Get rid of North Melbourne.
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Yeah…
But then we’d have teams tanking for him last four years just to get the better pick.
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Play the first round under the usual system, and then simply have the winner swap ladder positions with the loser in each game.
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My fixture idea
- 22 rounds, 7 timeslots a week (Thurs night, Fri night, Sat arvo, Sat twilight, Sat night, early Sun arvo, late Sun arvo)
- One field (rotates venue each weekend)
- Winner stays on
- Last team standing wins the flag
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AFL competition framework is better than ever. So can we stop the fiddling for five minutes? . Rohan Connolly The Age .If your definition of a great competition is every team having at least some sort of chance of beating any other team on a given day, then AFL football has never been in as good a shape as right now.
Take a look at the ladder. Two of the bottom three spots are currently filled by two of the three most successful sides of the past decade. The other has played finals the past three years and twice been within one win of a grand final berth.
Brisbane and Carlton, tipped almost universally this season to finish 17th and 18th, have at least won a game. And on Saturday, the Lions led the reigning premier by 38 points shortly before half-time, a Western Bulldogs outfit which came from seventh after the regular season to win a flag.
If that doesn’t signify evenness and unpredictability, what does? As for exciting games, we’re hardly short of them are we? So what’s with this incessant need to tinker, not just with laws of the game, but the very framework of an AFL competition that is working just fine?
The Bulldogs won the grand final from seventh place last year.
We’ve become used to the annual night grand final kite-flying exercise. Last year there was a concerted campaign to offer Brisbane and potentially other clubs more assistance because they hadn’t been in the finals for – shock, horror – a few seasons.
And now we’re getting more impromptu “suck it and see” polling with the concept of a 17-5 fixture. Well, I’m sick to death of it. And I’m not the only one.
The 17-5 fixture concept is one of AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s favourite kites. And he’s got plenty of helpers (usually connected to TV networks) all too ready to take it out for a run seemingly every few weeks.
In the latest breathless dispatches, we’re told three groups of six teams would be ruled off after every team had played each other once, the top two “conferences” fighting out a top eight berth, but even more stupidly, a bottom-six side potentially given a finals chance as well as points to use in the next national draft.
The 17-5 model is necessary, apparently, because there’s not enough incentive for teams stuck in the bottom six after 17 rounds. Well, here’s one. Try winning more of your first 17 games. If you don’t, why on earth should you deserve a chance for a “wildcard” finals spot or whatever US sport-inspired jargon seems sexy right now?
Apparently, the fact that last year none of Carlton, Brisbane, Richmond, Fremantle or Gold Coast won more than one of their last five games highlights the need for a “new solution”. In fact, perhaps all it highlighted was that they just weren’t very good teams.
We play 198 home and away games a season now. News flash. Not all of them are going to be gripping, nor have finals spots riding on them. And even with close to 200 games to churn through, I’ll wager there’s a higher percentage that indeed do have something riding on them than the 132 we played in a 12-team competition until 30 years ago.
A solution to tanking? It’s talk that had some credence when teams stood to earn an extra priority draft pick as well as one for finishing at the bottom of the ladder. But the AFL dispensed with institutionalised priority picks five years ago.
Now that the only gap between clubs’ draft hands is determined by ladder positions, is the difference between draft selection No.1 as opposed to Nos. 2-3-4-5-6 on a 40-man playing list really enough to have AFL clubs even considering deliberately dropping games? Give me a break.
As for adding excitement? So the top six spend the last five rounds playing each other. Given they’re the best-performed teams to date, it’s more than likely they lock horns at least once again, if not more, during the finals proper. Is that more exciting? Or more a case of familiarity breeding if not contempt, boredom.
And speaking of incentives, if we adopted the 17-5 model, would clubs, knowing they could still potentially play finals even were they 13th on the ladder with just five games left, still hit the regular season as hard?
What would be the point if you only had to be somewhere vaguely beyond the bottom five to still have a chance in September? You could spell some players for half a season and have them hit a physical peak for two months only.
We could effectively call the first 17 rounds pre-season, scrap the home and away tag and have a nine-week finals series. See how ridiculous this gets?
