With a lot of blowouts and ordinary games this year, it’s clear the gap between the best and the worst teams in the AFL is widening. However these issues can be resolved by simply changing the fixture format.
We can logically break the 18 teams into the best teams (Hawthorn, Fremantle, West Coast), the sides pushing up (North, Richmond, Sydney, Adelaide, Bulldogs), the sides breaking into the eight (Collingwood, Geelong, Greater Western Sydney, Gold Coast, Port Adelaide, St Kilda), and the rest (Brisbane, Essendon, Carlton, Melbourne).
The top 10 or 12 teams have season-long incentive, but what do the bottom teams have to play for? This question to me adds fuel to the argument for a 17-5 fixture.
Everyone will play each other once through the first 17 rounds. Then for the last six rounds the competition will be split into three sections – the top six, middle six, and bottom six.
The top six then play to get the best position they can in the finals, the middle six want those last two spots in the eight, and the bottom six are playing for draft picks. The first pick will get a higher chance in a lottery formatted draft.
At Round 17 of this season, the top six teams were Fremantle, West Coast, Hawthorn, Sydney, Richmond, Bulldogs.
The middle six were Adelaide, North, GWS, Geelong, Collingwood, Port.
The bottom six were St Kilda, Melbourne, Essendon, Carlton, Gold Coast, Brisbane.
The top eight at the end of the year if the teams played 17-5 fixture (according to my predictions) would have been Fremantle, West Coast, Hawthorn, Sydney, Geelong, North, Adelaide, Richmond.
This also ends with Port Adelaide being the team with the best chance at getting the number one pick, with Melbourne, Essendon, Brisbane, Carlton and the Gold Coast also in with a good chance.
This puts an emphasis on winning games, with the best chance in a lottery draft going to the team coming 13th.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
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