Waitley

And I applaud all involved that this appears now to be the case.

Despite the era of staging this historic event as a pink ball test, it will drip with nostalgia and hopefully prove as cherished as the centenary test, which is still so fondly recounted almost 50 years on.

And then the AFL needs to get moving with the biggest opening possible.

A stacked round one full of blockbusters, a loaded Easter schedule, and then an early gather round in Adelaide to coincide with the school holidays with a better set of games, frankly, than was what just served up.

If you draw it up with a bit of imagination and put the right games into the northern markets, the true blockbusters in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast and in New South Wales, it could be the biggest 27-game bonanza we've ever seen.

Truly vaulting into a new season, and that serves the game best ever.

everywhere, not just in the northern markets.

The demise of opening round will be mourned by no one in the southern states.

The open line is 1300 736 736, and the 40 Wings temper text is 0433 98 1116.

What's the Labor Day weekend?

And have an opening round that runs from Wednesday through to the Monday and utilise all the key games in all the key areas.

But the end of opening round sees the fail experiment soon to be put on the shelf.