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AFL needs to make it perfect 10 in 2012

Neotraveler new author
Roar Rookie
22nd April, 2011
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Neotraveler new author
Roar Rookie
22nd April, 2011
17
3522 Reads

When the GWS Giants take the field next year, expanding the competition to eighteen teams, the AFL will likely introduce the sixth finals system of the modern-era (post-1990).

Unfortunately, the people who have done such a magnificent job of growing our wonderful game, have a pretty bad habit of getting things off on the wrong foot, when it comes to the finals format.

AFL FINALS FORMAT EXPLAINED: HOW DOES THE AFL FINALS SYSTEM WORK?

For one shining moment back in 1990, fourteen teams in the AFL lived under the McIntyre Final Five system.

There was not only a reward to finish first, but second and third also held more value than fourth and fifth – it meant not only the teams fighting to squeeze into the finals had their foot flat to the floor in the final round, but the teams toward the pointy end had something to play for too.

There was no “Fremantle-esque” resting of half the team, because you’re settled in either the top four or bottom four of the eight.

The final five was almost perfect and had served the VFL footy public well for almost twenty years.

As the AFL began to expand, so did the finals format.

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The heavily-flawed top six arrived in 1991 and was quickly altered in 1992 (it was better to finish fifth than fourth in 1991).

The changes ironed out the major problems but the system was still far from perfect.

In 1994, the final eight arrived in a format more suited to a best of seven NBA playoff series. It was finally changed in 2000 to the more settled top-eight we have today.

In 2012, the AFL can make things right again.

It’s time for a top ten. Well, two top fives to be exact.

How can every club get an advantage over the team underneath it?

Simple; first, fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth make up one ‘Top Five’ and second, third, sixth, seventh and tenth can constitute the other.

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All the advantages of the McIntyre Final Five are revisited with the two winners of the final fives advancing through to the Grand Final.

It means only one extra week of finals, thirteen finals matches instead of nine, and for the first time in twenty years, a fight for every single rung on the AFL ladder.

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