir-claims-opening-round-teams-have-unfair-advantage-after-geelong-loss-rory-sloane-and-damian-barrett-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542090\/","title":{"rendered":"Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir claims Opening Round teams have unfair advantage after Geelong loss; Rory Sloane and Damian Barrett weigh in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fremantle<\/a> coach Justin Longmuir believes the teams that played in Opening Round have an unfair advantage over the sides that don’t, in the wake of his side’s loss to Geelong<\/a> on Saturday. <\/p>\n

The Dockers led by as much as 35 points at GMHBA Stadium, before being overrun by the Cats.<\/p>\n

Opening Round has completely bypassed the South Australian and West Australian teams since its inception, with the focus on putting a spotlight on footy in New South Wales and Queensland.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gould to meet with Xerri amid denial over release<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Arsenal schoolkid shatters 21-year Premier League record<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Legend’s roadmap for Ange’s Premier League return<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

Despite blowing a six-goal lead, Longmuir feels the unfair advantage created by the uneven fixture is a problem.<\/p>\n

“I think anyone who has been around football would realise this is an advantage,” Longmuir told reporters.<\/p>\n

“We should all start the season the same way. There should be no competitive advantage in teams having played a game before they play another team.<\/p>\n

“It just makes so much sense to people in the industry. We’ve just got it wrong.”<\/p>\n

All of the teams that played in Opening Round will have byes across the next few weeks, but the ladder will remain uneven for the first half of the season.<\/p>\n

Adelaide great Rory Sloane<\/a> agrees with Longmuir, saying the early byes are problematic for players. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rory Sloane.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“You want consistency too as a player. You’ve got the pre-season games, then you’ve got a week off before Opening Round, it is very disjointed at the moment,” Sloane told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

“And I completely agree. Just go as hard as you can at round one. You can still have a focus on (Queensland and New South Wales), pump some games up there, but just make sure everyone is playing.”<\/p>\n

However, it’s unlikely that the AFL would ditch Opening Round in 2027, given the MCG will remain in cricket mode through early March.<\/p>\n

Australia will host England in the 150th anniversary Test match at the venue, which will force the AFL to get creative with its early-season fixture.<\/p>\n

“They almost can’t (ditch Opening Round) next year because of the complications around the 150th anniversary Test at the MCG,” reporter Damian Barrett said.<\/p>\n

“There’s no access to the main stadium. I think we’re stuck with at least one more year of a disjointed start to the season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir believes the teams that played in Opening Round have an unfair advantage over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-542090","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542090","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=542090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}