The AFL won’t apologise for releasing the opening round of the 2023 fixture during the Socceroos’ World Cup clash, despite copping plenty of criticism.

Labelled “pathetic” and “petty” for the decision, AFL fixtures boss Travis Auld on Friday claimed the move “is what it is”.

“We got a little bit of feedback on that,” he said at the Gather Round fixture reveal.

“The reality is on that, for as long as I’ve been at the AFL and probably well before that, we’ve always released Round 1 of the fixture to News Limited on the Sunday.

“That’s been organised a long time out.

“I think we’ve got a track record of being pretty respectful and in fact supportive of other codes.

“Putting out nine games of footy on a Sunday in a newspaper we felt is what we’ve always done – we felt that’s OK.

“I can’t speak for others – I think we’ve got a track record of being pretty respectful of other codes and if we’ve released one round of football in the newspaper and that’s got in the way of the (Socceroos) game, it is what it is.”

Along with the soccer-fixture clash, Auld and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas copped criticism for announcing the Gather Round fixtures during the Second Test – played at Adelaide Oval.

“If they released it last weekend, they would have clash with the Adelaide 500, if they released it this weekend, they clash with the cricket, then they clash with Christmas then they clash with the Fringe, then they clash with the Tour Down Under, then the Adelaide Festival then WOMAD, then the Magic Round. To be fair to them (the AFL), whenever they announced it, it was going to clash with something,” Malinauskas said.

Auld also defended the Gather Round name, which has sparked plenty of debate.

“It’s our decision – it’s our job to come up with a name for the round,” he said.

“Gil (AFL boss McLachlan) opened it up to fans and we got a lot of feedback – they actually jammed our email system up!

“We landed on Gather Round a festival of football – we think that describes it. To be honest, the event makes the name, the name doesn’t make the event.

“I guarantee you come Sunday the 16th of April, people will be raving about the Gather Round.”

The AFL will release the full 2023 fixture on Sunday, with times for round 15 onwards to be released later in the season.