A New AFL Fixture Structure

[Lucifers Hero 40,365]

On Talking Footy last night Gil said a structure that they are leaning toward is:

- All teams play each other once in first 17 rounds.

- Then the ladder is divided into groups of 3 and in rounds 18 to 23 the:

- Top 6 play for the top 6 spots on the ladder. Incentive: top 2/top 4 spots

- Next 6 play off for spots 7 to 12. Incentive spot 7 and 8 and playing finals

- Last 6 play off for ????. Incentive: ????

- AFL may also look at changing the draft order to avoid the bottom 6 loosing all of the last 5 games

- The pts a team has at the end of rd 17 will carryover.

- In any group, those higher up the ladder have a slight advantage (if they have more points).

- Other fixture structures also considered

- Not sure whether he said a fixture change might come in in 2015 or 2016

It looks like a more formal way of having the better teams play more of the better teams and vice versa.

So the last 5 weeks would be like mini finals for the top 6 before the 'real' finals start.

Most of the rest may just as well pack up shop and go on holidays.

Hopefully we will be playing well enough so that some day I will care about such a fixture change.

[ILLDieADemon 804]

He also said that was 1 of several ideas they have for the fixture, Doesn't mean its going to happen.

I liked the idea of a mid season trade period which could happen as soon as 2016.

It's what we needed this season with Mitch Clark retiring.

[Lucifers Hero 40,365]

He also said that was 1 of several ideas they have for the fixture, Doesn't mean its going to happen.

I liked the idea of a mid season trade period which could happen as soon as 2016.

It's what we needed this season with Mitch Clark retiring.

I did say this in the post.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Lucifer's Hero

[praha 11,240]

Bizarre.

It is very simple.

Rounds 1-17: Each team plays each other once.

Rounds 18-23: Teams replay rounds 1-5 (factoring in split rounds and byes).

That is how they used to do it in the '90s. If you play an interstate team once, the following year the home team alternates. For Melbourne matches, the home game alternates as usual.

That way, teams aren't playing in Geelong 6 years in a row (like Melbourne was before this year).

Only way to be fair.

[Earl Hood 6,101]

He also said that was 1 of several ideas they have for the fixture, Doesn't mean its going to happen.

I liked the idea of a mid season trade period which could happen as soon as 2016.

It's what we needed this season with Mitch Clark retiring.

Didn't Gil say that the bottom six would be playing for draft positions or somthing similar and then realised his faux par? Not tanking surely? And as for the mid season draft, how will that work? One of the top six clubs decides they need to fill a gap down back so they draft Chip to fill a gap. So MFC is left one player short for the final games? How is it all going to work fairly I mean.

[Glenn Molloy 494]

This sounds hideous. Imagine the interest (or lack thereof!) in the games involving the bottom 6 over the last 5 weeks? Crowds will be minimal and there would be absolutely no incentive to win. At least with the current fixture a lowly team can upset a finals contender and gain confidence for next year, as well as impacting the season of other clubs. Carlton are a good example, until last week they were a team that the big teams were struggling to beat and they were gaining some belief for next year in beating North and running Geelong and Freo right to the death.

As much as I hate the Americanisation of the game, there are two things that they should look to do:

1) Mid-season draft

2) Have a conference structure to the fixture. That way you can have Adelaide, Perth teams etc playing each other twice, and you can also balance it to have strong and weaker clubs in either conference.

[dazzledavey36 55,365]

More changes to the game.

Just what we needed.

[Macca 17,035]

I like the proposed changes

The bottom six playing each other gives those clubs a chance to get some wins at the end of the season to appease their supporters. Wins do matter even at the tail end of the year.

The middle six playing for 7th and 8th is an interesting one ... again, leading up to round 18, those teams just below the middle 6 have a great incentive to break in and the same goes for those already in the middle 6 aiming for the top 6. This group allows for those teams who might get "hot"

The most important group is the top 6 and there would be no excuses for any of those teams if they didn't grab a top 4 spot. Carryover points from the first 17 rounds would ensure that the integrity within the 3 bands would stay intact.

As it stands, the Ladder can look "too big" sometimes and by bringing in these proposed changes, the league would add a lot of excitement to the final 5 rounds. There would be "mini finals" happening left, right and centre (both from the top and middle groups)

If the system was in place right now, we could have a situation where the last round in particular could have match-ups including Syd/Geel, Haw/Port, Freo/North, Rich/Coll, WC/Adel & GC/Ess. What a great precursor to the finals that would be.

