1 hour ago, Wodja said:

What happened to the idea about having a bye week just before the GF?

Certainly would give the two contenders an opportunity to freshen up as well as address concussion protocol timelines.

Sorry, forgot there is no money to made that weekend by the AFL. Scratch that idea

rubbish, theres a heap of money to be made that weekend if the afl were smart.

for a start youve got 16 soon 17 teams of players doing nothing. you could have 3 or 4 games of state of origin that weekend.
you could have the VFL grand final.

if you wanted to rearrange the womens season you could have the womens grand final that weekend (and i think they should do this)

all of these make more sense than 7v10 ffs

It's a new world where everyone wins a prize. I'm thinking a final 16 and two 'most determined clubs' awards might be the ticket.

In NFL the wild card makes good sense as it rewards the highest third place getter across the various conferences who in some cases may have won more games than a second placed team in another conference who automatically qualifies.

Basketball seems to love multiple games as does baseball so why not another round. I wonder if we'll ever see baseball played in the snow given they finish their season so late.

The season is now around four weeks too long but what do I know

To give a crack at finals to a team that finishes in the bottom half of the ladder is simply ludicrous.

3 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

The only adjustment I’d make to this is that I wouldn’t consider the wild card games part of the finals series.

I’d call them “finals qualifiers” to get into the final 8. I think that would be easier to stomach for those who are dead against this.

If the wild card came in at the end of 2024, I think we as MFC supporters would have been a bit more enthusiastic about this as most us were expecting an 8th-11th kind of 2025 season. Next year I’d say the majority of us have us around 13th-15th at best and thus the wild card is a bridge too far for us.

It doesn't matter what you call it, a wildcard game is the exact same as an elimination final

3 hours ago, MrFreeze said:

Halfway into the last season, the top 8 was effectively settled and there was absolutely nothing to play for.

For this reason alone, I am interested to see how this goes.

The Dogs could have made the 8 in the last game of the season

2 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I think it makes the season more interesting. There are a lot of dead rubber games at the end of the year.

Now we'll have dead rubber 'finals'

Teams that have to win 5 games in 5 weeks against teams with 1 or 2 weeks off (virtually impossible)

Maybe they can give a trophy to the best team outside the top 6?

The Bulldog's flag from 2016 can never again happen with this new system

All about the $$$ that's all it is. Dress it up any way you like AFL, they make more $$$ this way and really that's why they do it.

It's now harder to not make the finals than to miss them.

5 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

It's now harder to not make the finals than to miss them.

Are you saying bottom 8 is the new top 8?

I hate the idea anyway, but calling them 'Wildcard' games is toe-curlingly cringeworthy.

Can't wait for AFL stooge journalists to remind me what a fantastic concept this is when it brings 'meaning' to a Round 20 Port vs Richmond game that I wouldn't give a rats about under any circumstances.

17 minutes ago, Supermercado said:

I hate the idea anyway, but calling them 'Wildcard' games is toe-curlingly cringeworthy.

Can't wait for AFL stooge journalists to remind me what a fantastic concept this is when it brings 'meaning' to a Round 20 Port vs Richmond game that I wouldn't give a rats about under any circumstances.

Agree it is cringe

Maybe mediocrity round?

Or you know - 'Week 1 Finals' works too

My son has dragged me reluctantly into the NBA as he loves it so much as it what we talk about it most

This idea is 100% from the NBA

They have 'play-ins' for team 7-10 (teams 1-6 make play offs)

3 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

It's all about money.

It's everywhere.

UCL now 8 league games as compared to 6 group stage. And additional knockout stage.

NFL highly probable to have one more regular season game. Expanded wild card round.

NBA the same with play-in.

It's all about those TV rights deals.

FIFA World Cup also due to expand to 48 countries soon as well. I remember when there were only 16 countries. Of course Scotland will miss out by finishing 49th in the qualifying rounds.

3 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Doesn’t sound very wildcardy to me. It’s just a new round of finals which is what it always was.

The optics on this would have looked slightly better if they had announced that they were REDUCING the finals to 6 automatic qualifying spots and that teams finishing 7-10 would play off to make up 2 additional spots. Additionally, these two games would NOT be considered as finals.

2 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Doesn’t sound very wildcardy to me. It’s just a new round of finals which is what it always was.

Get with the lingo...

Post Season Play Off Rounds

10 minutes ago, Demonland said:

fwiw, he's already slipped in the term 'knockout final' before correcting himself

i suspect it will be the bupa insurance knockout finals or something akin to that by the time it actually happens...

7 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Get with the lingo...

channel 7 coin spinning operation

5 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Get with the lingo...

Post Season Play Off Rounds

The PS POR stage? Or is that acronym too close to sounding like something else?