AFL Introduces Wild Card Round

[Seeds]

That's just not true, though. If the 10th ranked team beats the 7th ranked team, it counts as a finals win.

If you finish 10th on the ladder, it counts as making finals.

It's not a final 6, it's a final 10.

Its a final 6 in terms of who can win the flag realistically.

Whether a 7-10 wildcard win is called a finals win is just semantics. It means nothing.

 

[Seeds]

for the record, i'm neutral. couldn't care less and not just because my team may not even make a wildcard/final 10. this is just applying make-up to the corpse.

It is a corpse for the flag. But playing in finals has value in itself. Get to see your young players in a big game to finish off the year. May get to take a scalp or two from the top 6 to give real hope for the next season.

 

[Seeds]

I guarantee everyone will see this as a good thing after the 2026 season.... assuming the afl will folllow through with it.

 

[jwikked]

Its a final 6 in terms of who can win the flag realistically.

Whether a 7-10 wildcard win is called a finals win is just semantics. It means nothing.

It means everything lol. Bulldogs won the flag from 7th spot 10 years ago, there's no reason it can't happen again.
It's not a top 6, and it's bizarre you'd try to frame this as AFL fans being stupid, when you can't grasp this concept.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

I guarantee everyone will see this as a good thing after the 2026 season.... assuming the afl will folllow through with it.

Of course they will, the complaints will last a week or two but the sheep will still turn up and the AFL will sit their with a cigar in the side of the gob counting the cash laughing how they can do actually anything and the fans just keep turning up. It's like clockwork.

 

[Farang83150]

Essendon round

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Hmmmm. That's almost enbough to bring me aorunfd.
Six is, in my view, the right amount of finalists. Eight is too many, only borderline acceptable because the fixture is so compromised.

It’s far from their intention but that will be the outcome. Sixth vs Seventh will be a massive gap

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

That's just not true, though. If the 10th ranked team beats the 7th ranked team, it counts as a finals win.

If you finish 10th on the ladder, it counts as making finals.

It's not a final 6, it's a final 10.

They are just words though. In reality it’s a final six. There’s almost zero chance of these teams winning five games in a row , probably with travel, against teams that not only finished above them but have had have had one if not two weeks off in the same time period.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Current system has a massive advantage between 4 and 5, and then 8 and 9.

Top 10 (if you actually implemented the old final 5 principles) just staggers the advantage better

1&2 get the big reward, the big advantage is 2 over 3
3-6 next grouping, 6 a big advantage over 7
7-10 the final grouping, 10 a big advantage over 11

Current system has a near perfect step down in advantage

1 home state and double chance , easier opponent than 2
2 home state and double chance, harder opponent than 1
3 double chance possible travel, easier opponent than 4
4 double chance possible travel, harder opponent than 3
5 knockout home state easier opponent that 6
6 knockout home state harder opponent than 5
7 knockout possible travel easier opponent than 8
8 knockout possible travel harder opponent than 7
9 you didn’t qualify

It ain’t broke.

 

[jwikked]

They are just words though. In reality it’s a final six. There’s almost zero chance of these teams winning five games in a row , probably with travel, against teams that not only finished above them but have had have had one if not two weeks off in the same time period.

It’s a final 10 lol. Or has it been a final 6 this whole time?

 

[Albertross]

Its a final 6 in terms of who can win the flag realistically.

Whether a 7-10 wildcard win is called a finals win is just semantics. It means nothing.

Pfft...7738 days since we last won a final! As shameful as it is, if we managed to win a game from 9th or 10th, the club, and a fair chunck of nuffie supporters wil claim it as a finals win. So our clock would be reset. FWIW, this is a stupid idea.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

It’s a final 10 lol. Or has it been a final 6 this whole time?

Call it what you like, as i said they are just words… but only the top six will ever win the premiership. 7-10 games are just for money.

 

[Chiz]

Current system has a near perfect step down in advantage

1 home state and double chance , easier opponent than 2
2 home state state and double chance, harder opponent than 1
3 double chance possible travel, easier opponent than 4
4 double chance possible travel, harder opponent than 3
5 knockout home state easier opponent that 8
6 knockout home state harder opponent than 5
7 knockout possible travel easier opponent than 8
8 knockout possible travel harder opponent than 7
9 you didn’t qualify

It ain’t broke.

This is not a perfect step down advantage - far from it. If two Vic teams finish 1 and 4, there is ZERO benefit that 1 gets over 4. 2 also get an easier PF than 1 most years if both win the QF.

Then there is the massive gap between 4 and 5 (decided on percentage this year), where 4 has three times the chance of winning even before you factor in home advantage.

