The AFL has confirmed a major shake-up to the finals format, with a wildcard weekend confirmed for the 2026 season. Going to be in tomorrow Herald Sun.

Utter stupidity of the highest order

I could maybe get around this when we move to 20 teams, but having more than half the teams in the comp play finals next year is ridiculous

Excellent and inevitable decision by the AFL.

Going to be an exciting weekend as opposed to watching 2 flies going up and down a wall on that nonsense pre finals bye.

And it’s a still top 8 finals isn’t it? The wild card weekend is technically not finals. Finishing top 6 gets you automatic entry while teams 7 and 8 Fight it out with teams 9 and 10 for the last 2 spots. I’m fine with that.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Bring-Back-Powell

Idiotic. The final 8 system they have now is as elegant and fair as a system gets.

It's gonna make that 11th hurt more...

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Timothy Reddan-A'Blew
(Meleventhbourne)

Another reason why the wildcard weekend has been brought in is that the AFL were giving their biggest competitor (the NRL) a free hit on the bye weekend

And with the NRL now ahead in the ratings battle, ground needs to be made up. This is as much a business decision as it is to maintain interest

The AFL is already starting the season earlier to match the NRL

Personally, I quite like the wildcard weekend as it gives a number of teams hope where as beforehand, the season might have sizzled out prematurely for too many clubs

The AFL ladder often resembles the standings in European soccer except of course we don't have cup competitions or relegation

I can see the NRL matching the wildcard weekend once the Perth Bears enter the competition

Those against this sort of change will probably change their minds after a time

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Macca

Just for once I’d love to see the AFL come up with something unique that enhances the game instead of chasing after every seppo inspired piece of nonsense that they see

Moronic.

Teams finishing 7th or 8th now have to win 5 games to win the flag and are at a huge disadvantage to 1-6 who all get a bye anyway.

All so teams 9 & 10 who are highly unlikely to do anything in finals can be "engaged" for an extra week.

Don't hate it. A weekend of footy with 2 games that have actual stakes. Could throw up some very interesting scenarios.

Certainly better than "opening" round

i don't believes this means the sky is falling

improves our chances of playing a final next year

3 minutes ago, JTR said:

Moronic.

Teams finishing 7th or 8th now have to win 5 games to win the flag and are at a huge disadvantage to 1-6 who all get a bye anyway.

All so teams 9 & 10 who are highly unlikely to do anything in finals can be "engaged" for an extra week.

I highly doubt that the wildcard weekend has been primarily brought in so 2 more teams have a chance of winning the flag

It's more of a business decision in terms of maintaining interest in the home and away comp and as a competitive move against the NRL

For anyone out there reading this, have you found yourself watching the NRL instead when we had the bye weekend?

Let's say it's 15% to 20% of AFL fans having a gander? ... would the AFL be pleased with that outcome? No

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Macca

24 minutes ago, Macca said:

Another reason why the wildcard weekend has been brought in is that the AFL were giving their biggest competitor (the NRL) a free hit on the bye weekend

And with the NRL now ahead in the ratings battle, ground needs to be made up. This is as much a business decision as it is to maintain interest

The AFL is already starting the season earlier to match the NRL

Personally, I quite like the wildcard weekend as it gives a number of teams hope where as beforehand, the season might have sizzled out prematurely for too many clubs

The AFL ladder often resembles the standings in European soccer except of course we don't have cup competitions or relegation

I can see the NRL matching the wildcard weekend once the Perth Bears enter the competition

Those against this sort of change will probably change their minds after a time

Exactly right that Peter Vlandy’s tries to steal everything off Victoria. He has done it with placement of NRL fixturring against the AFL and he has done it with horse racing putting races on with huge prize money on our biggest race days.

I can’t remember the last time I agreed with an AFL decision but I agree with this.

14 minutes ago, BDA said:

i don't believes this means the sky is falling

improves our chances of playing a final next year

Would not feel the same in this new tinpot format

8 minutes ago, Wrecker46 said:

Exactly right that Peter Vlandy’s tries to steal everything off Victoria. He has done it with placement of NRL fixturring against the AFL and he has done it with horse racing putting races on with huge prize money on our biggest race days.