Bring it on I say - I'm all for change when it's needed.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Macca

[olisik 4,060]

Looks like we ll be getting pick 6 in the ND going forward.

[rjay 25,095]

I like the proposed changes

The bottom six playing each other gives those clubs a chance to get some wins at the end of the season to appease their supporters. Wins do matter even at the tail end of the year.

The middle six playing for 7th and 8th is an interesting one ... again, leading up to round 18, those teams just below the middle 6 have a great incentive to break in and the same goes for those already in the middle 6 aiming for the top 6. This group allows for those teams who might get "hot"

The most important group is the top 6 and there would be no excuses for any of those teams if they didn't grab a top 4 spot. Carryover points from the first 17 rounds would ensure that the integrity of the overall ladder would stay intact.

As it stands, the Ladder can look "too big" sometimes and by bringing in these proposed changes, the league would add a lot of excitement to the final 5 rounds. There would be "mini finals" happening left, right and centre (both from the top and middle groups)

Bring it on I say - I'm all for change when it's needed.

As it is at the moment 'macca', our season has been over pretty much after the first game for how many seasons now. People often talk about the EPL and how only the big clubs can win but they do have other competitions running not the least being promotion & relegation that keeps interest for the fans. Now I don't want to see promotion/relegation but it would be good to have something to follow for the full season, as a game we need to be inclusive and give teams something to play for and win for rather than thinking of losing and draft picks.

This could at least be a start.

[Macca 17,035]

As it is at the moment 'macca', our season has been over pretty much after the first game for how many seasons now. People often talk about the EPL and how only the big clubs can win but they do have other competitions running not the least being promotion & relegation that keeps interest for the fans. Now I don't want to see promotion/relegation but it would be good to have something to follow for the full season, as a game we need to be inclusive and give teams something to play for and win for rather than thinking of losing and draft picks.

This could at least be a start.

I'm not looking at the proposed changes with our club necessarily in mind, 'rjay'. Our club needs to get better in many areas and if we want to be part of the September action, it's up to us to do something about it.

I edited my original post and put in some likely match-ups in the last round if the proposed changes went through. The only dead rubbers would be the games involving the bottom 6 - however, for the supporters of those teams, they get a chance to see some end of season wins.

Winning the race for 13th (for the no.1 draft pick) appeals but I'm not sure whether the AFL are proposing that or not. I'm not fussed either way on that one. However, I do like to see all teams play the season out with winning in mind so any disincentive to losing is welcomed on my part.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Macca

[Bergly Sanders 45]

I don't mind the idea too much. I thought there might have been a problem with teams being unable to sneak into the 8 in the final five rounds from the bottom group (at best, 13th). Pretty hard to imagine it happening, though (ah, the good ol' mathematical possibility; which obviously isn't weighted according to probability...).

Ideally, the fairest fixture for both the teams and the players' wellbeing would be playing each team once, and alternating home and away games every second year with each team. Don't know if R Murdoch's mob will like that, though!

[Deecisive 1,709]

I would think the proposed fixture change would help a bottom team get into the finals, they would after all only need to be just out of the 8 as a number of teams are and they would be playing bottom sides so have a greater chance of winning the last 5 games, where as the top sides all need to play each other, so some of these sides will be loosing 2-5 games so could fall out.

A mid year draft does sound like a good idea, though how do you cover anything other than a players retirement from your list. All players are contracted to the end of the season, so does this mean you can have extra players or do you have to let players go. Who is going to have money left to draft players given you have to spend virtually all of our salary cap?

[rjay 25,095]

I'm not looking at the proposed changes with our club necessarily in mind, 'rjay'. Our club needs to get better in many areas and if we want to be part of the September action, it's up to us to do something about it.

I edited my original post and put in some likely match-ups in the last round if the proposed changes went through. The only dead rubbers would be the games involving the bottom 6 - however, for the supporters of those teams, they get a chance to see some end of season wins.

Winning the race for 13th (for the no.1 draft pick) appeals but I'm not sure whether the AFL are proposing that or not. I'm not fussed either way on that one. However, I do like to see all teams play the season out with winning in mind so any disincentive to losing is welcomed on my part.

I'm not looking at our club either here 'macca', it's just an example of how things work if your club is out of contention early in the season and we are the poster boys for that.

I don't like the idea of the no.1 pick going to 13th place though. I think they will need to be creative about how to make that part of the draw work.

[george_on_the_outer 7,713]

The idea has merit in that it doesn't perpetuate the "blockbuster" games.

So we will get to play some home games against the bigger clubs instead of interstaters.