csdee

In my opinion, one of Peter Jackson's greatest legacies is that under his watch our Board became largely silent and invisible (after unsuccessful decades of being otherwise). Roffey's administration won a flag on the basis of what they inherited part way through the season. Since the flag they, KR in particular, have been way too visible and we have had diminishing success thereafter. I would much prefer that they stick to their backroom bean counting and otherwise STFU. During the season, football matters should be addressed by the Football department alone: Richo, Goody, and Max in the media and the player's response on the field. As others have pointed out, anything else is unhelpful noise.

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.