The AFL Players Association occasionally sends out messages that the players would like two byes throughout the AFL season.
These messages are ignored, or the AFL puts a bye right before the finals in an attempt to stop teams resting. Let’s forget it kills momentum heading into the finals, and it gives the media clear air to report on Mad Monday activities.
I would like to explore slotting the two byes into the regular season, using the current 2016 fixture as a guide. And make it work, without crippling the momentum of the season.
First up, and this is key to making this work, the bye weekends will stretch over two weekends, not three.
The first weekend will have four games, and the second weekend will have five. This frees up so many more options to work with. The bye weekends will also be Round 8-9 (middle May) and Round 18-19 (end of July) in the season, as opposed to the current 13-15.
Starting with Round 8, there will be four matches scheduled to be played: Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. There is then the possibility of the Saturday afternoon game being taken overseas to New Zealand, China or Tasmania. Round 9 will have five games, with Thursday Night at Adelaide Oval included into the mix.
During Round 8, as there wouldn’t be any games in South Australia, the state game between SANFL and VFL would be played. Round 9, with no Western Australia games happening, will be the WAFL versus Allies (NSW/Queensland) state game.
For Rounds 18 and 19, have a similar round as Round 8 and 9. There would be however the exception. Instead of overseas matches, use the break to give games to northern Queensland and Darwin.
The gaps in the timeslots where the state games were to be played, a women’s state of origin match could be scheduled.
An U17s state of origin exhibition game could be played in this window also, as a appetiser to the draft.
The advantages of this model of byes is that August is left alone, giving the AFL a four-week lead up to hype the finals up. It also allows games to be taken overseas with harsher travel requirements without impacting teams too much.
It doesn’t kill the momentum of the league heading into the finals. It creates a sprint to the finals with teams given a week off close to the big games, without negatively impacting their preparation.
But what do you think Roarers? Let me know in the comments section below how you would approach the byes in the AFL season.
Don Freo
Guest
Just play the season each week. It feels as if the season has stopped for a month. If players want a break, let them take a rostered day off.
Don Freo
Guest
No byes please. The footy discussion around the bye weeks is always on non-footy issues. Sometimes we even have week old issues about something someone says (nothing at all to do with footy) dredged up just to fill the spaces left to commentators bereft of ideas.
Cat
Roar Guru
Plus doing away with the pre-season games is a recipe the make the first couple games even sloppier than the poor showing of skills we currently get in round 1.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Yeah sure, except it totally ignores reality. Players association demanded 2 byes for years and everyone inside the clubs wants to keep them. They will not give those up under any circumstances.
I hate pies
Guest
Just do away with the preseason comp and hit the season proper, no byes.
Cat
Roar Guru
If we absolutely have to have byes I'd rather all teams have them at the same time. Too many advantages/disadvantage with rolling and split bye concepts based on when your team has a bye versus when another one does.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I'd rather just have 2 bye weekends with no football at all and get them over and done with.
TomC
Roar Guru
Worth discussing. I don't agree with everything the AFLPA proposes, but if an extra bye makes a difference to the health and wellbeing of the players, then it's something that should be seriously investigated.
TomC
Roar Guru
I actually quite like that idea, but I believe something similar was floated years ago and it was universally scoffed at. The coaches and players don't want it, it seems.
Cat
Roar Guru
Lots of things could be done, anything but the bye would be better. The bye sucks, I hate it.
mds1970
Roar Guru
A variation on that theme would be a limit of 22 home & away games per player and expand the season to 24 rounds - and each club having an additional home game.
Cat
Roar Guru
Increase list sizes, mandate players can only play 20 H&A games a year and ditch the bye altogether.
mds1970
Roar Guru
I've got a completely different model - the rolling bye. The first four rounds and the last two would have every team playing, so 9 games per round. The 18 rounds in the middle would have 8 games per round, with two teams having the bye. With only one game per week being cut from what we have now, the gaps in the program we currently have in bye weeks wouldn't be there. Unless it's your team's bye week, you'd barely notice. And that would also allow a bigger role for the high-rating Thursday night footy. The two teams that had the bye the previous weekend would play Thursday night; so each team woild have two Thursday night games. For each team, one of them should be home and one away - and so the prime-time TV slot is evenly shared. It would certainly be a win for the broadcasters - as well as locking in Thursday nights for most of the season, you'd also drastically reduce the number of times games are played at the same time, which splits the audience.