The AFL is scrapping its maligned Opening Round format — the soft launch of the new season before Round 1 — with industry figures believing this year was a failure that handed the NRL a one-month head start.

Fans, clubs, and coaches have all complained about the concept, that was originally conceived to shine a light on the AFL in Australia’s rugby league states (NSW, Qld) to kickstart a new season.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFL permanently scraps Opening Round

“Everyone admits that (Opening Round) was a failure,” veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.

Newsbreaker Tom Morris said: “Opening Round is dead?”

“It’s dead,” Wilson responded.

AFL great Daisy Thomas: “Forever?”

Wilson: “Forever.”

Thomas: “Good.”

Oddly, the first round of the season was called Opening Round and it originally invloved all the New South Wales and Queensland clubs, pitting them against Victorian clubs (so just four games).

So in the first year of the expeirment in 2024 there were four games, Sydney v Melbourne, Brisbane v Carlton, Gold Coast v Richmond, and GWS v Collingwood.

However, in 2025 there was chaos when a cyclone threatened the Queensland coast and the games in that state were called off and rescheduled.

This year an extra game was added to the round, played at the MCG between St Kilda and Collingwood.

In all three years South Australian clubs and Western Australian clubs have been shut out. Because not all teams play, the next handful rounds all involve byes which contributes to the sputtering start for fans.

Wilson said the AFL and the broadcasters and the clubs all quietly believed that they gave the NRL a one-month head-start “because of the failure of this year’s Opening Round”.

AFL expert Kane Cornes said: “They botched it ... do they feel like they botched it?”

Wilson said they were admitting that behind the scenes but it would be unlikely they would say it publicly.

She said the AFL would now rebrand the season-opener as “Hallelujah Round 1” when the 2027 season kicks off in mid-March.

The season is set to start two weeks later than usual, potentially on Thursday, March 18, due to scheduling conflicts with a day-night Ashes Test at the MCG that could run until the Monday before the proposed season start.

“So we know the season’s starting two weeks later. We know it’s going to be called Hallelujah Round 1. It’s not going to be called Opening Round,” Wilson said.

Asked how the northern clubs were feeling about the fact that Opening Round had been sacked, Wilson said next year was already looking complicated.

“Because the season’s starting late, there’s a real doubt that, for example, GWS’s ground will be available because of the Easter Show, Easter’s early,” Wilson said.

Head here to watch The Agenda Setters on 7plus Sport

“The MCG have told the AFL they cannot get the ground ready by Thursday if the Test goes all the way to Monday.”

Morris, Channel 7’s chief cricket reporter, said there was no way a pink-ball Test would go five days.

But Wilson said they can’t plan for the outcome of the Test when they put the fixture together in October.

She said they had to plan for a Friday game that week “to be safe” and the Thursday game, the opening match of the season. would have to be somewhere else.

“They might even open the season on a Wednesday. There will be nine games. They want blockbusters across the MCG,” she said.

Wilson had earlier told 7NEWS that the AFL were looking at a grand final rematch to launch the season for Round 1, instead of the traditional Richmond v Carlton clash.

“It won’t be Richmond v Carlton, that almost two-decade tradition, for the best part of 20 years it’s been going on, won’t be at the MCG on the season-opening Thursday night,” Wilson said.

She said a week next year’s Ashes Test at the MCG there would be a State of Origin game.

“My very confident prediction is that that game will be held again in Western Australia,” she said.

She said the states involved were bing “disputed” but “everyone” wanted to play Victoria.

“There are other sweeteners that will come into the Gather Round deal, including huge boosts for footy in South Australia, beyond what the SANFL already do for footy in that state, in the recognition that Queensland’s numbers have gone ahead of South Australia’s,” Wilson said.

“Gather Round could be as early as Round 3, or it could be Round 4. Easter will be Round 2, and obviously the grand final will be held in October.”