Daniel
Senior List
Imagine if the situation was reversed and we had been using Dan24’s format for 100 years? Here is what I think would happen...
For 100 years, the team which finishes on top of the ladder has been awarded the premiership, while the Grand Final is still a magnificent event in its own right because it is the last match of the season. For 100 years, we have had Premiers and Grand Final champions in every season. It is accepted in football culture and everyone loves it.
Then, on the BigFooty message boards, a person called Nad42 proposes a new system whereby the premier team which has finished on top of the ladder after the season is given no recognition, but has merely qualified first for a finals series upon which the entire season hinges. And there is more. Nad42 also declares that the three-week knockout competition to determine the Grand Final champion should be scrapped, in favour of a four-week season-defining series with a fair and logical double chance situation where the best team can rightly have its achievements rendered meaningless by a single upset.
Nad42 says this is unquestionably the fairest system. You are stupid to think otherwise and the people will accept whatever is given recognition to, Nad continues.
Well, how the people cry out against this upstart Nad42 and his ridiculous proposal! What an arrogant fool you are, Nad42! Who would accept a blatantly unfair system like that? Don’t you see the best team isn’t rewarded and that it is wrong to make our already prestigious knockout series mean everything? We will never accept that. You have to finish top to be the best. It’s what every team strives for.
But Nad42 is firm in his belief. I know how it IS, but I’m telling you how it SHOULD be, he says. The true definition of premiers is Grand Final champions. If they were REALLY the best team, they would win the Grand Final at the end of my four-week finals series. Remember the top team is still rewarded with a double chance, just like in the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia Football League. So what if they “proved” they were better by winning 95% of the season? Uncertainty is what the people want. Who wouldn’t want that? Coaches acknowledge that the best team doesn’t always finish top and that winning the Grand Final is the harder achievement. The top team should only be called “minor premier” and receive no recognition unless they win in the finals when the season is on the line.
But we already have a separate finals series, the people say. It is an exciting three-week knockout competition that rewards a great team without overriding the Premier’s achievements.
But how can they call themselves premiers, argues Nad42. All they did was finish top. For all intents and purposes the finals are a continuation of the home-and-away season anyway. It would be a joke to call this team “premiers” if they were to lose a one-off match to a team that was thrashed in the first week of the finals. Remember that the top four get a double chance (as they do in the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia Football League, which the people have accepted for 100 years). If they aren’t good enough to perform when it counts then they don’t deserve to be premiers.
Ah, but Nad, they reply. You are only saying that because Essendon won the Grand Final while Carlton were crowned Premiers for finishing top! Be content with your prestigious Grand Final title.
No, Nad42 asserts. I would be saying this anyway. It doesn’t matter that Carlscum happened to finish top (which means they get a double chance under my system, remember, just like they do in the FYROM Football League). Grand Final champions are the best and should be duly rewarded. This is the logical way. Trust me.
Nad42 extensively argues this point of view in one thread and then never mentions it again.
For 100 years, the team which finishes on top of the ladder has been awarded the premiership, while the Grand Final is still a magnificent event in its own right because it is the last match of the season. For 100 years, we have had Premiers and Grand Final champions in every season. It is accepted in football culture and everyone loves it.
Then, on the BigFooty message boards, a person called Nad42 proposes a new system whereby the premier team which has finished on top of the ladder after the season is given no recognition, but has merely qualified first for a finals series upon which the entire season hinges. And there is more. Nad42 also declares that the three-week knockout competition to determine the Grand Final champion should be scrapped, in favour of a four-week season-defining series with a fair and logical double chance situation where the best team can rightly have its achievements rendered meaningless by a single upset.
Nad42 says this is unquestionably the fairest system. You are stupid to think otherwise and the people will accept whatever is given recognition to, Nad continues.
Well, how the people cry out against this upstart Nad42 and his ridiculous proposal! What an arrogant fool you are, Nad42! Who would accept a blatantly unfair system like that? Don’t you see the best team isn’t rewarded and that it is wrong to make our already prestigious knockout series mean everything? We will never accept that. You have to finish top to be the best. It’s what every team strives for.
But Nad42 is firm in his belief. I know how it IS, but I’m telling you how it SHOULD be, he says. The true definition of premiers is Grand Final champions. If they were REALLY the best team, they would win the Grand Final at the end of my four-week finals series. Remember the top team is still rewarded with a double chance, just like in the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia Football League. So what if they “proved” they were better by winning 95% of the season? Uncertainty is what the people want. Who wouldn’t want that? Coaches acknowledge that the best team doesn’t always finish top and that winning the Grand Final is the harder achievement. The top team should only be called “minor premier” and receive no recognition unless they win in the finals when the season is on the line.
But we already have a separate finals series, the people say. It is an exciting three-week knockout competition that rewards a great team without overriding the Premier’s achievements.
But how can they call themselves premiers, argues Nad42. All they did was finish top. For all intents and purposes the finals are a continuation of the home-and-away season anyway. It would be a joke to call this team “premiers” if they were to lose a one-off match to a team that was thrashed in the first week of the finals. Remember that the top four get a double chance (as they do in the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia Football League, which the people have accepted for 100 years). If they aren’t good enough to perform when it counts then they don’t deserve to be premiers.
Ah, but Nad, they reply. You are only saying that because Essendon won the Grand Final while Carlton were crowned Premiers for finishing top! Be content with your prestigious Grand Final title.
No, Nad42 asserts. I would be saying this anyway. It doesn’t matter that Carlscum happened to finish top (which means they get a double chance under my system, remember, just like they do in the FYROM Football League). Grand Final champions are the best and should be duly rewarded. This is the logical way. Trust me.
Nad42 extensively argues this point of view in one thread and then never mentions it again.
