The time is right to reduce the season

[Damon_3388]

I'm totally in favour of a 17 game H&A season (with no split rounds), with the top six making the finals (top two getting a bye the first week), and every final being an eliminator.

 

[Smashwood]

How about these dirty money hungry pigs start with each team playing each other once. Playing teams twice before you play a team once faaaaaaaaaaaark off!!!! The game itself is just poo. It's like soccer and soon there will be an offside rule. It has been the worst year I can remember....deaths (out of AFL's control), Tribunal is a disgrace and the whole number 37 bullshit makes me want to puke!

With all the crap that goes on around the game itself, I forget about the actual game. Make it an 18rd season because the politics goes to long.

 

[BoxMatrix]

I agree. 17 round season. This has been a long and drawn out year and the last few weeks have been dire.

I'm sure that if your team wasn't so s**t you would have a bit more of a vested interest in the season.

 

[andrew coombs]

I agree with this although it is disappointing to have to continually put up with this crap

You don't have to watch it. After round 18 take a months holiday from football and rejoin us for the finals. By he way, none of the issues you grumbled about would be fixed by shortening the season.

 

[andrew coombs]

How about these dirty money hungry pigs start with each team playing each other once. Playing teams twice before you play a team once faaaaaaaaaaaark off!!!! The game itself is just poo. It's like soccer and soon there will be an offside rule. It has been the worst year I can remember....deaths (out of AFL's control), Tribunal is a disgrace and the whole number 37 bullshit makes me want to puke!

With all the crap that goes on around the game itself, I forget about the actual game. Make it an 18rd season the politics goes to long.

Cat fans are taking Geelongs absence from the Finals badly it seems.

 

[STFU Donnie]

This has been hands down the worst season in a long time.

I'm not going to go in to the off field incidents and issues, but on field the overall state of the game is poor at the minute, and the crowds are dwindling.

Another thread has already touched on this but i cant see more than 10000 people attending the Melbourne vs GWS game on Sunday, which will really hurt the game as a whole.

Its time for an 18 round season. Each of the interstate teams play each other twice and the Vic clubs can rotate each year who they play twice. Play every other team once.

The last 6 weeks of the season in its current format is disgusting. Its actually not worth watching.

The AFL needs to make games mean something. Not just drag out the season because of TV deals. If you are in the bottom 4 there is not point playing your best team, as losing gets rewarded more than winning.

so many more things need to be addressed but 2015 has been a terrible year for the AFL as a brand

You want to replace one uneven, compromised schedule with a different uneven, compromised schedule?

 

[Smashwood]

Cat fans are taking Geelongs absence from the Finals badly it seems.

We will find solace watching Hawthorn fail.

 

[Rise_up_Stiffy]

nah, we've only been good the last few weeks. Keep it as 23 weeks pls

 

[Gizza]

I don't give a s**t about all crap teams. I reckon we've got one of the closest and most exciting finals series ever coming up.

 

[andrew coombs]

We will find solace watching Hawthorn fail.

Yes, Hawthorn not winning the flag will be the feather in your cap for 2015.

 

[Smashwood]

Yes, Hawthorn not winning the flag will be the feather in your cap for 2015.

Yes. Watching Hawthorn fail during the finals will be better than leggo.

 

[HairyO]

I would settle for 2 in WA, SA, NSW, Qld, 4 in Vic

In 10 years look at expanding in two of the following - Canberra, NZ, Tassie or central coast

Except that GWS, GCS and Brisbane are basketcases, and you want to throw away Vicco clubs that are viable?

Dump GWS and Brisbane, Merge North and Melbourne, St Kilda and Dogs (or some other combo of those 4). That is a 14 team comp.

We will get 5 or 6 decent games every round. I would have thought the networks would prefer quality over quantity - unless people do actually sit through rubbish games just because its football...

Canberra, NZ and Central Coast would never be profitable. Tassie maybe. But instead of a few hundred k a year that Hawthorn gets, the Tassie govt. would need to be giving $5m or more a year. Not sure how popular that would be given half the state would complain when it went to either Launceston or Hobart.

 

[The King!]

I think nows the perfect time to leave the comp, the game and the rules the f alone and just enjoy the game

 

[JackOutback]

There will be some exciting seasons and some not so much. I don't think length of the season is a factor at all. If next year is great, all will be forgotten.

 

[Chism]

The AFL thought they fixed it when they had the bright idea of bringing in Free Agency.........

Yeah that has helped........... and the gap between the top teams and the bottom has never been so evident not to mention COLA , state drafting academies and so on etc.The MRP/Rule changes and so many other aspects of the current/modern day AFL is rubbish not to mention the standard of umpiring.

Bring on the NFL i say.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

A Tassie team is never going to work. No 20-29 year old is ever going to want to live in Hobart (unless maybe they've grown up there) when they could be getting paid the same amount of money to play in one of the bigger cities. People need to start accepting this. Not all 8 states and territories are going to have teams. Tasmania, the ACT, and the NT just aren't viable prospects.

 

[Marley10]

I never understood this type of thinking since there is no point in making it shorter...
Until this season. I can't wait for Sunday so that Essendon finish up. Ugly season.

Still think 23 rounds is good.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Might be a good time for the 17 / 5 season.

 

[augiewaz]

Does not matter how many rounds there are in the season.
When there are about 2/3 rounds to go, most things are set and we are basically just waiting for the finals to begin.

 

[SgtSchulz]

AFL will prefer to go to 22 teams over a shortened season.

 

[Ok Boomer]

Some teams will be out by round 23, some teams will also be out if it's shortened to 17 rounds. I personally don't see a point in shortening in this regard more games can't be that bad for fans either. I would only alter for draw equalisation purpouses.

 

[DrEvil_]

I'm surprised it took until the last round for this thread to pop up, about a month late compared to previous years.

 

[sprockets]

The population of Australia in the last year of the old 12 team VFL (now AFL) was around 16 million and was obviously even less in preceding years, even though there were 12 teams for most of it's history. The AFL now has 18 teams and the population is almost 24 million, plus they're recruiting guys from overseas these days as well. The talent pool remains the same as it's always been, if not even larger. It's not about the talent pool.

Maybe some people are bored with it because they watch too much of it on tv and need to get out into the real world and ride their bike a bit or go for a walk with a loved one instead.

 

[Sarang]

You could probably argue it's because there's more clubs fighting for the final 8 spots.

Instead of 8 out of 16 clubs making finals, you now have 8 out of 18 meaning more clubs are out of contention earlier in the season. If there were 9 finals spots up for grab (i.e 8/16 = half, 9/18 = half) there would still be 4 clubs currently fighting it out for 9th (Port, GWS, Cats, Pies) adding some more interest going into the last few rounds.

In saying that though, you need to find the right balance. You don't want to dilute the quality of the finals, but you don't want too many dead rubbers toward the end of the season. E.g. Under the current finals format, no team outside the Top 4 has made the Grand Final. But if you were to scrap the Top 8 for a Top 4 you'd find the season would get boring pretty quickly when most teams would be out of contention halfway through the season.

Edit: Just to clarify I'm happy with the current format. Just a theory behind the increase of dead rubbers (or maybe it's just a boring season...)

 

[Tulip]

only 10,000 people will attend the game but that's 10,000 more than if the game never took place. there's no reason to shorten the season. it's an end of year game with 2 teams who can't make finals with small fan bases. it happens. will continue to happen no matter how long the season is.

On Father's Day too.