AFL Introduces Wild Card Round

[crowman2]

People might very well end up liking this

Well the supporters who’s teams finish 9th and 10th will

 

[Hollow Knight]

EFA

 

[Proper Gander]

Screw this.

The best part of the AFL season is the point when inevitably my team sucks and is mathematically out of finals. I can sit back and enjoy the footy and watch some more competent players.

AFL have just given me weeks more tooth grinding. Cheers dickheads

 

[MelbourneGWS]

YOU GET A FINALS SPOT, YOU GET A FINALS SPOT...
EVERYONE GETS A FINALS SPOT!

Maybe when Tassie comes in, teams that finish 18th and 19th should have a wildcard playoff to see who doesn’t make the playoffs..after that the 18 team final series can begin?

 

[Makeshift Park]

Sometimes feels like this mindless pursuit towards enacting whatever changes earns the league the most money short-term will result in the Emirates Pies facing off against the Ford Cats on Amazon one night, followed by the Hungry Jacks Eagles versus the Mazda Roos on Disney the next.

 

[Falchoon]

No more 9thmond jokes! I am fully on board.

ninthscray have taken over from 9thmond and Ninth Melbourne

 

[Cleavy]

Is there any other sport in the world where the rules consistently get changed?

cricket

 

[Falchoon]

In a roundabout way, it creates a half new layer (top 6)

Formerly the layers were top 4 & top 8 (with added spice for home finals)
Now we have top 4, top 6 & top 10 (with added spice for home finals)

 

[Stottzy]

Most of the major changes in terms of adding teams, the national competition, number of teams in the finals, ground rationlization have all been positive legacies. The "leave the game alone" regressives sooked about all of them. Yes there have been a few missteps, but the big stuff has generally been done right.

Adding two teams to the finals, when the number of teams has increased by two (soon to be three) should hardly be controversial

I would actually argue that the latest expansion of GWS and Gold Coast has not been great for the game at all and now, will get worse with 19 and probably 20 teams.

Fine, the broadcasters are paying the bills, but expanding the length of the finals and awarding mediocrity, just so they get more "showcase" games, is not good for the game.

Sport unfortunately, is becoming less about sport and more about sports "entertainment".

 

[LuckyBounce!]

They need to make sure 7th and 8th atleast get some advantage with home ground. Eg: Geelong plays at KP or St.Kilda at Marvel even if Collingwood finished 10th and are the away team.
It would be our luck we finish 7th pies 10th and we have to beat them at the G!

 

[Football Tragic]

People are hating on an extra round of footy? With four of the best teams playing do or die games?

I for one like the concept. We've had the top half of the competition playing off in the finals for decades and now that we are moving to having 20 teams, it's just adjusting to have the same ratio.

 

[Dan26]

The final 8 is a waste of time, why the **** are you claiming it like it's some big winning move?

No team has ever won a GF from there so it's a pointless change.

The AFL is also a business, and it is important to treat it this way. They have television rights worth billions and millions of fans to engage. If you REALLY want a fair competition, we wouldn't have finals at all. Finals are inherently UNFAIR. You can win every game for the year and lose the Preliminary Final. If you wanted fair you would just play everyone once and award the premiership to the team on top of the ladder. We don't do that because it would be boring and we like the excitement of the more "unfair" finals format. So, don't talk to me about "fair"

We had a 16-team competition with 8 teams (50%) and everyone was fine with this. There were no complaints. The AFL has introduced two (and soon to be three) new teams to make 19. Therefore, 10 teams is reasonable because it is as close to half as you can mathematically get.

And it's important too. The TV rights are worth billions. Lack of fan engagement can be a very real thing in the latter half of the season when dead rubbers pile up. More fan engagement, less dead rubbers, and a proportion of teams in the finals as close as possible to 50% with a 19-team league (which is what this change has been made for) is only a good thing.

It's just the wrong finals system, that's all. Should have been my knockout final-10, which is far superior.

 

[lizard man]

Well the supporters who’s teams finish 9th and 10th will

Exactly …. But it also gives us games to watch instead of the pre finals bye. A win win really

 

[demondavey]

My mob is a chance in 2031

Bring back…..

OUR BOY!!!

 

[purplearmy]

A joke of a league now. Not good enough to make the top 8 but make the finals anyway. All for more cash. I’m certain we’ll have a best of three series of night grand finals and relegation at the rate they’re changing things.

 

[jmac70]

View attachment 2473363

 

[Dan26]

Really? You're using modern history for your argument. Did you bother to look at the totality of finals history?
You realise that there's only been 3 years where more than 50% of the league has made finals? Only 1 of which was in a non-war year?

