Will lightning strike Opening Round twice?

Could weather mar one of the AFL's controversial concoctions for a second straight year?

After Cyclone Alfred caused both of Queensland's 2025 Opening Round games to be postponed, the AFL will be keeping its fingers, toes and everything else crossed that games won't be affected or postponed by more forecasted poor weather.

At the time of publishing, Saturday's forecast in Sydney for the Greater Western Sydney-Hawthorn match (scheduled for 4:15pm local time) is the most pressing with a possible thunderstorm developing in the afternoon according to Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Christie Johnson.

"Probably, the most likely severe weather associated that could be localised would be heavy rainfalls and flash flooding," she said.

"There is a risk of severe storms with that.

"We still have a lot of moisture over (NSW), it's related to the weather system that has brought a lot of flooding to South Australia and central Australia.

"That means storms can tap into that moisture and produce some heavy rainfall. There is an outside chance of some damaging winds or large hail if we get some of those supercell storms on Saturday, that's not out of the question. It's just more likely that we just get some locally heavy rainfall."

Further north the forecast improves with the weather expected on Friday night for the Gold Coast-Geelong clash to be 29 degrees with a high chance of up to 15mm of rain.

Brisbane's flag unfurling before its date with the Western Bulldogs at the Gabba on Saturday night will also see a temperature in the high 20s with up to nine millimetres of rain.

While those two Queensland forecasts should ease nerves, the AFL will be hoping that Brisbane's weather on Sunday, which could see a down pour of up to 50mm of rain, won't arrive early.

In 2025, the Gold Coast and Essendon Opening Round match was postponed until after Round 24, while the Brisbane and Geelong fixture was rescheduled for Round 3.

The fact that weather has affected Opening Round significantly since its inception is a problem for the AFL, given Round 0 - which was created to boost northern markets while capitalising on the NRL going to Las Vegas -  is considered widely unpopular with fans.