{"id":295254,"date":"2023-11-14T21:39:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=295254"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:39:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:39:16","slug":"afl-sends-victorian-clubs-north-for-2024-opening-round-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-league\/afl-sends-victorian-clubs-north-for-2024-opening-round-fixture\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL sends Victorian clubs north for 2024 \u2018Opening Round\u2019 fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Save articles for later<\/h3>\n<p>Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n<p>The 2024 AFL season will start with four fixtures in Queensland and NSW the week before the traditional Carlton-Richmond meeting in round one.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed \u201cOpening Round\u201d by the league, all four clubs from the northern states will host Victorian rivals for the first premiership points of the year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.187%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/17c92896126d11568dc5b00a9e704a64ceb5e77e\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Jack Viney.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>The season will officially start with a Sydney-Melbourne clash at the SCG on Thursday, March 7, with the Brisbane Lions to host Carlton at the Gabba the following night.<\/p>\n<p>Gold Coast take on Richmond at Heritage Bank Stadium in new coach Damien Hardwick\u2019s first clash with his former club on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>GWS will host reigning premiers Collingwood at Giants Stadium later that night.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions-Blues and Giants-Magpies meetings are rematches of last season\u2019s preliminary finals.<\/p>\n<p>The AFL hopes the set of opening round fixtures will give it a leg up in the northern markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were fortunate to be in a position where we were able to have access to our major venues in Queensland and NSW a weekend earlier than usual which gave us a unique opportunity to play these four games in key markets where footy continues to grow in popularity,\u201d AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe four match-ups are big, with four of our biggest-supported Victorian clubs travelling north, and we look forward to starting our season with real momentum before we head into a blockbuster round of matches in round one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carlton will take on Richmond on Thursday March 14 to kick off a full set of nine matches in round one.<\/p>\n<p>The eight teams that play in the opening round will have a bye between rounds two and six.<\/p>\n<p>It will mean all 18 teams will have played the same number of games by the start of round seven.<\/p>\n<p>The byes will not occur in round four, which has been locked in for Gather Round, when all clubs will meet for a full set of fixtures in South Australia.<\/p>\n<h3>AFL\u2019s Opening Round 2024<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Thursday March 7<br \/><\/strong>Sydney v Collingwood, SCG, 7.20pm<br \/><strong>Friday March 8<br \/><\/strong>Brisbane Lions v Carlton, Gabba, 6.50pm<br \/><strong>Saturday March 9<br \/><\/strong>Gold Coast v Richmond, Heritage Bank Stadium, 3.20pm<br \/>GWS v Collingwood, Giants, Stadium, 7.30pm<\/p>\n<p><em>AAP<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Most Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n<h3>From our partners<\/h3>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/sport\/afl\/afl-sends-victorian-clubs-north-for-2024-opening-round-fixture-20231115-p5ek22.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The 2024 AFL season will start with four <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-league\/afl-sends-victorian-clubs-north-for-2024-opening-round-fixture\/\" title=\"AFL sends Victorian clubs north for 2024 \u2018Opening Round\u2019 fixture\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby-league"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AFL sends Victorian clubs north for 2024 \u2018Opening Round\u2019 fixture - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-league\/afl-sends-victorian-clubs-north-for-2024-opening-round-fixture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFL sends Victorian clubs north for 2024 \u2018Opening Round\u2019 fixture - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. 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