Now that we have AFL Women’s up and running, it’s time we had a serious discussion about shortening the AFL home-and-away season.
There has long been debate about the best way to distribute matches across a 22-round season, with the idea of a 17-5 fixture one that crops up on a regular basis.
However now that we are watching AFL Women’s be crammed in alongside the men’s pre-season matches, it has me thinking that the AFL should take the opportunity to de-clutter.
How about just a straight up 18-match season where every team plays every other team once, and then a nominated rival twice?
Clubs could be left to their own devices to work out who their nominated rival should be – some would no doubt be static each year, some could be more rotational.
That would chop four weeks off the home-and-away season and might even eliminate the already suspect ‘need’ for a pre-finals bye week (though I’m one of the rare few who supports that idea).
Cut the pre-season matches to two games each – three is more than we need – and give the eight-week AFL Women’s fixture time to flourish on its own without needing to fit it in around the men’s game.
Matches starting in the AM hours, like Saturday’s Melbourne versus Carlton game, are just silly, and not giving the women’s game the investment it deserves.
It would only make things fairer in the home-and-away too. The NFL is smart enough to know that less is more, the AFL should take a page out of their book.
In fact, if we could retroactively make it so the 2016 season ended after Round 9, with North Melbourne 9-0 at the top of the ladder, that would be just about perfect.
AFL Women’s
Adelaide versus Brisbane is the most crucial game of the season
With the Crows and the Lions maintaining their perfect unbeaten records this week, you’d have to think they are the two teams most likely to appear in the grand final at this stage.
Of course, the two sides are yet to meet, and if no other challenger rises up to knock one of them off, then who gets to host the final will come down to the winner of that fixture.
As luck would have it, that match-up awaits us next week – one side will be the last undefeated team left in the competition, and in the box seat for the premiership.
It’s an Adelaide home game, which may see them go in as favourites, but you’d be mad to count the Lions out given they’ve had two interstate wins already so far.
We need a finals series
Look, in an eight-team competition, having only the top two qualify for any kind of post-season is just bogus. It’s already made five of the eight teams in the mix irrelevant.
The AFL said this weekend they might look at putting a top four system in place ahead of next year – I say that is an absolute must.
My ideal system for AFL Women’s right now would be ten teams with a top-five final series – the way the football gods intended a final series to work.
That’s probably a few years away, but for now, a top-four system at the very least is critical to keeping the competition interesting beyond the top handful of sides.
Pre-season predictions were a long way off
We were all going in pretty blind when it came to AFL Women’s, given that the teams had spent very little time together and we had no real indication of how they would all fit together.
Really, it’s not much surprise in that case that the pre-season predictions putting the Bulldogs and Fremantle as the top sides in the competition haven’t panned out.
The Dogs won their Round 1 match against a travelling Fremantle outfit, but have now lost three games on the trot, despite being yet to leave their home ground at Whitten Oval.
Fremantle haven’t put in poor efforts by any standard but for some reason just haven’t been able to get that breakthrough win. They’ve got Collingwood and Carlton both at home in the next two weeks and will hope to finally finish on top there.
JLT Community Series
Jack Billings is ready to come of age
Thinking back to 12 months ago, I remember myself and a number of other Roarers being very excited about the outstanding 2016 season we expected Jack Billings to have.
Things didn’t go to plan – he had a little trouble with injury and while he still played most games, he just wasn’t the force we thought he could be.
When your predictions don’t come off immediately, it can be easy to fall out of love with them and move on. Sometimes though, things just take a little more time than you expect.
Watching him play on Thursday night, I think Billings is now ready to have that season, and it could be a real wower. Best and fairest? All-Australian? I would put neither past his potential at this stage.
Some new faces could be just what Richmond needs
Repeat this with me three times: It’s only a pre-season match. It’s only a pre-season match. It’s only a pre-season match.
Okay, now that we’ve done that, let me say that I reckon Richmond looked like a different footy team on Friday night in their win over Adelaide.
Now, the win itself isn’t that impressive – with Adelaide missing Rory Sloane, Scott Thompson, and Brad Crouch, a loss would’ve been a very poor effort.
However, the Tigers played with a little more dare and dash than we have seen from them in recent years, and Dion Prestia, Josh Caddy and Toby Nankervis all had an impact.
Maybe they will crawl back into their shells once the real thing begins. I wouldn’t put it past them. But maybe some fresh faces to shake things up is just what the doctor ordered for this team.
