AFL Introduces Wild Card Round

[Seeds]

But your just trying to be controversial.

No i actually support it based on its pros vs cons.

 

[quotemokc]

Who cares about finals?

We all know there is more interest in speculations around player movements in the offseason!

 

[Crowbling]

Probably brought in to claw back some of the money that the basket case women’s league loses.

 

[glengowan]

I don't mind the finals going to 10, but why not just x2 of the old final 5 system. That way there's an extra two finals in the 1st week. Only 1st and 2nd get a "bye" on the first week.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

As a WAFL fan were you against the WAFL having a top 5 for its 9 teams for a lot of its recent history?

Yes very much so, it all started when they changed the bloody name to Westar Rules.

 

[The Feeder Club]

I don't mind the finals going to 10, but why not just x2 of the old final 5 system. That way there's an extra two finals in the 1st week. Only 1st and 2nd get a "bye" on the first week.

Yep, this makes so much sense

• Materially rewards clubs finishing first or second over third and fourth, whereas the current system essentially treats 1st and 4th the same except for HGA
• All teams 3-10 play round one of finals, so more interesting then the dross of 7-10
• Still fulfills the AFL desire to provide extra finals games

 

[Foxx]

Dillon would be best served backtracking on his statement that the wildcard round is a final.

If he stuck to it just being a pre finals chance for the 9th and 10th placed teams to get into the top 8, then people could understand and get behind it a bit more.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Yep, this makes so much sense

• Materially rewards clubs finishing first or second over third and fourth, whereas the current system essentially treats 1st and 4th the same except for HGA
• All teams 3-10 play round one of finals, so more interesting then the dross of 7-10
• Still fulfills the AFL desire to provide extra finals games

Because the wildcard games will be played on Thursday and Friday nights which are the most commercially viable. The additional games involving 3-6 are four teams removed for finals, they're only "adding" less commercially valuable Saturday games, and double-double-chance games four weeks before the GF still being three wins removed from the GF itself might not be of that much interest if there's the perception not much is at stake, especially if 3rd or 4th play at home and thump 5th or 6th and nothing changes from the current system other than a boring game.

Of course I agree with you for the purity of a sporting reason but the AFL thinks commercially and I think they think they get almost all of the potential commercial benefit from those 2 games anyway.

 

[Magpie Since 1986]

It's obviously just a top 10 there is nothing wild card about it. If they were going to call it a wild card then they should have some other criteria for making it other than ladder position.... The obvious one would be highest points for that didn't make the top 8 - reward attacking footy or make it the team with the least stand rule infringements for all the ****s I give at least make it a true wild card criteria. Ladder rank position is the opposite of wild card qualification .

 

[010203]

They should ask him what tanking is too since Gil never quite figured it out.

It's either a Wildcard to get into finals or it's a final. How can it be both?

That was comical. At least have a definition in place if you're determining a club's guilt or otherwise over something they've been accused of.

I hate the idea of a wildcard round. I won't regard the winners of 7v10 and 8v9 as clubs who have won a final as the dill who runs the AFL seems to, I'll see them as clubs who played their way into the finals joining the 6 who already confirmed their spots.

 

[Whiskers]

I don't mind the finals going to 10, but why not just x2 of the old final 5 system. That way there's an extra two finals in the 1st week. Only 1st and 2nd get a "bye" on the first week.

I keep saying why not add 3v6 and 4v5.
By doing that, it is essentially two top 5 finals series. The AFL just aren’t playing the equivalent qualifying finals of the top 5’s in the format the AFL are introducing. We are just playing the elimination finals.

I’m not sure if people realise but the top 4, top 5 and top 8 systems are all the same, just extended.

Let me try to explain it better.


In a final 10 by adding 3v6 and 4v5 works the same as two top 5 finals systems.