Perhaps I’m getting old and cranky. But the goldfish memories, driving of agendas and constant refusal to consider history as context infecting football more and more drives me batty. The 17-5 fixture and the rationale for its necessity are just another example.
But I’m also not too old and wedded to the past to realise that right now, we have a framework of an AFL competition that is the best it’s ever been. The model isn’t broken. It doesn’t need fixing. How about we leave it the ■■■■■■ hell alone for at least five minutes?
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I got to the 2nd line…
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I don’t remember who suggested the idea of giving out draft picks in order of who mathematically misses finals first but that’s genius.
Knowing the AFL, they wouldn’t document which of the various ways they could calculate it…
Why should anyone have to govern because clubs ate stupid. There is little difference between pick 1 or 4. Clubs need to play their best each week and the rest wilk take care of itself.
Alternatively, just move the time slot of all games involving bottom 6 teams in the last five rounds to a twilight / night game, with compulsory fireworks and a superannuated pop / rock band at half time.
By the Awfuls own logic, 100,000’s of extra fans, who’ve never watched footy, or seen fireworks, would automatically tune in.
Ratings winner, networks happy, Gil pockets another 7 figure bonus.
And if that doesn’t work then, just maybe, their night Grand Final scheme is an equal load of payola driven codswallop.
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I read it on here from AN10
It’s a ■■■■■■ simple and elegant solution.
Thought it seemed pretty perfect too, … until I realised that the tankers could just tank out of the gate till the pick is achieved then play as normal.
It would be better, . but certainly not unexploitable.
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Get rid of the Roos.
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Another article up on the afl site
Fixture revamp: 18 games then playoffs then finals?
Peter Ryan, AFL Media
April 28, 2017 9:15 AM
A fixture revamp that would see 18 games in the regular season before a playoff series and then finals has been raised as a possibility during discussions surrounding a new fixture model.
The idea canvassed would allow each team to play each other once but would enable blockbuster fixtures such as local derbies and the Showdown to be played twice each season.
It would also satisfy the clubs’ desire to continue selling membership packages that admit members to 11 home games and corporate packages related to home games.
The four-week playoff structure under such a scenario remains open to debate with consultation about the possibilities expected to broaden to more stakeholders in the next month.
Two games between Adelaide and Port Adelaide have been held every year since the Power entered the competition in 1997 with each game a feature of the Australian sporting calendar.
Similarly, West Coast and Fremantle – who play their 45th Western Derby on Saturday – have played each other twice a year since 1995.
Such games are important to clubs, venue operators and the supporters of competing clubs.
With rivalries growing between Greater Western Sydney and the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns expected to grow in importance there is a reluctance to limit their encounters to one a season.
The extra round could see traditional Victorian rivals clash for the second time in a season.
Several options have been discussed during the process with the 17-5 model being the most widely debated during recent seasons and AFL.com.au understands it is among a range of potential options that remain on the table.
Although change is not expected to take place in 2018, afl.com.au reported on Thursday a fixture revamp remained firmly on the agenda.
The possible implications for fans, clubs, venues, broadcasters and players of any revamp means it is a complicated process that will take time and consultation before a final decision is made.
However, the AFL remains motivated to continue to explore ideas in order to ensure something is hanging on the result of as many games as possible, while balancing the need to maintain a credible system to determine the premier and also maintain competitive balance.
The AFL Commission was briefed on the progress of the working party on fixture reform last Friday with the next stage being for the AFL to consult relevant parties on potential ideas.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
Clearly 17-5 model didn’t have enough of those big money making games lets make it 18-4!
It is the height of absurdity that the AFL competition is so deliberately unbalanced.
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Dear AFL,
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So it was 17-5, now somebody suggests 18-4. Hopefully by the end of the year a radical 22-0 fixture is proposed.
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Nope, I really like beating them.
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They could, but i can’t see it being as common as it is now. Doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as it’s better.
You’re only going to get the real determined tankers. eg Brisbane last year where board members were talking about priority picks before the season even started. The majority of clubs who tank are just have a worse than expected start, and tank the last 2-3-4 weeks.