Another reason why Dan24's finals system if flawed

[Dan26]

Originally posted by BMD:
Dan,

No-one is arguing that the finals are fair. What people are saying is they like the uncertainty, the unpredictability of having everything on the line. If you lose that's it. There is no comeback until next year.

It is clear that you don't like that. You can argue til you're black in the fingers, that it's not fair, there's a better way. You're entitled to your opinion.

However, so are we. What you fail to understand is that we're happy with it the way it is. The fact that Essendon could have lost and therefore not been premiers last year, despite the fact that they were clearly the best team was what made it interesting and exciting. The possibility of a choke was always there.

Not many things are fair in sport. France won the soccer world cup, but they didn't have to play every team to do it. Brazil's star player was injured for the final. Not fair, but it was still compelling viewing, and a great way to decide the World Champions.

You may not like it but we do.

Well, if you love finals so much, why not scrap the H&A completely, and have a 16 teams finals series every year, with NO Home and away matches. That should satisy you.

See what I mean? The H&A is currently meaningless. What's the point playing SO MANY mathces over such a long period of time, only for those matches to be deemed irrelevant. It's just so dumb.

Under my system, there will still be the glorious uncertainty of "who will win the Grand Final?". No one will know who will win the Grand Final until the last day of the year. The uncertainty is still there. And as a "bonus", the Home and away season (which comprsies a MASSIVE 95% of the season), will actually mean something. It won't be the means to and end that it is now. It will actually be something to aspire to in it's own right. That will be wonderful in my opinion, whilst in ADDITION keeping the glorious uncertainty and unpredictability of "who will win the Grand Final itself?" I think it is truly a wonderful way to structure the season. It's a way of having your cake and eating it too. !

 

[BMD]

The H&A is not meaningless now. What is essentially happening is that the teams are jostling for position and psychological advantage going into the finals - the climax of the season.

I would agree that the achievement of finishing first on the ladder deserves more recognition that they currently get - but not the title of premiers.

Whatever you say, the grand final would be devalued under your system and I don't want that to happen.

PS to Same Olds: Not arguing that France weren't the best team, but you could argue that it the tournament isn't fair because they didn't play the same teams.

 

[Dan26]

Yes, the Grand Final would be devalued in the sense that it wouldn't decide the "premiers" (nor should it decide the premeirs).

But it wouldn't be devalued in the sense that it is still the season culminating event it always was.

BMD, you say top spot shouldn't decide the premiers. I say it should. Why? Because finishing on top over 22 gruelling weeks is HARDER than winning 3 or 4 matches over Septemeber. The harder achievement deserves the title of premiers. You can't argue logic.

I still think that making the H&A premiershiup something to strive for, therefore making 176 home and awya matches count towards the premiership (instead of being a means to an end like it is now) is worth A MASSIVE amount to the AFL. It is worth so much, that even if the GF was devalued a little bit, it would be worthwhile. It makes much more sense to give more weight to the 22 week tournament which occupies nearly the whole season. I'm amazed people can't see this.

As I said, the GF would still be huge anyway. It wouldn't be devaled as an event. It would still draw the same TV ratings and media exposure it always has. After all it's the seaosn culminating last match of the season. It WOULD b4e devalued in the sense that it wouldn't decide the premeirship. But the event that the Grand Final has become means that this doens't matter so much (I refer to the FA CUP example again). It will decide a very prestigious, elite tournament anyway.

[This message has been edited by Dan24 (edited 10 February 2001).]

 

[The invisible mullet]

S-N-O-R-E!

Keep bouncing off those rubber walls Dan!

 

[Dan26]

invisible mullet,

Keep writing those stupid posts, mate.