News ‘Would be unreal’: AFL to consult clubs over addition of ‘wildcard round’ to finals

[Ctl]

if its a 7-10 wildcard scenario the teams that make the top 8 would have to lose twice to miss finals imv, they earned it throughout the season and one off game/ bad match up should'nt mean missing when the difference between the teams could be multiple wins, and the team 9 and 10 would have to win twice to make it, like the NBA

Game A: 7 v 8
Game B: 9 v 10
Game C: Loser of Game A v Winner of Game B

The 17 game season then the ladder being segmented into 3 groups of 6 makes some sense, but the ladder would have to then be effectively be reset after round 17 or you could have a team from the bottom 6 group finishing higher than a team in the middle 6 group. Then if the ladder is reset where the top 6 is locked, 7-12 is locked and 13-18 is locked what is the incentive for the teams in the bottom grouping to win where they can get the number 1 pick due to the ladder being reset.

 

[GoldSoundz]

Whilst I’m not pro wildcard, I have a bigger issue with the week off between home and away season and finals. It’s such a momentum killer.

If the solution is as follows:
-Top 6 get the week off.
-7v10 and 8v9 on Friday and Saturday Night.

Then I can absolute live with that outcome.

 

[Lee]

17+5 could work.

First Phase: (17 Games)

• Everyone plays each other once
• 8 home, 8 away + Gather Round
• Rotate who plays home/away each season
• Have two teams from host state play each other during Gather Round (Eg, Showdown when it’s in Adelaide)

Second Phase: (5 Games)

• Week off at end of Round 17 (Can use week for Under 18 comp)
• Fixtures release end of round 17 based of positions 1-6, 7-12, 13-18
• Play everyone in your “group”
• 3 Home, 2 Away (Higher placed teams get the extra home game)

Ladder continues as normal and finals remain the same with top 8.

Scottish Premier League runs with a similar model.

(I should say I don’t necessarily support this idea, but think it could work if done right)

 

[Lee]

Also I must say the AFL keep wanting this season longer and longer It wouldn’t surprise me if someone at the AFL to suggest a 32 week premier league style season, Play each other twice, no finals, team at the top wins the lot

 

[JackOutback]

Also I must say the AFL keep wanting this season longer and longer It wouldn’t surprise me if someone at the AFL to suggest a 32 week premier league style season, Play each other twice, no finals, team at the top wins the lot

They’ll never get rid of the grand final.

 

[Lee]

The only downside with the second phase, is that it can easily be manipulated, or people will still complain about fairness. Look at how close the ladder is now. There is only 6 points between 6th place and 14th. That would mean Swans and Suns get to beat up on Eagles, North and Hawks to slip into the top 8, whilst the teams above them cancel each other out almost, given most games in that bracket would be 50/50. If I was sitting in 13th round 16, why win in round 17 to move up to the middle 6?

100% agree with you. That’s why I believe the model will never work.

I don’t think we’ll ever have a “fair” season unless you move to a 17 round H&A season. Or have a better formula to work out who plays who in those extra 5-6 rounds

 

[Coolangatta]

First return game should be derbies, showdowns etc.

Then maybe play the team nearest you on the ladder as long as you haven’t already played them twice.

So 1v2,3v4,11v12,17v18 etc.

Then say if 1 and 2 are still 1 and 2 on the ladder, 1 plays 3 next etc.

 

[Underarm]

Whilst I’m not pro wildcard, I have a bigger issue with the week off between home and away season and finals. It’s such a momentum killer.

If the solution is as follows:
-Top 6 get the week off.
-7v10 and 8v9 on Friday and Saturday Night.

Then I can absolute live with that outcome.

The week off solves 2 issues.

1. The AFLPA want 2 byes per team.
2. Solves the issue of scheduling and not having to worry about who plays on the Sunday in the final round.

 

[bullish23]

I reckon hutchy has his fingerprints all over this.

Was on a long flight today so downloaded whately and the sounding board to pass the time.

Surprise, surprise both Gerard and Hutchy had the exact same talking points on this very topic. We keep getting fed their US centric bs constantly. Damo at least calls it out.

 

[Walshawk]

17+5 could work.

