Fixture 2026 Fixture

[Dutchy5150]

The wildcard thing is just away for the AFL to guaranty that Victorians teams dont miss out on finals

This was always going to happen

 

[Doctor Feel]

Lol trying to keep fans of shit clubs engaged late. WE COULD WILDCARDDDD!

Mfw the wildcard is absolutely belted every year.

 

[chachi11]

This league sucks hard

 

[240volt]

Team that finishes bottom should get a double chance come finals.

 

[chiwigi]

it makes finishing 7th and 8th pretty worthless. you have to play an extra knockout game, then go again next week against a rested team who finished above you. what the bulldogs did in 2016 would be all but impossible.

it actually makes it more like a final 6.

Which is why I quite like the idea. Extra games/money for those not making the 6, and something to watch during the bye.

Though I’d 100% prefer a home and away fixture list, or at least only play each team once and a different finals system.

 

[Scholz Supremacy]

So if you finish 7th or 8th, you now have to win 5 games in a row when the Western Bulldogs only had to win 4 to win the flag in 2016.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

Makes the race for 6th almost as crucial as the race for 8th, 4th or 2nd.

 

[EskimoPAFC]

Actually it makes the race for 8th much less relevant

 

[Grave Danger]

All about $$$$ of course - wait until they reveal that the Wildcard Play-in Top Ten Shootout games are EXCLUSIVE TO KAYO!!

 

[Jonts]

There's nothing wild about it. It's just 9th and 10th
It's not a wildcard round ffs

 

[EskimoPAFC]

All about $$$$ of course - wait until they reveal that the Wildcard Play-in Top Ten Shootout games are EXCLUSIVE TO KAYO!!

WITH ZOOPER POOPER GOALS!!

AND AT THE END OF EVERY QUARTER THEY VOTE TO ELIMINATE SOMEONE AT THE DINNER PARTY

 

[TazD]

Team that finishes bottom should get a double chance come finals.

Now this is cooking

 

[chiwigi]

There's nothing wild about it. It's just 9th and 10th
It's not a wildcard round ffs

Yup, wildcard makes sense in American sports as it basically meant the best teams that didn’t win their conference, which could have been from any of them…hence wildcard.

This is just 10 (insert number of vic teams) finals.

 

[Sleezy]

Can't wait for Essendon to finish 7th, lose to 10th in WC round, and continue their ignominious streak for another wonderful year.

 

[Jonts]

Yup, wildcard makes sense in American sports as it basically meant the best teams that didn’t win their conference, which could have been from any of them…hence wildcard.

This is just 10 (insert number of vic teams) finals.

Yeah
Make it the 2 best percentages outside the 8 or something

 

[jb04]

I dislike gimmicks as much as the next guy but whatever gets in the way of the pre-finals bye being a thing, I can eventually get behind.

 

[snozulu]

Load of AFL shit, everyone wins a prize.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

View attachment 2473281

For years I thought Wild Card was a tennis thing and I reckon Goran Ivanisevic is the ultimate definition of a Wild Card.

In 2001 Wimbledon gave him a Wild Card - the 4 grand slam events give out 8 wild cards, between 8-16 qualifying spots from pre qualifying tournaments, and between 1 -6 lucky losers spots - usually due to late withdrawals from the tournament.

Goran had a injured shoulder for a big chunk of the points ranking, a rolling 12 months ie late 2000 and early 2001 and his ranking fell to 125. Because he had lost 3 times in the final at Wimbledon, they gave him a Wild Card and he ended up winning it, beating Pat Rafter in 5 sets.

Kim Clijsters retired in 2007 to have kids, but came back and got a Wild Card for USA Open in 2009 and won it beating Caroline Wozniacki in the final.

They do it in golf, but not for the Masters, and I don't reckon any Wild Card has ever won a major like in tennis. I reckon Tiger Woods has been granted a Wild Card or two, but when he won the Masters in 2019, his ranking was pretty high.

For team sports they call it a wildcard. It was introduced in NFL in 1970 after the merger with AFL. In 1969 the NFL had 2 conference and 2 divisions within a conference. They had 16 teams and the 2 divisional winners within a conference played to be conference champions, so effectively a final 4 from 16 teams.

In 1970 the NFL merged with the AFL and the comp went from 16 teams to 26 teams and had 2 new conferences NFC and AFC. 3 of the old NFL teams joined the AFC and they went from 2 divisions to 3 divisions which meant they needed to introduce wildcards for the best 2nd placed team in the 3 division x 2 conferences.

That meant 8 teams out of 26 qualified for finals. Had 2 semis per conference and then conference championship and then the Super Bowl. All pretty reasonable stuff IMO.

Once they go to 28 and 30 teams it expanded to 6 teams per conference so finals were for 12 out of 28/30 teams. Now its top 14 of 32 teams that get to play finals. Some times the best 2 teams for the year or best and 3rd best team of the year out of 32 sit inside the same division in one of the conferences.

Wimbledon introduced Wild Cards in 1977 and the other 3 grand slam events followed over the next 8 years, with all 4 tournaments having Wild Cards by 1985.

