Wildcard Round

[Supermercado 2,628]

Putrid idea but now we've got the flag I'm a lot calmer about the structure of the league being unnecessarily changed.

[layzie 29,139]

17 minutes ago, Macca said:

Packer described RL as the ideal TV sport where as our game is much better live (when there's only a small amount of congestion)

Over a decade ago Foxtel (or maybe Optus) had a function where you could watch AFL on wide angle with only the crowd noise ... it was very good but took a bit of getting used to

NFL is ideal for TV as well but wide angle would work better so as we could keep an eye on the WR's

 

Exactly, NFL and League are made for TV. 

Would be nice to see some of those spread offenses fit the screen!

[Sydney_Demon 1,175]

8 hours ago, SPC said:

I don’t mind it to create some more interest. It could be 8v9 or more depending on number of teams on similar points, but seperated by %. While they are at it, they could also revise a better system for the bottom 4 to receive the 1st draft pick. Sick of watching the bottom teams stink it up. Perhaps the last 2 weeks they play a round Robin for access to the best pick. Finishing up with the final game of the wildcard round. 

Have you fully thought this through? You have to set up a system at the start of the season so how do you know how many teams are going to be on similar points separated only by percentage? Similar with the round robin system. You'd have to add extra rounds pre-finals to the end of the season. Very exciting for neutral fans (not). The current system works for the 1st draft pick. The only reason you'd change it is to discourage tanking which is a non-issue in the AFL imv (or can be tackled in better ways).

8 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

That week pre finals is a currently a stinker forced on us by Ross Lyon. Play some footy I say. The clubs 7-10th get more exposure to pressure, and it has no impact on the teams who deserve to really be there - in fact you could argue it makes their lives easier, and rewards them more.

You don't change  the system just to accomodate people who don't have enough of a life to do without football for a week. 

8 hours ago, layzie said:

Why stop at 9th and 10th? How about two games in the bye week 9th vs 11th and 10th vs 12th for the chance to play in the spots suggested above? Extend the season another week, wasn't a problem for Gather Round! More football, more happy! 😝

I agree. Let's make it an 18 team finals systems. The more football the better! 😀

7 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Brilliant idea for what's currently a dormant weekend of footy. The pre finals bye is a joke.

Friday night - 8 v 9 

Saturday night - 7 v 10.

Two exciting clashes. What more do you want.

Plus it gives clubs more of an incentive to finish top 6. Sixth position will essentially be the new 8th.

Absolutely in favour of this idea. And I think it will happen.

Why is having a week off pre-Finals an issue? In fact, and this is not an original thought, the mid-Season Bye should be one week involving all 18 teams post-Kings Birthday. Then we wouldn't have this ridiculous situation where some teams are advantaged by playing post-bye against other post-bye sides (all games involving teams post-bye against teams not post-bye were won by the latter). I feel sad for those who can't survive a weekend or two without an AFL game.  

5 hours ago, Skuit said:

My proposal for the Americanisation of football - before even the Americans have thought of it - is as follows: the top four teams, in order, can nominate their opponents from the bottom half of the eight. Two lowest ranked losers out and repeat the process, with a reordered ladder according to H&A position and winners/losers. 

It gets rid of the prelim finals bye and adds an extra match ($). Makes H&A incrementally more important by position, and removes travel bias and form flux. It also expands the combo of potential grand-finalists to infinity (a thing mathematics work on). Moreover, 'nomination day' would be an event of its own, and create crazy rivalries. 

I like your creative thinking and nominating your opponent is an interesting approach. It seems though it's a bit of a reversion to the old McIntyre Final 8 System which was rejected because sides are not totally in charge of their own destinies and there were matches with meaningless results.

2 hours ago, layzie said:

I mean thinking about it, we do talk about how you can really only win a flag from top 4, does this give at least a little bit of incentive to finish 5th and 6th in that you will be more more rested and therefore more likely to book a trip to the semis?

Still think it's silly but it's fun to think about. 

Not more rested, just playing against less well-rested opponents. Good for 5th, 6th, 9th & 10th teams, bad for 1-4, horrible for 7-8. OK, Melbourne would have benefitted in 2017 & 2020 but a very short-term reprieve. If you can't make the 8 basically you're not good enough.

[The heart beats true 16,382]

25 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

You don't change  the system just to accomodate people who don't have enough of a life to do without football for a week. 

No, but you do change it to accommodate the biggest financial investor in the game, and help protect their interests - eyeballs.

It’s happening. Might not be next year, but I’d bet that by 2026 it’s happened. 

