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Now that the AFL has 18 teams, it is the perfect time for to make a change to the finals series. The NRL has finally made the change from the McIntyre final system to the one currently employed by the AFL. This is in many ways is an improvement, however this system has many of its own drawbacks.
The main problem with the current finals system is that it doesn’t reach great heights as a series until the preliminary finals. With the top four teams given a second chance if they fail in week one, it makes the qualifying games less important.
The clubs and supporters know that they’re still in it, even if they slip up.
If games are won according to ladder positions throughout the course of the finals series, the first team faces the club that finished third on the ladder in the more important preliminary. I’m sure last year Collingwood would have preferred to play West Coast in the preliminary final than Hawthorn.
So how can the AFL make the finals more exciting but give an advantage to the teams that finished top?
First they will need to increase the finals to 10 teams, which some people will not like as it is rewarding average teams. There is the added benefit of creating more exciting games in the latter rounds of the home and away season, as there more teams will think they can make the finals. Fewer teams will “start planning for next year” looking for better draft picks.
Under the new Final 10, the top 6 teams would have the week off, with teams 7-10 playing a “wild card” round like the NFL. The remaining weeks would all then be sudden death, so the team that finished top would play the team that finished 8/9 in the quarterfinals and then play the team that finish 4/5 in the semi final.
Taking the 2011 ladder as an example, the finals would most likely be played out like this:
Week 1
First Elimination Final 7 v 10 (Sydney v Western Bulldogs)
Second Elimination Final 8 v 9 (Essendon v North Melbourne)
Week 2
First Quarter Final 1 v second EL (Collingwood v Essendon)
Second Quarter Final 2 v first EL (Geelong v Sydney)
Third Quarter Final 3 v 6 (Hawthorn v St Kilda)
Fourth Quarter Final 4 v 5 (West Coast v Carlton)
Week 3
First Semi Final 1st QF v 4th QF (Collingwood v West Coast)
Second Semi Final 2nd QF v 3rd QF (Geelong v Hawthorn)
Week 4
grand final 1st SF v 2nd SF (Collingwood v Geelong)
Although the top 4 have lost their second chance, if anything the sides would have preferred this system last year. Instead of Collingwood having to play West Coast and Hawthorn in weeks one and three, they would have had Essendon or North Melbourne in the second round after having a week off and then West Coast in the third round.
Similarly Geelong would have had Sydney or the Bulldogs then Hawthorn under the new system. Hawthorn and West Coast would have benefited, as they both would have got a week off in the finals, unlike last year, and then face St Kilda and Carlton respectively to make it into the penultimate round.
Teams 5 and 6 benefit greatly by going straight to the second week (St Kilda definitely would have liked that last year), and teams 8 and 9 benefit by the increased chance of making the second round.
The whole second chance sounds great in theory for the top sides, but it does detract from the finals system and it doesn’t help as much as it is perceived to.
Under this system there will be the occasional time that the number 1 team gets knocked out by the team ranked 8 or 9 in the second week. But do they even deserve to be the Premiers if they can’t win a game after a week off against a team that had to fight to make it?
That is a risk, and risk is what makes games exciting.
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