The NHL didn't call them wildcards pre merger with the WHL in 1979, but they had 2 conferences of 9 teams and 2 divisions in each conference after the 1967 expansion and had 12 teams qualify out of 18 after an 80 game season and effectively had wildcards. The top 4 teams had the bye and the other 8 teams faced off against each other to qualify for the quarter final rounds.,

After the merger they had 21 teams and the finals were 16 teams, so it was 4 divisional semi finals per conference x 2 conferences, then divisional finals, then conference finals, then Stanley Cup.

Up until the end of 1993, MLB had 2 Leagues, 2 divisions per league so you had the divisional winners play off for the League pennant and then the World Series, so 4 out of 28 teams played in finals.

In 1994 they introduced 3 divisions and a wildcard but the players went on strike and the season was cancelled around 2/3rds of the way into the season and no finals. 1995 was their first year of wildcards in the finals and 3 divisions per league not 2 and now 8 out of 28 teams played in the finals.

The NBA has chopped and changed so many times I wont try and explain their changes. But they effectively introduced a wildcard in their 1974-75 season when they went from 8 teams out 17 in 2 conferences and 2 divisions per conference made finals in 1973-74, to 10 teams out of 17 teams made the finals.

So wildcards isn't so much an American thing as a cash grab thing. The yanks have a reason for doing it, given their conferences and divisions to try and get more teams to play finals. But its also a cash grab thing. We don't have conference and divisions to justify it like the yanks do.

Its just such a farken dumb name. Goran Ivanisevic was such a wild player, that Wild Card suits him IMO.

It really should be called the Cash Grab - Bugger All Chance For a Flag finals. No one is going to win a flag from 9th or 10th and have to win 5 games in September, unless you have a ridiculous season say where minor premier wins only 14 games of 23 games and 10th wins 12 games, and 10th probably had a shit load of players injured the first half of the year.

That's what happened in 2016, after 21 games 4 teams had won 16 games and 3 teams had won 15. In the last round the Bulldogs (7th) could have finished 4th if the right results happened. Half time of their game against WCE (6th) at Subiaco, the last minor round game of the season, they found out they couldn't finish 4th, they had a couple of bad injuries, they put the queue in the rack and took full advantage of the first ever bye before finals and stole the flag.

The 4 North American leagues with wildcards and how many teams qualify for finals;

MLB 12 teams of 30 play in the finals after a 162 game season
NFL 14 teams of 32 play in the finals after a 17 game season
NHL 16 teams of 32 play in the finals after a 82 game season
NBA 20 teams of 30 play in the finals after a 82 game season

 

[Jojay]

Lol imagine working your guts out all season and finishing seventh - only to have it all taken away because of this mickey mouse concept.

 

[Willsy10]

Lol imagine working your guts out all season and finishing seventh - only to have it all taken away because of this mickey mouse concept.

if you can’t beat 10th at home, it probably should be taken away from you.

 

[Willsy10]

I don’t think it’s a big deal.

The fixture is so unbalanced that this could actually increase the chances that the best 8 sides actually do make the finals.

Gives more benefit for finishing top 4 and top 6.

Gives us footy during that stupid pre finals bye week. I would scrap it completely but this is an okay compromise.

And avoids a situation like this year where their was literally nothing to play for with the sides 10-18th from about a month or two out from finals.

2025 was a very boring season, this would’ve made it more exciting for me.

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

Typical shit change for the sake of change from the afl

Absolute joke sport

 

[Steve Dore]

Lol imagine working your guts out all season and finishing seventh - only to have it all taken away because of this mickey mouse concept.

This is one of the worst things about the wildcard round. A team could finish in seventh numerous wins ahead of tenth and then miss finals.

Is this the AFL's idea of competition integrity?

 

[raptalia]

Does the NRL have a Reserves competition? Whatever they’re doing, they seem to be doing it much more effectively.

I am not sure about the other sides but the Cronulla Reserve players are aligned with the Newtown Jets and play in the NSW Cup. As I understand it the NRL set up is similar to the Power/SANFL feeder club set up we had prior to the One Cub campaign.

The NRLW sides play double headers with the men's competition. The NRL only have 12 women's teams in their competition so they only have to play 11 home and away matches and that makes things so much easier for them. The problem for the AFL is of course that they have to facilitate 17 matches to get a full round.

An AFL Reserves competition is probably a decade away so the initial focus could be on playing AFLW games as curtain raisers to the AFL games or alternately as double headers with the fellas playing at Adelaide Oval and the girls the next day at Alberton. Sooner or later the AFL has to bite the bullet and get to a 17 round AFLW competition and the sooner the better.

As I have posted it will not be an easy task to get to a 17 round comp but it has to be done- eventually.

 

[Buget]

This is one of the worst things about the wildcard round. A team could finish in seventh numerous wins ahead of tenth and then miss finals.

Is this the AFL's idea of competition integrity?

Extra high profile home game plus gate receipts. Will they care?