I wasn’t kidding about Sam Mitchell
In January I said I believed that Sam Mitchell could take the West Coast Eagles to a premiership in 2016.
After watching him play in their colours for the first time on Saturday, I’m as confident as ever that it’s a very real possibility.
Yeah, okay, it was only against Fremantle in a pre-season match, but… well, I don’t need to tell you how good Sam Mitchell is. He’s good. You know it.
Oh, and just so those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter aren’t deprived of my rubbish takes, here’s one from earlier in the week for you to scowl at.
But maybe I’m wrong about Melbourne
Earlier this week I said that St Kilda, not Melbourne, were the young upstart team ready to make finals this year. I am no longer even a little confident.
Let’s repeat that mantra again: It’s only a pre-season match. It’s only a pre-season match. It’s only a pre-season match. A pre-season match against Cartlon, even!
Still, on Saturday the Demons looked like everything I have long thought they could be.
Christian Petracca booted four goals, he may be more ready than I thought to step up and be that attacking weapon the Demons need. Christian Salem too.
If either or both can make the jump to elite or near-elite this year, then playing and winnings finals is very much in reach.
Rumours of North Melbourne’s demise are at least slightly exaggerated
Alright, alright, I know, North Melbourne fan talking about North Melbourne. You can just skip this one if you like. No one mention the part where it was a pre-season game!
Seriously though, as a Roos fan, I like what I have seen in the club’s two pre-season games to date, and the fact that both have ended in wins is pretty sweet.
Logic says that when you cut a bunch of experience from the list, you are going to drop off – and logic may well prove to be on a winner when the real stuff gets started.
But bottom four? Wooden spoon? There’s much more talent on this list than that, whether or not it spends a lot of time getting talked up in the papers.
There’s a lot to like about Essendon’s forward line
First you’ve got two impressive talls in Joe Daniher and Cale Hooker. They haven’t played a lot in combination yet, but it’s a better pair of talls than most clubs have.
However it’s the range of middle and small-size options that the Bombers have which should really be exciting fans.
Orazio Fantasia took big steps forward last year and should only improve, and the return of the underrated Travis Colyer will be pretty handy too.
Add in the potential for Jobe Watson to spend significant time there this year, and the excellent performances we’ve seen from guys on the fringe of the best 22 in this pre-season – Josh Green, Josh Begley, Jayden Laverde – and it’s an attack unit with some real weapons.
Mandrake
Guest
Bizarre retort...coz they're not good enough and in my system everyone plays everyone once...
Seano
Guest
Play every team twice, that way we would be watching footy already. Clean up the lists, ie all clubs get max of 45 on main list plus 5 sups on minimum wage that can only replace long term injury. Players can play a max of 22 games in home and away season, no cap for finals.
Mandrake
Guest
Thanks for the lecture on conferences - a third team for WA seems a way off but Tassie and Canberra are the best bets who could play in the south. If WA gets a third side instead of Canberra, then 4 divisions of 5 with the top 2 making the finals. A Vic team could rotate in the northern Division every 10 years but Tassie would like Northern tourists as well. Anything to give people an interest longer into the season
1der
Guest
With regards to the AFL draw why cannot the 5 double up games be the calculated from the ladder positions from the previous year. Top, Middle & Bottom six sides will play each other in the additional game. Thus sides like Carlton, Freo & Brisbane would maybe get a second chance to win a game against each other in the next five years?
Peppsy
Roar Guru
The concept of the current system is fine, it's just AFL HQ aren't very good at using it.
Leonard
Guest
Is that an example of papal infallibility?
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Don't even bother, Paul. We should just get resigned to the fact that his hatred for Freo will never cease. He thrives on controversy, I swear. The mods blocked my last attempt at criticising him a few nights ago, probably because I was a tad too annoyed.
Paul D
Roar Guru
You've had well over 18 months to come up with new material and haven't managed that. Maybe you should have a crack at reinventing yourself before criticizing the slowness of others to do the same.
