AFL Finals Wild Card

[Baron Greenback]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/f ... e7f7ab193f

I actually don't mind this idea.

[bennymacca]

I quite like the idea of two divisions as well. You could play everyone once and the teams in your own division twice, making a completely fair draw with 24 games.

The engagement for supporters would be there for a lot longer as 10 teams play finals every year, and at least 5 other teams will have a chance to make it right down to the last round or two.

Might also mean teams like Carlton and Richmond play less Friday night games which will be good.

A downside is that bottom clubs are now two years away from the "real" finals - in recent times, adelaide, Bulldogs, west coast have all won finals after being 10th or below the year before

I think it's worth talking about though.

[carey]

I wish they would just leave our game alone.

It seems there's a rule change every year for the sake of it. I know this isn't rule related but again it seems a change for the sake of a change.

[bennymacca]

I wish they would just leave our game alone.

It seems there's a rule change every year for the sake of it. I know this isn't rule related but again it seems a change for the sake of a change.

100% agree regarding the rules. Reckon the rules committee should meet once every 3 years and decide on rules then, which are then not touched for 3 more years. That will mean they stop tinkering.

I do think something needs to be done about the draw though. Playing 5 teams twice is a farce

[gadj1976]

I quite like the idea of two divisions as well. You could play everyone once and the teams in your own division twice, making a completely fair draw with 24 games.

The engagement for supporters would be there for a lot longer as 10 teams play finals every year, and at least 5 other teams will have a chance to make it right down to the last round or two.

Might also mean teams like Carlton and Richmond play less Friday night games which will be good.

A downside is that bottom clubs are now two years away from the "real" finals - in recent times, adelaide, Bulldogs, west coast have all won finals after being 10th or below the year before

I think it's worth talking about though.

No Friday night games for us this season!

I don't mind the idea. I think if it 1. prolongs my interest 2. evens up the draw then it has ticks from my point of view.

Wildcard.... no. Definitely NOT.

[whufc]

We keep thinking there is no interest in the games when there's not a top 8 position on the line, but is there really that much less interest? All the talk lately seems to be as much about Richmond, Brisbane, Essendon and Collingwood as it is about Hawthorn, Geelong, GWS and Sydney. Certainly in Adelaide there's the usual content talking about Port as it was early in the season.

Someone has to be bottom. At some point finals will be decided. The comp doesn't eliminate teams and if anything, once a team's chances are gone it just creates a different interest. Wild cards work in the US where they have division based playoffs. It eliminates the chance that the second best team in the league might otherwise miss out if they're in the same division as the best team. AFL has an overall ladder so it ends up being more like the NBA in a sense, which doesn't have wild card playoffs.

Would be interesting to see the tv audience figures but i would think there would be a massive difference between a Geelong vs Adelaide top 4 game viewing audience versus a Collingwood vs Richmond (lets see which coach is going to be sacked audience)

The talk mid week maybe about Richmond, Brisbane, Essendon etc but i hardly think that translates to greater viewing audiences on game day, no different to how crowd attendances are affected by being a 'top' side