If we finsh 9th in a season, then yes.

Are Richmond pork barrelling this idea?

Edited July 17, 20231 yr by Left Foot Snap
Added

Makes no sense to me on any level other than financial.

I'm totally against it. It's an idea that has been stolen from American sports, particularly the NBA. I love NBA Basketball but the Finals Format is a joke. Basically they play 82 games to eliminate 10 out of 30 teams. It probably works in America where it's just a way of providing meaningless entertainment and generating lot's of income, which pretty much summarises the American psyche. Surely having 8 out of 18 teams play finals is enough. If we have a Wildcard Round there'll be more teams playing Finals than not FFS.

Of course, they've already introduced it for the VFL this year but at least there's 21 teams competing for 10 spots. It's basically close to impossible to win from outside the Top 4 now (it's happened once in the last 23 years) and if this is introduced as it applies in the VFL then the 7th to 10th sides will have to win 5 consecutive games.    

There is multiple games they roll through in the NBA play-in which makes it a bit more like a handicapped mini-tournament and there is a decent enough volume of games to make it a revenue spinner.

2 extra matches in the AFL ain’t gonna make it that meaningful on the revenue front… the other argument is it increases interest in matches at the back end of the year but it doesn’t feel like a material-enough change to bother changing what is already a pretty good system

 

 

Not in favour of it as those above have mentioned along with the fact I don't think more than half the comp should make finals, there is also more drama/emotion in sneaking into finals at 8 then getting in at 10

Rubbish idea

Only if we can give all of the teams not good enough to win 10 of their 23 games and qualify for finals through a playoff a certificate of participation in the AFL season. 

Hmmm...pretty much a unanimous 'No' so far.

I tend to agree but on the other hand it would prolong the joy, dreams and agony for a lot of people.

One thing is certain. Supporters sentiment will have no influence on the AFL decision. Nil.

2 games on beats a pre finals bye with none. But get rid of the bye, have a top 8 finals with a pre-gf bye instead  i don't care either way 

Edited July 17, 20231 yr by John Demonic

5 hours ago, Wizard of Koz said:

Makes no sense to me on any level other than financial.

Exactly why not have a wild card for 11 and 12 to make the 7 8 9 &10 

I know. lets just replay the whole season and see what happens

Its a complete nonsense driven by US style marketers who earn big money A big NO!!!!!

Works well in the NFL because a small number of teams qualify for the playoffs. You need a very good W L record to secure a wildcard spot.

Playing finals after winning 10 games would demean the competition. 

Terrible idea. Defeats the purpose of getting the job down during the H&A season.

Is there an option for '[Censored] No'?

Bring it on if it means there's football during the week between round 23 and week 1 finals.

The pre finals bye (and the pre season bye before round 1) is the worst part of the AFL calendar.

 

Stop ruining our game for the sake of a bit of extra revenue. FFS!

Putrid idea that makes a complete mockery of the sides who worked their butt off to make the 8.

 

just   NO !!!

No.

Detracts from true finals.

 

Only if we revert to a top 6 with teams 5 - 8 playing in the wildcard round. Anything else just rewards mediocrity. 

So we'd like to once again become the only league in the world where 50% of the teams make finals. We complain how the season is long and have too many junk time garbage games late in the season but we'd like to have more, not all seasons have the same logjam outside the 8.

In MLB you have best of 5 and best of 7 game playoffs but a one game wildcard so there is at least a differentiator. In NBA it's 7 all the way through with a play in tournament which is too many teams as mentioned above. 

But honestly who cares what I think? I'm tried of hating on something for tradition sake that will probably just go through anyway. If they want to do it they will do it. 

To play the Devil's advocate, quite apart from the obvious financial incentives of having a longer finals season to both broadcasters and the league – which is exactly why we now have a final 8 rather than a final 4 – there are other arguments in favour of wildcard rounds.  First, it notionally provides incentive for more teams to play hard up until the end of the season, with 9th and 10th positions on the ladder worth fighting for.  Second, it provides some redress to the imbalanced fixturing.  Given that teams don't play each other twice a season, clearly some teams have easier draws than others (ignoring the fact that when you play another team is sometimes important too).  This is also true in the NBA.  So a wildcard round provides an opportunity for teams finishing 9th or 10th to perhaps demonstrate that they finished below the teams finishing in 7th or 8th position largely as a consequence of a tougher draw and that they are, in fact, the stronger team more deserving of a finals berth.

All of the above said, I would much rather the inequities in the draw be sorted out rather than reaching for the money.

I would rather go back to the final 4 the 8 is only there as a revenue raiser,I still reckon footscray pinched their GF. Imagine the frantic attempts to make the final 4 towards seasons end

I’m not immediately against the idea.

The impact on the NBA has been profound. More teams interested in the season for longer and less teams tanking their last couple of weeks of games.

I am not sure about how we would do it - 7 v 10 is not the equation in the NBA. 7th gets two chances to play finals, not one; it’s 7v8 and 9v10 then the loser of the first meets the winner of the second to see who gets the last spot in the finals.

If we are about to have 19 teams then I can see this being needed to keep teams interested longer.

5 finals wins in a row for a flag from 7th to 10th - why even bother? 4 wins is next to impossible now.