First Phase: (17 Games)

• Everyone plays each other once
• 8 home, 8 away + Gather Round
• Rotate who plays home/away each season
• Have two teams from host state play each other during Gather Round (Eg, Showdown when it’s in Adelaide)

Second Phase: (5 Games)

• Week off at end of Round 17 (Can use week for Under 18 comp)
• Fixtures release end of round 17 based of positions 1-6, 7-12, 13-18
• Play everyone in your “group”
• 3 Home, 2 Away (Higher placed teams get the extra home game)

Ladder continues as normal and finals remain the same with top 8.

Scottish Premier League runs with a similar model.

(I should say I don’t necessarily support this idea, but think it could work if done right)

That will have some teams with 12 home games, some 11, some 10. That will never fly and why if has not been mentioned in a few years. 17/6 is a little a better but still has problems.
If we get 19 teams, 18/4 or 18/6 works much better.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

So let me get this straight.

Teams that weren't good enough to make the finals after the 22-24 rounds of the h&a, will now get the chance to play in the finals? The top 6 teams will get a week off to prepare for finals while 4 or 6 other teams smash themselves to join them.

I know people has posted about this sort of thing on these boards for years now and it doesn't mean it's a good idea.

In a world of dumb ideas, this is in the top 3.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

Classic AFL house flogs, wonder if the focus groups said this was a good idea.

They've sneakily leaked it to see the public response then it will be quietly shelved and they'll say it was all a media beat up, they never talked about it.

 

[dean33]

Was on a long flight today so downloaded whately and the sounding board to pass the time.

Surprise, surprise both Gerard and Hutchy had the exact same talking points on this very topic. We keep getting fed their US centric bs constantly. Damo at least calls it out.

Yeah it’s quite transparent really.

 

[Coolangatta]

The McIntyre final five x2: 1,4,6,8,10 & 2,3,5,7,9,11 is how they should do a top 10. But I don’t think it’s necessary unless we get to 20 teams.

 

[*Paul*]

2x top 5's was how the 20-team NRL comp worked in 1998. Canterbury made the gf from 9th, a farce was avoided when they were walloped by Brisbane.

 

[Carringbush2010]

Would rather a 17-6 model, not sure how it'd work, but bottom 4 could play off for draft picks.

In any case it would lessen the dead rubbers.

Just spitballin.

 

[raskolnikov]

Gives the bombers hope

We've made finals 3 of the last 6 years. Twit.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

2x top 5's was how the 20-team NRL comp worked in 1998. Canterbury made the gf from 9th, a farce was avoided when they were walloped by Brisbane.

I was just thinking about this half an hour ago, Leigh Matthews was talking in AW about doing something different after everyone had played each other once. He was talking about making the last 6 rounds more equitable and about rewarding the minor premier more.

I was thinking about a top 10 and have 2 groups of 5 and playing it like the old final 5 system, 1st and 2nd get the first week off. Split the groups into odds and evens.

For the sake of the exercise we'll say the higher seeds all win.

Week 1 :

1st and 2nd have the week off.

Qualifying finals :

3rd v 5th & 4th v 6th - losers to the 1st semi finals and winners to the 2nd semi finals.

Elimination finals :

7th v 9th & 8th v 10th - losers eliminated and winners to the 1st semi finals.

Week 2

First Semi finals :
5th v 7th & 6th v 8th - losers eliminated and winners to the 3rd semi finals.

Second Semi Finals :
1st v 3rd & 2nd v 4th - losers to the 3rd semi finals finals and the winners to the preliminary final

Week 3

Third Semi Finals Finals :

3rd v 5th & 4th v 6th - losers eliminated and winners to the preliminary finals

Week 4

Preliminary Finals :

1st v 3rd and 2nd v 4th - losers eliminated and winners to the grand final.

Week 5

1st v 2nd

Winners are premiers.

An extra week and an extra 4 games to the current system. 1st and 2nd get a proper reward and the top 6 get a proper double chance.

Was it a farce when the Western Bulldogs won it from 7th place in 2016?

 

[HairyO]

'consult the clubs' - in other words, it will go ahead at some point

Will mean more money into the game - clubs or players arent going to say no to more money

The AFL own half the clubs so it will happen if the AFL wants it.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Haven't the AFL got more important things to address before thinking about this garbage?

 

[deck]

Malthouse makes a valid point in the Herald Sun today. What happens when 9 or 10 get to the final game and can't jump up or go down any further on the ladder. Yet 7 & 8 are still playing for a shot at 5th & 6th or even 4th spot.

