Georgie Parker: AFL’s round zero misses mark — and we’re only one game in

Round zero. Only one game in and we’re all thinking, huh?!

My understanding of round zero was to sneak AFL in to the NRL-heavy states while they were doing their PR stunt in Vegas.

Instead, we’re only playing four matches of football, while league matches are playing, and zero matches in the big states of footy.

Make it make sense?!

By all means send the big clubs up to start the season interstate, I have no issues with that.

Play Collingwood and Carlton away because their fans travel and their fans are spread wide (also it’s fun for the rest of us to watch them lose their mind for not playing their opening round at the MCG).

But can someone explain to me why we can’t have the Hawks and Crows play this weekend in Melbourne or Adelaide as well?

Sure, I selfishly want to watch a match live this weekend in Melbourne, but the comprising of the competition’s integrity is what’s really annoyed me about this weekend.

Byes in rounds 2 and 3 shouldn’t happen, and neither should teams be playing their first match against teams who have already played a match.

Although fixture integrity isn’t exactly a strong point of the AFL so not sure why I would expect anything less.

We all know this is just AFL’s way of getting an extra week of footy into us and lengthening the season as the well-oiled PR machine they are.

But to me, round zero is as silly as the pre-finals bye. We don’t need it, but we know it’s hanging around.

What do you think about round zero? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.