1,4,5,8,9
2,3,6,7,10

8 is going to be playing 9 like a normal elimination final. 4 should play 5 aswell, which is essentially the qualifying final of a final 5 system.
The winner of 8v9 plays the loser. In a top 5 system that is called the 1st semi final. In our top 8 system it’s the elimination final.
The winner of 4v5 plays 1st which is known as the 2nd semi final of a top 5 system. In our top 8 system it’s a qualifying final.
The winner of the 2nd semi final in a top 5 has a week off and goes to a grand final, in a top 8 it’s a week off to a preliminary final.
The loser of the 2nd semi final plays the winner of the 1st semi final in a preliminary final, a top 8 system it’s the semi final.
Now the winner of the preliminary final plays the winner of the 2nd semi final in the Grand Final in a top 5, in a top 8 system it’s the preliminary final, the difference being you play the team on the other side of the draw.

I hope I explained it clearly. Bottom line is these finals systems are all just the same.
We don’t need to split the 10 teams into two groups of 5 finals series, as it’s how it works anyway.

 

[Whiskers]

That was comical. At least have a definition in place if you're determining a club's guilt or otherwise over something they've been accused of.

I hate the idea of a wildcard round. I won't regard the winners of 7v10 and 8v9 as clubs who have won a final as the dill who runs the AFL seems to, I'll see them as clubs who played their way into the finals joining the 6 who already confirmed their spots.

Why don’t you consider the winners of 5v8 and 6v7 playing their way into a top 6 joining the 4 who have already qualified?
Is it because the AFL told us 30 years ago we have a top 8 finals system?
Why listen to them in the 90s and not now?

Do you consider in a top 5 finals series 4v5 a wildcard for the top 4?

What about the year when all 4 teams made the finals and Fitzroy won the flag from 4th?

 

[greening22]

It’s a money grab and nothing more.

It merely adjusts media attention & content creation to - “can they make it to 10th” instead of 8th.

It allows for more than half the league to make finals each year - even with more losses than wins.

It pits 7th vs 10th, who can have as many as 5-6 wins difference & significantly different %, on an even keel.

It awards mediocrity.

It’s a brilliant example of a farce;

farce
/fɑːs/

noun

1. a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay.

Totally agree with your thoughts. It is pure greed. When will they replace the Sherrin football with an NFL ball so that they can supposedly attract more if the so-called international market & particularly North American viewers? This is taking place when suburban & country leagues & constituent clubs are facing ever-increasing financial & recruiting crises. Goodnight & good luck.

 

[MaxiBont]

Why should 5th have to play 8th in a knock out final in the 1st week when they may be 3-4 wins better than 8th?

Not the point I was making.

5-8 in this system have to play the same amount of games to win the GF.

With a wild card round, 6th gets a massive advantage over 7th.

 

[Bostonian]

While the whinge-about-everything crowd are throwing the toys out of the cot as per usual, I see far more positives to this change than negatives, so I’m all on board with it.

- It keeps the season alive for longer for the teams in the 9-12 type range. So less meaningless games in the back hand of the year.

- It gives us a couple of extra games on a weekend where there was otherwise no men’s footy. And games with a heap on the line at that. Those who don’t want to watch, guess what? YOU DON’T HAVE TO!

- It gives teams more incentive to finish top 6, and rewards those who do.

- When the top 8 was introduced there were only 7 teams who didn’t get to participate in the finals, but in recent years that’s gone out to 10, and was about to go out to 11, so once Tassie come in, that will now go to 9. Oh no, the world is ending!

- It gives every supporter group of the top 8 teams the chance to see their team play at home during either the finals, or “wildcard round”.

- If a team that finishes 7th or 8th isn’t good enough to beat the 10th or 9th ranked teams, they would have just been making up the numbers in the finals anyway, so who cares if they lose?

- The AFL will make a bunch more money, which they can then re-invest into the game in many ways. I do like how people try to make this out to be a bad thing though.

For those who are all up in arms about it, toys flying everywhere, I fully expect that you won’t be watching either of the games if your team isn’t involved, and if your team is, I expect you won’t be watching or going to the game your team is playing in.

Will you? Oh that’s right, you will. Why? Because it’s better than the alternative nothing important you would have otherwise done.

