{"id":877274,"date":"2026-09-02T09:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877274\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T09:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:46:12","slug":"afl-scraps-controversial-three-season-opening-round-experiment-ahead-of-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/877274\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL scraps controversial three-season &#8216;Opening Round&#8217; experiment ahead of 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The AFL has scrapped the Opening Round experiment after three seasons and will return to a traditional nine-game first week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">League boss Andrew Dillon today confirmed the demise of the much-criticised concept that featured four games played exclusively in Queensland and New South Wales between only a selection of eight clubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Designed to build a foothold in rugby league heartland, it instead drew criticism given the fixturing created a staggered start and early-season byes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Defending it in March, Dillon said Opening Round was &#8220;key&#8221; to growing the sport north of Victoria, citing record attendances and membership rises.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A cricketer with black hair runs and smiles with arms outstretched as another cricketer looks glum next to him.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/683a3191ce96f18345101dc15b2ee101.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Australia and England will play a one-off Test next year at the MCG to celebrate 150 years of Test cricket, pushing the AFL season back. (Getty Images: Robbie Stephenson\/PA Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;What we&#8217;ve found in the last couple of years is that focus on NSW and Queensland is helping to grow awareness in NSW and Queensland and at the same time it hasn&#8217;t taken away from our round one,&#8221; Dillon said at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But, with the season to begin a week later next year due to the MCG hosting the 150th anniversary cricket Test between Australia and England, it has been taken out with the trash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We have been working through alternative options to deliver the start of the AFL season,&#8221; Dillon said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;After important feedback from fans and stakeholders, and consultation with clubs and broadcasters, round one will see the return of a traditional nine-game round played across the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The first round will be played from Wednesday or Thursday, March 17 or 18, just days after the final day of the historic Ashes Test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 24-round home-and-away season will conclude on Sunday, August 30, with the five-week finals series beginning with two wildcard finals in the first week of September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The grand final will be held on Saturday, October 2 and Gather Round in South Australia is locked in for April 8-11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL has scrapped the Opening Round experiment after three seasons and will return to a traditional nine-game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,163339,446893,12259,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-877274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-fixture","tag-afl-opening-round","tag-andrew-dillon","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\/877274","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=877274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}