EDDIE MCGUIRE proposes 6-week, 21 match finals series with 16 teams. It's a mess and here's why.

[Erakor]

There will always be dead rubbers, regardless of what system there is.

Even in an EPL style, winner of the home and away wins the cup and a regulation system, there is still 11th v 13th that no one cares about.

If you wanted games to mean the most throughout the year, you would just have a top 4 finals competition.

Imagine how important the next 6 games would be for all the contending teams to win would be.

 

[PhatBoy]

Hey Eddie.

Go f**k yourself with a broom handle

 

[HBFlanker]

Dead rubbers are a part of sport.

What isn't a part of sport is clubs getting gifted players because of where their fathers played. Maybe bin that first and then start talking about finals.

 

[Erakor]

I think Edd has been on the business side of football too long and can only think of ‘more finals = more money= more growth for the game”..... even having half the teams make finals is pretty lol, adding in almost every side is ‘insert demeaning phrase’

 

[Whiskers]

Wildcard is shit.

Do it like this:

Wk 1
A: 3 v 6
B: 4 v 5
C: 7 v 10
D: 8 v 9

Wk 2:
E: 1 v Winner B (4 or 5)
F: 2 v Winner A (3 or 6)
G: Loser B v Winner D (4 or 5 v 8 or 9)
H: Loser A v Winner C (3 or 6 v 7 or 10)

Wk 3:
I: Loser E v Winner H (1,4 or 5 v 3,6,7 or 10)
J: Loser F v Winner G (2,3 or 6 v 4,5,8 or 9)

Wk 4:
K: Winner E v Winner J
L: Winner F v Winner I

Wk 5:

GF

Hope that confuses you more than Eddie’s plan.

This.
You’re just rewriting out what I wrote above.
Why stop at 7v10 and 8v9 if you want more money?
Just make it a proper finals series and do the format you’ve laid out here. I have no idea why this isn’t suggested more.

 

[Elixuh]

I assume under eddies plan, the Pies will leave Melbourne even less than they already do

 

[Jane Doe]

Eddie just trying to stay relevant

 

[Rabish Binney]

What's wrong with the finals as it is?

Seems as though every club now has to receive a participation medal.....

 

[Dazzler9]

Wildcard Round is still just finals. And ten teams in finals is ludicrous.

If finals are to be tinkered with, then leave it as a top 8 but make it a straight knockout, but played as best of 3 series (apart from the Grand Final)

1 v 8, 2 v 7, etc., HGA to highest team. Winners go through to the semi-finals.

If a team wins their series in 2 games, they get a week off to prepare for the next round.

On average, there will be 15 finals matches per season, spread over 7 weekends.

 

[Rabish Binney]

Great analysis. I think they should just go with the simple 7th v 10th and 8th v 9th wildcard round, but only once there are 19 or 20 teams in the H&A.

Dead against any type of wildcard round because IMHO:

1. If you finish 9th or 10th at the end of the H & A rounds, your not good enough to make the finals so why should you get another chance?

2. If in fact the AFL do bring it in, it will only be for $$$ purposes. And of course, knowing how the AFL work, it wouldn't be long after that they would expand it to include the 11th and 12th teams

Where does it stop?

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Vic clubs outnumbered in the top 8 and occupy 7 of the bottom 8 spots, I know, lets make it a 16 team finals series.

Must be a sad life when every thought revolves around winning the footy in some way.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Sometimes it's ok to have shit idea's and not tell everyone about it.

 

[lalorGOAT]

I can't believe anyone would look at the finals system and think it needs fixing.It's the perfect system! It rewards the best teams while still giving well performing teams a chance. Wildcard is already done as well, it's called the elimination finals.

 

[Cleric]

It's a silly idea. Old Eddie doesn't like anyone questioning him either. He had a snarky go at a couple of panel members who asked him a question.

 

[kaiserchief13]

It's unfair but it makes more money. AFL only cares about money, which is why the same teams are on Friday/Thursday night, grand final is always at MCG and soft cap exists.

So they should do this which matches their greed.

 

[Stottzy]

Seriously, he changes this fixture "revolution" every year. I'm all for a change, such as shortening the home & away season and extending the finals series, but with the teams that deserve it. How he can justify 16th playing finals, which this year would be Richmond with 5 wins and a percentage of 68% is laughable.

Of course though, everyone else will be the idiots, not him.

 

[Strange Cat]

What’s next a 5 games Grand final series?

 

[Cam Payne]

Until the big 4 vfl clubs are automatically guaranteed finals qualification, there can be no fairness in the fixtures.

 

[WalshistheGOAT]

Everything Ed says on Footy Classified sounds like the result of an Ayahuasca trip gone bad. Just a rambling mad man these days.

 

[Coolangatta]

This.
You’re just rewriting out what I wrote above.
Why stop at 7v10 and 8v9 if you want more money?
Just make it a proper finals series and do the format you’ve laid out here. I have no idea why this isn’t suggested more.

Personally, I wouldn’t do it until we get to 20 teams.

But yeah, if they’re gonna do it, watch them royally **** it up with this wildcard shit.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

What are dead rubbers? Dead rubbers to who?
I can tell you that every game the WCE play from this point on has huge meaning not just for the club but for many players who will be playing for their careers.
This will be the case at almost all clubs that won't be playing finals.

Again some nutjob in a suit trying to fix a problem that is not there.

 

[Carn The Berries]

The only redeeming feature about this plan is that it doesn't refer to anything as a wildcard.

We have a single division competition. The wildcard concept is only relevant for multi divisional sports.

Anyone who refers to wildcards at all in an AFL context should automatically be ignored. If they can't understand that concept, they have no hope of coming up with a viable alternative to what we currently have.

 

[Dazzler9]

Is Eddie running a 16 team finals series up the flagpole on behalf of the AFL, so a ten team finals series appears sensible ?

 

[Corn Cobbers]

Let's just call every game a "final" problem solved

 

[Rotayjay]

Not even worth thinking about - ignore him.