Advocate for the current system all you like, but there are clearly two groups: 1-4 and 5-8. Where you finish within them has little bearing on your advantage.

 

[Maylandsman]

Three scenarios;
Your team doesn’t make the top 10 - won’t care.
Your team wins a final from 9 or 10 - wonderfull rule.
Your team is beaten by 9 or 10 - worst rule change ever.

 

[Bostonian]

After the reaction the afl must be sitting back and thinking the fans are complete idiots.

The AFL are the ****ing idiots.

Fans called the round 0 idea garbage.

They were right.

Some complete idiots at the AFL though it was a good idea.

 

[Seeds]

The AFL are the ****ing idiots.

Fans called the round 0 idea garbage.

They were right.

Some complete idiots at the AFL though it was a good idea.

Round zero is garbage.

This is not. There are multiple minor benefits and no real cons. This has been pointed out to you in previous posts you have literally quoted but you refuse to address the points.

 

[Seeds]

Three scenarios;
Your team doesn’t make the top 10 - won’t care.
Your team wins a final from 9 or 10 - wonderfull rule.
Your team is beaten by 9 or 10 - worst rule change ever.

When you are 11th to 12th with two rounds to go you are going to care much more about the season then under the current finals eight system where you have already stopped watching.

 

[Seeds]

Call it what you like, as i said they are just words… but only the top six will ever win the premiership. 7-10 games are just for money.

7-10 are for hope.

To finish the season off in a bang with some big games rather then lose interest in irrelevant home and away games with 3 weeks to go in the season.

To potentially do damage to one of the top 6. Wouldnt carlton supporters finishing 10th love to finish off their season by knocking a 5th placed pies out of finals. That would be massive for morale heading into the next season.

 

[Rabish Binney]

I hate the idea because IMHO it just smacks of what seems to be an increasing Americanisation of our game and the fact that it is a pure and simple money grab for the AFL.

It also, despite what Dillion says does reward mediocrity.

But supporters love their clubs and whichever clubs finish in the wildcard positions, those supporters will turn up and the TV ratings will be big.

Dillon and the cohorts will then proclaim just how much of a success it is and its what the "fans want" (despite that fact that supporters go to games to watch their club in spite of the AFL).

And one knows that AFL will expand it even further after Tassy come in.....

 

[Bostonian]

Round zero is garbage.

This is not. There are multiple minor benefits and no real cons. This has been pointed out to you in previous posts you have literally quoted but you refuse to address the points.

There are zero benefits to this.

None.

It's a cash grab.

 

[JPetro83]

Teams that finish 7th and 8th aren't really setting the world on fire.. they have also had mediocre seasons. At least the top 6 has a bit of credibility. They will be cherry ripe while the 4 mediocre sides battle it out to finalize the top 8.
Are the wildcard games actual counted as "Finals"?

 

[PonsfordMagpie]

Are the wildcard games actual counted as "Finals"?

Dillon says they're counted as finals.

 

[Whiskers]

There are zero benefits to this.

None.

It's a cash grab.

Isn’t a cash grab a benefit?
I get real confused why it’s a negative at times.
A top 10 doesn’t hurt the competition. Not a massive improvement or downgrade really.

 

[The Punter]

I think we can agree: the AFL is really bad at naming things.

Round 0? Just call it Round 1.

Wildcard? Just call it more finals, which is what it is.

 

[Seeds]

There are zero benefits to this.

None.

It's a cash grab.

Making it harder for 7-8 to win flag is a positive as it gives more importance to the final positions of the home and away season. Realistically, rather than theoretically, Top 6 is now a must.

Reducing the length of time of the dead period when the season is theoretically over and there is zero hope for supporters but games still need to be played for teams in the 9-18 range is a huge positive. For one, it will lead to less beltings at the end of season.

Having more teams season finish off with a big game to end is a positive. Gives some excitement for medicore sides even though it doesnt really give them a realistic shot at the flag.

Having more young players get the experience of big finals games is a positive. This experience helps teams once they actually reach the top 6 be more finals hardened leading to better finals games in the last 4 weeks.

Gets rid of the bye week where there is no football giving other codes a leg up.

The only potential con is that once in 100 years a team from 9th or 10th may go on an absurd 5 game run in all away games playing multiple teams with a weeks rest and win a flag. Its only a potential con because if it actually happened most supporters and commentstors will love it and see it as a positive because of how hard it is to achieve. Will split that 50-50 between cons and positives

So I have 5.5 positives and 0.5 cons.

Can you reason out of those arguments rather than deflect and ignore?