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As the AFL preseason continues with fantasy footy prices being released and teams tearing it up on the training tracks, my mind wanders to articles past.
The conference system idea is one that has been well debated, and even I have written about the subject previously.
But now, I might have come up with the fairest way to make conferences work in the AFL.
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To start with, the conference system will work over a four-year cycle.
Every team will play each other once, and then double up games against teams within your conference. As below is the ultimate four-year cycle.
| Conference 1 | Conference 2 | Conference 3 |
| Adelaide | Collingwood | Brisbane |
| Fremantle | Essendon | Carlton |
| Port Adelaide | Geelong | Gold Coast |
| St. Kilda | Hawthorn | GWS |
| West Coast | Melbourne | Richmond |
| Western Bulldogs | North Melbourne | Sydney |
| Conference 1 | Conference 2 | Conference 3 |
| Collingwood | Brisbane | Adelaide |
| Essendon | Fremantle | Carlton |
| GWS | Gold Coast | Geelong |
| St. Kilda | Melbourne | Hawthorn |
| Sydney | North Melbourne | Port Adelaide |
| Western Bulldogs | West Coast | Richmond |
| Conference 1 | Conference 2 | Conference 3 |
| Brisbane | Adelaide | Carlton |
| Geelong | GWS | Collingwood |
| Gold Coast | Melbourne | Essendon |
| Hawthorn | North Melbourne | Fremantle |
| St. Kilda | Port Adelaide | Richmond |
| Western Bulldogs | Sydney | West Coast |
| Conference 1 | Conference 2 | Conference 3 |
| Adelaide | Fremantle | Carlton |
| Brisbane | Geelong | Melbourne |
| Collingwood | GWS | North Melbourne |
| Essendon | Hawthorn | Richmond |
| Gold Coast | Sydney | St Kilda |
| Port Adelaide | West Coast | Western Bulldogs |
In short, there is a buddy system with each team being given a sister team that will follow them throughout the four-year cycle. Obviously, the eight interstate teams have been coupled together, while the remaining teams have been spread evenly throughout the competition to promote skills.
Where this conference system comes into its own however, is the revised finals structure, which will extend out to ten teams.
Before you grab your poison keyboards, hear me out.
It’s a modified version of the current system, with a twist that involves the conference ladders.
The top teams of each conference will occupy positions one, two, and three on the finals ladder. Their exact positions will be determined by an overall ladder, but it will always be the top of the conference, so even if top of the conference is position five overall, they are only judged against the other top teams.
Position four on the finals ladder is the best team overall of the season ladder, who isn’t already in the finals. This is guaranteed to be a team from position two in their conference. This rewards teams that can pick up wins in the cross conference games.
Positions five and six for the finals will go to the remaining second ranked teams from the conferences. Of these, the higher ranking team overall gets the higher overall spot.
Now, this is where I deviate from the script.
The overall ladder is now used to pick the remaining best four teams in the competition, to occupy spots seven through ten in the finals. Irrelevant of their conference place on ladder, this is to reward teams from an “even” conference not getting as many wins as a conference with runaway leaders and clear strugglers.
The finals then have a week off for the top six teams, and an elimination playoff match, seventh versus tenth and eighth versus ninth. The winners then occupy seventh and eighth in the finals and the “normal” finals structure resumes.
This method works better, as it rewards winning your conference with a double chance, gives you a home final in elimination matches for second, and extends the finals by two more matches without making them meaningless.
Having four ladders adds to the hype for the season. A team can be in the mid-table overall but leading their conference to still keep end of season games relevant.
Plus with it being a four-year cycle, teams aren’t shoehorned into being the “northern interstate” and “south and west interstate” conferences. They get shuffled around, to keep it more fair than just having us versus the Victorians.
The only downside, which it would be remiss not the address, the conferences would lack an identity other than a name or number.
Leave a comment below on how to fix that, or about things you would do differently.
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