Collingwood coach Craig McRae has potentially given away the club's desire to not participate in the AFL's Opening Round after a second consecutive poor showing in two years.
Welcomed into the calendar last year, the Pies, like they did on Sunday, opened their season with a clash against GWS.
In a bid to promote the game in the northern states, that is heavily dominated by NRL, big Victorian clubs like Collingwood have been the main drawcard for Andrew Dillon's new venture.
Melbourne, Richmond and Carlton featured in 2024, but were scrapped from the fixturing to allow Geelong, Essendon and Hawthorn to take their place.
McRae's men are the only repeat offenders, backing up last year's mundane on-field performance against the Giants with a 52-point loss on Sunday.
Fresh off the heavy defeat, the 2023 premiership coach alluded to the necessity of growing the game in non-AFL markets, but flagged the desire to showcase other clubs in the marquee contests.
"It's easy to judge it from afar but when you've lived in the northern states, anything that can promote the game up here is really opportunist," McRae said.
"I'm all for the promotion for the whole brand of game. I'd like to see other teams come up here a bit more too.
"Whether that's us next year, I'm not sure, but the balance of having games up here, whether it's a big crowd or membership, it all flows back into all of us.
"You can get selfish and protect your own patch but, when the whole game grows, we all get the fruits of that."
Admittedly, Collingwood gains the most traction both at the ground and through television sets.
Last year, 21,235 fans witnessed the Giants secure a 32-point victory at Showground Stadium (now known as ENGIE Stadium). On Sunday, 19,248 walked through the gates.
But the earlier start has troubled certain clubs in the two editions thus far, with the weather having a large say on contests.
That in turn has seen two matches postponed, with Brisbane-Geelong moved from last week to Round 3, while Gold Coast-Essendon has been shifted to Round 24.
Former Collingwood president Jeff Browne was largely against only a quartet of clubs heading to the northern states while the remainder of the competition sat idly by.
"We will speak (to the AFL) about Opening Round; we won't be going if it is just two clubs going to Sydney," Browne told the Herald Sun in July.
"I am all in favour of developing the game in the northern states but (Opening Round) needs to be fairly spread across all the clubs, not just a handful of them."
And it seems McRae shares the same opinion.