[layzie 29,139]

32 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

You don't change  the system just to accomodate people who don't have enough of a life to do without football for a week. 

You're speaking my language there but it seems we're in the minority. I've always found it strange when people complain about no footy for a weekend but everyone is different I guess. The masses seem to want it and the league is keen to stay in the shop window. 

Totally agree with you but if there's a demand and money to be made then they will do it.

[old55 21,403]

They should have the Brownlow in the bye week they could do it on Friday night.

[Sydney_Demon 1,175]

16 minutes ago, layzie said:

You're speaking my language there but it seems we're in the minority. I've always found it strange when people complain about no footy for a weekend but everyone is different I guess. The masses seem to want it and the league is keen to stay in the shop window. 

Totally agree with you but if there's a demand and money to be made then they will do it.

Look, I understand how it works. Clearly 7 & Kayo for example want to be able to show games every weekend, and I assume that's why the bye is staggered (and is presumedly part of the deal). Also, of course introducing the Wildcard Round would mean the AFL would be able to continue to have the pre-Finals bye but still have AFL on screens. My comments are purely based on what I think is best from the game's perspective.

This of course is highly likely to happen and the AFL won't give a stuff about anything apart from maximising revenue. Clearly it's been on the agenda for a while as they've snuck it in by stealth in the VFL this year, so yes I think it will happen but no I don't think it's a good thing.

[Demonland 65,846]

 

[Jaded No More 58,506]

I have a better idea 

17th v 18th. 
Winner gets to play Melbourne in the Grand Final

 

[Bombay Airconditioning 5,944]

7 hours ago, Macca said:

Seen the last broadcast rights money?  Enormous and in the $Billions.  Actually over $2Billion over the next 5 years

And it's dying?

If you're talking about crowd numbers, they've never been big

RL aren't as obsessed with crowd numbers as we are in the AFL

Most people I know have gone from never watching the NRL to watching quite a lot of RL ... with peak interest with Origin games.  And nearly all Melbournians

You'd never know it on this site but this is a Demons site with all things AFL being front & centre

I did say slowly dying, and I believe it is. First and foremost league is a mugs game, very boring to watch and lacks skill (the conversion kick from the boundary being the exception but even then the ball is on sand or a plastic mould and all other play has stopped). The game plan is pretty much the same for every team. Very rarely do we see a team kick early in the tackle count, or utilise kicking for touch. It’s a game made for tv purely because of the rectangle shape field and that the teams line up in straight lines, not because of the excitement factor. I’ve now been living in Sydney for 15 years, junior participation in some areas is down with kids opting to play soccer and older rusted on fans have started to switch off due to the perceived soft state of the game after their much loved biff and cheap shots have been filtered out. A extension of this is Origin is no longer what it was in the 90’s and early 2000’s. This year they have the rolling bye which a lot of fans aren’t happy about. No they’ve never been big on live attendance but even in the workplace there isn’t anywhere near the same level of passion as there is when workmates talk about AFL. I’m not sure how we’re giving them a free kick by having a week off before finals start, we’re doing the best thing for our game, I actually like the idea. Are people going to suddenly switch onto league just to fill their sports fix? Sure some might but a lot won’t, and those that do I’m confident won’t be lost to the game for reasons I’ve already mentioned.

[monoccular 16,262]

4 hours ago, McQueen said:

I don’t support it. I agree with other people that have said after a season of trying to make the 8 to play finals then that’s it!
Finishing 9th and 10th? too bad you weren’t good enough. 

However, for a game of football to watch during that weekend, I would absolutely support the bottom 10 teams forming a State of Origin contest to watch. 😎😎

How about 9v10, 11v12, 13v14 etc (or some variant of this  9 v 11, 10 v 12 etc) with the winner of each of these to get the higher draft pick - sort of anti tanking and an incentive to get up one final game for the season.

It would fill in the weekend, and maybe maintain a bit of interest for the supporters of this who miss finals.