I can’t remember the last time I agreed with an AFL decision but I agree with this.

Yes and the bottom line is that robust competition can be good for business

I'm a keen punter and I admire what V'Landys has done for NSW racing and the NRL. He's a true visionary

The AFL are in a dogfight for eyes on their sport but both codes have hundreds of 1000's of rusted on types

It's those who can swing either way is where the battle lies

It's like Coke vs Pepsi or Trump vs whoever. Either side wants to win

Ch7 won't want to be beaten in the FTA stakes to Ch9 & League

So there can't be a footy free weekend

Why they ever brought in a free weekend in the first place was a baffling decision

First it was Halloween, then it was the invasion of American fast food chains, then it was the change in scorecard graphics by Channel 7 and Fox to mimick the NFL and now this. Not to mention Gen Z cousins of mine are now using words like “candy” and “biscuits” instead of lolly and scones.

Really hate how Americanized and how obsessed this used to be great nation of ours is so obsessed with the Yanks.

AFL is a game of attrition similar to football/soccer where squad management is a major skill. You must predict in a sense and have foresight to fill any holes that may arise during the season. List management is one of the most underrated skill in the game.

Having a "top 10" diminishes this quite a bit.

Not a fan. Imagine being Gold Coast who finished 7th in 2025 (60pts) getting knocked out by 10th placed Sydney (48pts) a side who rallied late in the season and in some really good form.

Just doesn't seem right when you compare the body of work Gold Coast had done opposed to Sydney.

It's farcical that a side finishing in the bottom half of the ladder gets to play finals. Did somebody say "tinpot"?

It's great. Everyone complained back when 4 became 5 in a 12 team comp. Everyone complained when the 6 was introduced in 1991. The first final 8 system occurred in 1994 in a 15 team comp - yes that's right - only 7 teams didn't make finals. Fremantle and Port took the comp to 16 teams by 1997 with the removal of Fitzroy and it's stayed that way since, with some system modifications in 2000. For 25 years it's remained unchanged even though the competition now has 18 team (soon to be 19). It will help alleviate the unfairness of the fixture and it takes out the most boring weekend of the footy season.

1 minute ago, Swooper1987 said:

Everyone complained back when 4 became 5 in a 12 team comp. Everyone complained when the 6 was introduced in 1991.

That's not how I remember it. You sure you're not just making that up to suit your argument?

2 minutes ago, Swooper1987 said:

takes out the most boring weekend of the footy season.

That's easily addressed by eliminating the stupid pre-finals bye. Simples!

1 minute ago, Demonstone said:

That's not how I remember it. You sure you're not just making that up to suit your argument?

We obviously remember it differently.

I've done the calculations so that you guys don't have to.

IF the Demons won the five games we lost this year by 10 points or less, we would have finished the H&A season with 12 wins and...

...we still would have missed out on the Wildcard Round.

We're definitely in the conversation, though, for 2026. Maybe Steven King's finals aspirations are now within reach!

Basically eliminates the small but romantic chance of winning the flag from outside the top 6

If you're not good enough to finish in the 8 then bad luck.

No one asked for this & I'm sick of trying to americanise this sport.

I'm beginning to thing greg swann is making stupid decisions.

Leave our game alone

Hey lets just give everyone a ribbon & be done with it.

51 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Excellent and inevitable decision by the AFL.

Going to be an exciting weekend as opposed to watching 2 flies going up and down a wall on that nonsense pre finals bye.

And it’s a still top 8 finals isn’t it? The wild card weekend is technically not finals. Finishing top 6 gets you automatic entry while teams 7 and 8 Fight it out with teams 9 and 10 for the last 2 spots. I’m fine with that.

Yes and the teams that finish 5th & 6th can now have a competitive advantage in terms of resting players for a week after an arduous season (5th & 6th get the bye where as 7th to 10th need to keep going)

The top 4 remains the same in terms of attaining the double chance

And a lot of those end of season matches that we might ordinarily not have much interest in will now have greater importance