You can’t tell, but the first character of “0pen” above is a zero. Because the AFL realized that when everyone wants different things in the first round, it’s easier to accomodate them if you have two first rounds.
So Round 1, 2024 will be the 2nd round. And the first round, if you have to give it a number, will be 0.
That’s problematic for people like me, because I do have to give rounds numbers, and Round 0 is how I’ve always designated ratings and predictions generated prior to the start of a season. So now I have to choose:
- Stick to the same numbering scheme, so “1” still means the first round, and “2” the second, etc. This would be ridiculous, because no matter how careful we all are, it will be endlessly confusing for “2” to mean “Round 1.”
- Change the numbering scheme, so that “0” means “Opening Round,” and “-1” is pre-season. (Also, in some contexts, change “0” from meaning “no round in particular, give me all the data you have.”) This is also terrible, because that’s not how it’s worked before, and will break some existing third-party apps that rely on the Squiggle API, of which there are quite a lot.
Nevertheless, #2 is less stupid than #1. So I think that’s what I have to do.