[Macca 16,173]

19 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

I did say slowly dying, and I believe it is. First and foremost league is a mugs game, very boring to watch and lacks skill (the conversion kick from the boundary being the exception but even then the ball is on sand or a plastic mould and all other play has stopped). The game plan is pretty much the same for every team. Very rarely do we see a team kick early in the tackle count, or utilise kicking for touch. It’s a game made for tv purely because of the rectangle shape field and that the teams line up in straight lines, not because of the excitement factor. I’ve now been living in Sydney for 15 years, junior participation in some areas is down with kids opting to play soccer and older rusted on fans have started to switch off due to the perceived soft state of the game after their much loved biff and cheap shots have been filtered out. A extension of this is Origin is no longer what it was in the 90’s and early 2000’s. This year they have the rolling bye which a lot of fans aren’t happy about. No they’ve never been big on live attendance but even in the workplace there isn’t anywhere near the same level of passion as there is when workmates talk about AFL. I’m not sure how we’re giving them a free kick by having a week off before finals start, we’re doing the best thing for our game, I actually like the idea. Are people going to suddenly switch onto league just to fill their sports fix? Sure some might but a lot won’t, and those that do I’m confident won’t be lost to the game for reasons I’ve already mentioned.

Fair enough

I quite like the sport (NRL) and find it to be fast moving game and easy on the eyes.  Highly skilful

As previously stated, I know quite a few who also like the sport.  And they are all AFL die-hards

Different circles but Rugby League is very popular despite not everyone liking the sport

There again, I also like the World game, Union and NFL as well ... there's not many sports I don't like but white ball cricket bores me to tears

Each to their own

[Dr. Gonzo 22,526]

Wildcard playoff teams work in the NFL because of the division/conference formar. In fact they not only work but they're a necessity especially when you have a team winning a division with a sub .500 record and/or another team coming 2nd with a strong record.

In the NBA it is a joke especially considering how many games they play. The AFL is the same, there is no need for a wildcard round. It's just a way to try and gouge more money out of the tv rights deal, same as the gather round. The season is way too long, they'd be better off going to a format where every team plays each other once.

But it is inevitable, the AFL has had this on the cards since they introduced the pre-finals bye.

[layzie 29,139]

The 24/7 news cycle has been the worst thing for the AFL 

Edited July 18, 2023 by layzie

[Dr. Gonzo 22,526]

3 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

No, but you do change it to accommodate the biggest financial investor in the game, and help protect their interests - eyeballs.

It’s happening. Might not be next year, but I’d bet that by 2026 it’s happened. 

It will I agree, and it just further dilutes the product. More doesn't mean better.

[Sydney_Demon 1,175]

1 hour ago, monoccular said:

How about 9v10, 11v12, 13v14 etc (or some variant of this  9 v 11, 10 v 12 etc) with the winner of each of these to get the higher draft pick - sort of anti tanking and an incentive to get up one final game for the season.

It would fill in the weekend, and maybe maintain a bit of interest for the supporters of this who miss finals.

The whole idea of the draft is to feed the best young talent into the worst-performing clubs to equalize the competition. Why would you undermine that by rewarding the best performing of the bottom teams with the best draft pick? Nonsensical. Let's follow this to it's natural conclusion and give the Premiers the No. 1 draft pick. That would teally stop the (non-existent) AFL tanking. The reason why there's a lottery in the NBA is to stop tanking (which is an issue in the NBA). 

If you're really interested in entertaining supporters of teams who don't make the Finals let's bring back the Night Series or even AFLX:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFL_Night_Series 

[The Jackson FIX 2,295]

17 hours ago, Sydney_Demon said:

Not true. The play-in yournament in the NBA is 3 games in each division, 6 games in total. A marginal revenue spinner.

Yeah, I know the format and what I said wasn’t wrong.

[layzie 29,139]

11 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

I have a better idea 

17th v 18th. 
Winner gets to play Melbourne in the Grand Final

 

I've got one too unrelated to finals. 17th vs 18th in the bye week, winner gets no.1 pick!

[leave it to deever 15,952]

On 7/18/2023 at 9:03 AM, layzie said:

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. 

Everyone is a winner.

[Sydney_Demon 1,175]

2 hours ago, layzie said:

I've got one too unrelated to finals. 17th vs 18th in the bye week, winner gets no.1 pick!

Ok, it looks like everyone's trying to find stuff to fill the pre-finals bye. But again, no one has actually explained why the bottom team is undeserving of the No. 1 pick? Because it's presumed they've tanked? 17th vs 18th, 17th likely to win because they're a better team, why should they be rewarded with the top pick? It works against the whole equalisation process.      

[Demonland 65,846]

 

[The heart beats true 16,382]

5 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

Well in that case I love it.

[Demonland 65,846]

1 hour ago, The heart beats true said:

Well in that case I love it.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. 

[Turner 1,483]

only 2 sides have one flags from outside top 4 in whatever the exact number of years is but its like 25 or something. essentially finishing 5-8 IS your wildcard entry to finals

[ANG13 1,511]

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

 

I feel sick, I am on the same page as them.