The AFL’s best and worst season openers

The 2026 AFL season has arrived and with it the hopes and dreams of every fan, player and club across the country.

Before the first ball is - now - thrown up, every stakeholder in the league has dreams of September success for their side. After Opening Round/Round One, that belief can quickly strengthen or diminish.

Here at Zero Hanger, we have decided to dive into how each club has fared in their first match of the past three seasons. Albeit, with the outlier that the games are not a perfect match-up for clubs, given some do or don't play in Opening Round.

In bad news for Hawthorn supporters, the Hawks' 2026 Opening Round opponent has been the dominant first-fixture force from 2023-25.

The Giants are the only side to have won all three of their first round fixtures, while Adam Kingsley's troops have also been on the attack early, scoring over 100 points in all three games.

Essendon will head into its Round One fixture against arch-rivals Hawthorn with history on its side.

The Bombers have faced the Hawks in their past three season openers, collecting two wins and one loss against Sam Mitchell's men.

Scaling down to the depths of the first-fixture ladder sees recent cellar-dwellers West Coast with a lowly percentage of 58.6 sit in last place.

The Eagles have unsurprisingly struggled to start their seasons well during their fall from grace and will struggle to right that wrong when they travel to Queensland to take on a talent-laden Gold Coast in Round One.

Two sides that are expected to feature heavily in this year's September action, but need to fix their slow starts to seasons, are the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle, who sit 16th and 17th, respectively.

First game of the season ladder (2023-25)

1. Greater Western Sydney - three wins, zero losses, %144.64

2. Gold Coast - two wins, one loss, %135.16

3. Geelong - two wins, one loss, %124.43

4. Sydney - two wins, one loss, %123.08

5. Essendon - two wins, one loss, %122.01

6. Port Adelaide - two wins, one loss, %106.83

7. Carlton - one win, one loss, one draw, %96.38

8. Richmond - one win, one loss, one draw, %88.5

9. Adelaide - one win, two losses, %117.23

10. Melbourne - one win, two losses, %110.96

11. North Melbourne - one win, two losses, %84.18

12. Brisbane - one win, two losses, %82.65

13. Collingwood - one win, two losses, %80.69

14. Hawthorn - one win, two losses, %79.48

15. St Kilda - one win, two losses, %78.71

16. Western Bulldogs - one win, two losses, %75.39

17. Fremantle - one win, two losses, %75.35

18. West Coast - three losses, %58.6