Now please, go and pick up your toys.

Why is it all the AFL simps seem like arrogant tosspots out of touch with the majority of the fan base?

 

[Bostonian]

Probably brought in to claw back some of the money that the basket case women’s league loses.

That was my thoughts to.

 

[Seeds]

I don't mind the finals going to 10, but why not just x2 of the old final 5 system. That way there's an extra two finals in the 1st week. Only 1st and 2nd get a "bye" on the first week.

What would that mean exactly? Only 1-5 can win the flag and 6-10 play finals that dont mean anything?

 

[Seeds]

Why is it all the AFL simps seem like arrogant tosspots out of touch with the majority of the fan base?

So are you going to respond to the very good points made in the post you was quoting?

 

[Seeds]

Not the point I was making.

5-8 in this system have to play the same amount of games to win the GF.

With a wild card round, 6th gets a massive advantage over 7th.

Just like 4 gets a massive advantage over 5.

 

[Seeds]

Geelong fans salivating over still making finals from the 9th or 10th spot they'll finish next year.

With only 3 Vic clubs making the 8 this year I guess its one way of making sure they still get representation.
Now watch those 9th/10th placed Vic sides get Geelong GF 1st half umpiring in their wildcard matches.

Bookmark it.

Yeah cos the team that finishes top 4 more then anyone else by a country mile is who this change was made for

 

[SC_Power]

Just cancel your kayo and call/email your club and tell them you're considering halting your membership. It's the only way these fools will listen and potentially reverse this decision

Won’t work, the comp has enough fans and only the clubs will be penalised revenue wise.

Boycott the sponsors. Publicly. Organised, even better and more effective. They are the lever.

If I had the time, I’d go publicly after betting companies associated with the AFL. Propose investigations that they’ve done research on much extra revenue they’ll make on the additional standalone games, and how it will affect how much they pass onto the AFL, and onto the media companies involved. Link the AFL greed to problem gambling even further.

 

[SC_Power]

First round of finals pits 4th vs 1st. The difference in wins can be just as large as that between 7th-10th. Actually, technically it can be larger if first has a monster year.

Whats wrong with a money grab if it does not make things worse? There are already lots of money grabs in the afl that do make things worse in terms of integrity. Eg. Having a fixture over a draw. Eg. Have top 6 teams from year before have a harder fixture. Eg. Having finals in the first place rather then simply highest team wins. Eg. The draft positions based on performance. Do you calls those aspects of the game farces? Cos they are much bigger farces then this change.

If 10th played 1st and they were on equal settings come finals i would agree it was a farce. But this is far from that. Its almost impossible for 7th-10th to win now. This change now makes it harder for 7th and 8th to win. This is an improvement. Before you could win from anywhere in the top 8. Now you really have to finish top 6 to have a realistic chance. No team will win 5 away games in a row against higher ranked teams to win a flag when some of their higher ranked opponents having a rest to freshen up. It just wont happen. 9th and 10th could do some damage to one or two oppoments and give their fans hope for the future though. Thats only a plus in my books. But none will ever make a grand final let alone win it.

So a final 18 works in your book?

It’s impossible for them to win as well, so no harm no fail right? It would only be a money grab, wouldn’t make things worse, so all good.

 

[Partridge]

Why is it all the AFL simps seem like arrogant tosspots out of touch with the majority of the fan base?

Because a lot of them are overpaid bogan morons who think the world should be a footy club, either because that's all they were ever good at (ex-players), or because they wished they were and have never grown up (McGuire and a ton of "journalists"). They're drunk on TV revenue and they want more of it. It's all about their own egos and how much money they can rape from the public. Nothing more than that.

 

[terrybull]

I like it.

Winning the Premiership from 7-8th will be nearly nigh impossible (as it should be).

But if a team manages to win it from 7-10th then they bloody well earned it.

 

[The Punter]

I think we should bring back the boundary umpires having white handkerchiefs to designate when the ball goes out of play.