{"id":770347,"date":"2026-06-30T17:41:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770347\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:41:23","slug":"afl-news-2026-fixture-boss-josh-bowler-reveals-why-opening-round-is-here-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770347\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026 | Fixture boss Josh Bowler reveals why Opening Round is here to stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Bowler, the man in charge of creating the fixture for the AFL<\/a>, has refused to rule out the controversial Opening Round returning in 2027. <\/p>\n

The idea to soft launch the new season with Opening Round has been heavily criticised by the AFL community<\/a>, with many frustrated by the uneven start and byes created.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Bowler speaks to 9News about the formation of the AFL calendar.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

Played in NSW and Queensland, the reduced fixture aimed to attract greater appeal from the northern states that are typically drawn to the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While also attempting to avoid an overlap with the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Bowler has utilised artificial intelligence to help form the annual calendar. <\/p>\n

While it takes over 400 prompts to ensure that AI has been applied correctly when forming the calendar, there are new complications that have arisen for next year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt essentially runs many, many different versions of the fixture. We put about 400 rules into it from 11 home games to maximum five-day breaks,\u201d Bowler said on the use of AI.<\/p>\n

One of those complications is the availability to key stadiums across the country, with the likes of the Australian cricket team, international rugby and NRL all coming into account. <\/p>\n

The Melbourne Cricket Ground will be unavailable to the AFL if they were to decide on a mid-March season launch due to the 150th anniversary of Test cricket. <\/p>\n

If the AFL were to push the season back further, it means the finals series may lose some key venues due to the overlap with the Rugby World Cup in October. <\/p>\n

Still, the league is refusing to axe the Opening Round fixture just yet. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on where we land on a starting date,\u201d Bowler told 9News when asked about the future of the controversial fixture. <\/p>\n

Bowler will also have the inclusion of a 19th team to add to the complexity of his task from 2028. He also revealed that a mid-season tournament is potentially on the cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is harder than ever to win a premiership in the AFL,\u201d Bowler explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cA secondary prize is something that clubs could be incentivised by. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also the idea of how you might change the game or optimise the format of the match, which a tournament can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Bowler, the man in charge of creating the fixture for the AFL, has refused to rule out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-770347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770347","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=770347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}