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Will the pre-finals bye stay or go?
So far, it has received mixed reviews, but there appears to be more positivity about the concept midway through the finals than there was prior.
We have seen largely high-quality finals, each with a different personality and varying storylines, and three of the matches played have gone the way of the underdog.
But in a year celebrated for the evenness of the top eight, these were likely outcomes anyway, or at least predictable in their unpredictableness.
There is absolutely no doubt the Bulldogs have been the biggest beneficiary from the week off after Round 23, enabling them to bring back players from injury and simultaneously recapture their best form from early in the season.
The Dogs have also been the form side of the finals series, and the best story, twice now taking on the role of David slaying Goliath, first West Coast in Perth and then Hawthorn at the MCG, a ground where the Hawks have had so many dominant finals wins in recent years.
If looking for positives surrounding the pre-finals bye, the Bulldogs are the biggest. To coach Luke Beveridge’s credit, he is firm in his principle that the week off should not exist, despite his side taking advantage of it beyond most people’s expectations.
West Coast fans may feel begrudged at what the bye did to their team. The footy world had been waiting all season for the Eagles to hit their straps and recapture the best of their 2015 form, which they finally did over the last three or four weeks of the home and away rounds.
Their reward was the halting of their momentum, and then they weren’t good enough or prepared enough for the Bulldogs’ onslaught in their Perth elimination final.
The upcoming preliminary final weekend was always going to be a decisive factor in how the bye was assessed. If Geelong and GWS both go down having only played one match in 26 and 27 days respectively, then the chorus of disapproval will be loud. The clubs themselves won’t use it as an excuse, but their silence will be deafening.
Those against the bye will use this as ‘evidence’ that the pre-finals bye disadvantages the winning qualifying finalists from week one. But it won’t really be evidence, just two of 207 AFL matches played this year, where any number of factors could contribute to the result.
Of course, if Geelong and GWS both win, Gillon Maclachlan, already bullish about the benefits of the pre-finals bye, will smugly put the detractors in their place.
In terms of either side of the debate, history will be written by the winner, as it usually is.
Personally, I was very much against the bye, and haven’t changed my view, though it mattered less to me during the week off than it had all season. It neither added nor subtracted to how much I was looking forward to the finals.
But, if the AFL is going to continue with it, they simply must bring the grand final back to the last Saturday in September. Enough with the October grand finals, encroaching into spring and summer sports – it’s time the AFL got back in their box.
Local cricket and bowls clubs have always kicked off their season on the first Saturday in October. Spring racing has had multiple reshuffles of their calendar in recent years to accommodate the AFL grand final moving a week into their territory.
This is the second grand final in a row to be played in October, and the third in six years. A dangerous precedent is being set.
The AFL is the biggest and most powerful sporting organization in the country, with naked ambition to grow larger and more dominant. They can do what they like. But it doesn’t mean they should.
Keep the pre-finals bye. Get rid of it. Whatever. But put the grand final back where it belongs.