9 and/or 10 have the luxury of resting players that was the reason they brought in a bye round before finals in the first place. Now the bye round is the main reason they are thinking of doing this in the first place as the AFL really don't like the idea of nothing happening for a week before finals.

It just seems the AFL introduce one thing to solve a problem but then end up with another problem they don't like.

 

[Coolangatta]

I was just thinking about this half an hour ago, Leigh Matthews was talking in AW about doing something different after everyone had played each other once. He was talking about making the last 6 rounds more equitable and about rewarding the minor premier more.

I was thinking about a top 10 and have 2 groups of 5 and playing it like the old final 5 system, 1st and 2nd get the first week off. Split the groups into odds and evens.

For the sake of the exercise we'll say the higher seeds all win.

Week 1 :

1st and 2nd have the week off.

Qualifying finals :

3rd v 5th & 4th v 6th - losers to the 1st semi finals and winners to the 2nd semi finals.

Elimination finals :

7th v 9th & 8th v 10th - losers eliminated and winners to the 1st semi finals.

Week 2

First Semi finals :
5th v 7th & 6th v 8th - losers eliminated and winners to the 3rd semi finals.

Second Semi Finals :
1st v 3rd & 2nd v 4th - losers to the 3rd semi finals finals and the winners to the preliminary final

Week 3

Third Semi Finals Finals :

3rd v 5th & 4th v 6th - losers eliminated and winners to the preliminary finals

Week 4

Preliminary Finals :

1st v 3rd and 2nd v 4th - losers eliminated and winners to the grand final.

Week 5

1st v 2nd

Winners are premiers.

An extra week and an extra 4 games to the current system. 1st and 2nd get a proper reward and the top 6 get a proper double chance.

Was it a farce when the Western Bulldogs won it from 7th place in 2016?

This is what I want but top spot gets the evens (4,6,8,10) and second gets (3,5,7,9). Makes no sense for the minor premier to get the harder draw, which the odd teams would be.

 

[ferball]

17+5 could work.

First Phase: (17 Games)

• Everyone plays each other once
• 8 home, 8 away + Gather Round
• Rotate who plays home/away each season
• Have two teams from host state play each other during Gather Round (Eg, Showdown when it’s in Adelaide)

Second Phase: (5 Games)

• Week off at end of Round 17 (Can use week for Under 18 comp)
• Fixtures release end of round 17 based of positions 1-6, 7-12, 13-18
• Play everyone in your “group”
• 3 Home, 2 Away (Higher placed teams get the extra home game)

Ladder continues as normal and finals remain the same with top 8.

Scottish Premier League runs with a similar model.

(I should say I don’t necessarily support this idea, but think it could work if done right)

If you finish sixth you play everyone above you on the ladder.

If you finish seventh or 13th you play everyone below you on the ladder.

Averaged out you should play one or two games against players in each of those three groups. But if you're in sixth you will always play games against five higher ranked sides and if you are in thriteenth you'll play the five lowest ranked sides.

Doing this makes it harder for the team in sixth place to make finals than for the team in seventh. It completely undermines the concept of the first 17 rounds being even if a team in 13th gets to play sides as bad as my side or the WC and the team in sixth has to play sides that are determined (by the fair draw) to be better than it.

Right now there are less than two wins between the side in sixth and the side in 13th. One win and a draw and percentage. It might change by the weekend but that is way to much of a discrepancy for using the 17+ 5 draw considering that theoretically the ladder position is determined by every side playing each other once and is the most accurate or fair draw available.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

The only sport where it actually makes sense is the NFL.

The wildcards there are the teams with the best W/L record who didn't win their division. Often they have more wins than the teams who qualified directly. Last season Tampa Bay (8-9) finished 4th and the wildcards were Dallas (12-5), New York (9-1-7) and Seattle (9-8).

In the AFL it's just a thinly disguised way to the extend the finals series. As it is in the NBA.

Thanks for posting this so I didn't have to.

AFL just trying to see how much more they can milk out of 7/Foxtel.

 

[Billy ray]

I have no doubt the latest tv contract wanted 3 things and the AFL promised the networks 2 of them.

Extra round (gather round)
Night grand final
Extra two night finals (wildcard/top 10)