Since we went to a proper finals series in 1908

1908-1914 - 4 of 10 (40%) made finals
1915 - 4 of 8 (50%) made finals
1916 - 4 of 4 (100%) made finals
1917 - 4 of 6 (67%) made finals
1918 - 4 of 8 (50%) made finals
1919-1924 - 4 of 9 (44%) made finals
1925-1941 - 4 of 12 (33%) made finals
1942-1943 - 4 of 11 (36%) made finals
1944-1971 - 4 of 12 (33%) made finals
1972-1986 - 5 of 12 (42%) made finals
1987-1990 - 5 of 14 (36%) made finals
1991-1993 - 6 of 15 (40%) made finals
1994 - 8 of 15 (53%) made finals
1995-2010 - 8 of 16 (50%) made finals
2011 - 8 of 17 (47%) made finals
2012-2025 - 8 of 18 (44%) made finals

The AFL introduced the final-8 in 1994, which was the start of the modern era. That was 32 years ago. That was when TV rights, and fan engagement became more important. It didn't matter so much in 1954 if only 33% of trams made the finals. The footy wasn't even on TV. These days TV rights are worth billions, night footy draws the numbers and the AFL is a financial juggernaut, which it needs to be to fund all parts of the sport.

The AFL had 50% making it from 1995-2010, and it was probably the perfect proportion. It gave the best balance between fairness and fan engagement/minimizing dead rubbers. No one complained about it, apart from the usual "leave the game alone" regressives who sooked in 1994, but then they shut up the following season and for the next 3 decades.

The AFL got everyone used to the 8-team finals series DELIBERATELY when it was a 15-team league to get everyone used to it for the 16-team comp the following season. They are essentially doing the same thing again. And the same sooks are whining and those sooks will shut up 12 months from now, when it's just an accepted part of the game.

What half of 16? .......EIGHT

What's half of 19? ......9.5

You can't have 9.5 so you round up to ten. It's essentially no different to 8 in the 16 team comp. Get over it, stop sooking and appreciate the positives. Less dead-rubbers more fan engagement. What did you think was going to happen when the AFL expanded from 16 to 19? Just leave everything as is? You cant expand the number of teams in the AFL without expanding the finals. The move to 10 makes perfect sense. It clearly creates more interest in the comp.

 

[purplearmy]

Next rule change: everyone makes the finals.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Would suggest pushing for a mass boycott but there are just too many nuffies who will blindly tune in just because it’s on.

Genuinely terrible idea.

 

[Dan26]

You seem to be ignoring everyone's main point here: that we don't want more than half the league making finals. And no matter how you look at this, more than half the teams are making finals even when Tassie come in

Again even 9th would've been acceptable, 10th team coming in is just too generous

So to you it makes perfect sense, but not to a massive amount of fans that are not happy with this

You have to have more than half making it if it's a 19 team league, because half of 19 is 9.5.

That means either 9 or 10 is the number (remembering that the best proportion was from 1995-2010 when 18 out of 16 made it.

You can't have 9.5 (obviously)
9 is impractical because it is an odd number
So it's 10.

People seem to forget the AFL is a business. The "sporting" part of the AFL is just as important as the "entertainment" part of it. Both are equal. Less dead-rubbers, more fan engagement, more interest for longer over the course of the Home and Away season. These are all VITAL.

Let's just be realistic. When Tasmania joins and it becomes 19 teams the AFL were never going to have 8 making it and 11 missing the finals. So, 10 it is. Embrace it, accept it, and don't be a regressive sook. Move with the times. The AFL have brought in 3 new teams expanding the league from 16 to 19. What did you think would happen? When the number of teams increases, the AFL has always expanded the finals series. From 5 to 6 to 8. Moving to 10 is no different. Yet, the same sooks who complained 32 years ago, are sooking again.

 

[kreuze_missile]

The dumb campaigners at AFL headquarters have absolutely no idea how to grow this sport.

The networks don’t want to pay more for the TV rights, so the only way to justify a price hike is to produce more product.

So we get opening round, wildcard round, gather round, split byes, and soon to be a 19th team, eventually a 20th, all to add even more games into the mix.

Won’t be long and the season will be 40 ****ing weeks long.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Bloody AFL lets change everything, so it does not feel like footy anymore. I am sick to death with all the changes. Might as well make the ultimate change and change the ball to a round ball. Give me a break let's give 9 and 10 a chance stuff 7 and 8 who will need to win 5 row to win it, The dogs would never have won it 2016 under this ridiculous system.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Well the supporters who’s teams finish 9th and 10th will

No we won’t. We came 10th and under no planet did we deserve finals…

Then there’s the Dogs who beat 1 finals side the entire year.

 

[RandB]

This administration is just plain ****ed.

 

[Cyber_punk]

Another one of Ed's idea's I take it?

He wants shorter quarters too. And you know what? They will probably do it too.

The day that happens is the day I'm done with AFL. I actually quit watching NBL years ago because they f*cked around with stuff like that.