Brown lashes AFL over bizarre failed NRL 'hijack'

Brisbane Lions great Jonathan Brown has slammed the AFL's Opening Round experiment, after its attempt to "hijack" the NRL fell flat.

The AFL introduced the concept of round zero for six teams, to begin a week before the season proper and be played across New South Wales and Queensland.

It was an attempt to fill the hole left by the NRL, which had moved its season launch to Las Vegas, where four sides went head-to-head at Allegiant Stadium at the weekend.

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The AFL's notion of muscling into NRL territory while rugby league was overseas makes little sense given Opening Round is held this coming week, at the same time the NRL returns to play games in Melbourne, NSW and Queensland.

While the NRL was in Vegas the AFL merely played a handful of pre-season games.

Brown is one of countless people baffled by the AFL's failed plan.

"For the whole summer, it's been trumpeted that we're going to take on the NRL when they're in Vegas, we're going to hijack their territory. When the cat's away, the mice will play," Brown said on Fox Footy on Monday night.

"Well, the Vegas games were yesterday. And the last time I looked, we didn't have any AFL games. Opening Round is next week."

Brown questioned why the AFL didn't move the opening round forward by just one week, meaning they would have played without any NRL to compete with across the northern states.

"I thought that was the whole point of it (playing when the NRL was in Las Vegas). Ground availability may have been a bit of an issue which rugby league don't have to worry about because we're relying on cricket grounds," Brown said.

"But if we're going to hijack that area, can we play them on the weekend while they're away?"

The AFL's Opening Round kicks off in Sydney on Thursday, on the same night an NRL game is played up the road in Newcastle.

On Friday the AFL heads to Brisbane while the NRL is in Auckland and Melbourne.

On Saturday there are AFL games on the Gold Coast and in Sydney – while those two cities also host NRL games the same day.