Leonard
Guest
But, if the League expands to "to 20 teams [with] 5 conferences (North, 3 South and the West)", doesn't that assume the 'South' - which now has 10 clubs (nine in Melbourne + Geelong) - having 12 clubs? From where? Surely NOT from Tasmania, because wouldn't that mean having two clubs in 500,000-people area with WA and SA each having two also with X times the populations? Compare the three populations, and your jaw will drop! And your "West" has to include SA and WA, doesn't it? Which makes sense. I'd have the four clubs in the one division playing each other twice (which would cut down on nation-wide travel). See below. And about 'conferences', as in "5 conferences": if US terminology is going to be used, then let's use it accurately: a 'conference' is like a whole league; in fact, the NFL's 'American' conference was once a separate 'league', their AFL. What is really meant is '5 divisions', as in each NFL conference being sub-divided into four 'divisions': E / S / N / W. America's conferences + divisions pre-date modern means of travel and communication, back in an era when getting halfway across the nation took half the week. But five 'divisions' looks good as a long term goal - provided we don't all fall sick with cultural-cringitis by dropping 'footy' and taking up "football, but not as we once knew it"! I'd reckon eight Victorian clubs comprising Geelong and seven Melbourne clubs in two divisions, the four WA + SA clubs in one, and . . . . . . . . . ?
joe b
Guest
To clarify.... Nothing really wrong with the CURRENT fixture given the objectives. And.... a Tassie team would fill the void left by consolidation in Melbourne. Conference system would not work in Australia... if we wanted conference system why not just revert back to WAFL, SANFL, VFL and other state leagues.
SonOfLordy
Guest
Ross Lyon talking about a 4 year rebuild. Not encouraging signs for Fremantle. That's not a great mentality you're trying to instill in your players. What happened to "anywhere, anytime"?... You could argue that the team has improved it's list since the 2015 preliminary final. At worst it's a push. The excuse last year was it takes time to implement an updated game plan -- never mind that Don Pyke implemented a new game plan over one summer with a group of players he was unfamiliar with. Never mind that Longmire implemented a new game plan over one off season. Ross Lyon has now had nearly 18 months to implement his evolved game plan. Time to put up or shut up. I didn't see any semblance of a game plan from Fremantle on Saturday. In fact, they played with no real plan much like they did throughout 2016. That's the disturbing thing for me. It was just a pre-season game and you could dismiss Freo's performance if it was an anomaly. But it wasn't. They played exactly like they played throughout 2016. Ross Lyon talking about a 4 year rebuild (despite an incredible midfield and bolstered forward line). If he was rebuilding then why did he trade away his draft picks for experienced players in the off season. That's not smart if you're genuinely trying to rebuild. 4 year rebuilds are afforded to new teams like GWS or Gold Coast when they came into the competition, to Paul Roos when he took over cultureless Melbourne team, when Bolton took over Carlton last year, for whoever is taking over at the Brisbane Lions. Not for a coach that just traded away his draft picks, had made a preliminary final 17 months ago with the same core players, for a coach with a midfield of Fyfe, Neale, Mundy, Sandilands, Hill brothers, Walters rotating through (with Fyfe, Neale, Walters in their absolute prime).
andrew
Guest
north entitled to a 'square up' with the draw in 2017 though surely. in 2016, they played dogs, hawks, crows, swans, saints, as the teams they played twice. which proved to be far and away the toughest statistically. and thats without going into 6 day breaks, where they also fared very poorly and things like playing the crows in ADL off a 6 day break, when crows were coming off a bye.
SonOfLordy
Guest
I don't think you can compare those sports to AFL. Soccer has more context with Champions League, Europa League, promotion/relegation, domestic cups at stake. You can stretch out a soccer season and keep it relevant for teams at the top of the table and bottom. As for the NBA/NFL, consumption patterns differ between those sports and something like AFL or NFL. People don't sit down to watch a random NHL game on a Friday night as they might with the AFL or a Monday night game in the NFL. The NBA/NHL/MLB are more regional than the NFL. Teams have their own broadcast deals for the cities they are in. And yes, people complain about the NBA/NHL/MLB seasons being way too long. Right now are the "dog days" of the NBA. People are just waiting for the playoffs to roll around and even then you don't get to the real thing until the conference playoffs roll around. I'd favour making the AFL a 17 or 19 team competition and playing each team once with an equal number of home and away games. Playing a designated "rival" twice skews the fixture too much.
Mandrake
Guest
Or Better to expand to 20 teams and have 5 conferences (North,3 South and the West) everybody playing everybody once with (19 games) and everyone in their conference again for 3 more games. The top in each conference gets in to the finals and the next best 3 so everyone has an interest in the finals. The local derbies are retained and local supporter of interstate non Vic teams get to see their team every year as they play either eg Swans or Giants in Sydney in any year. The 3 South conferences may be jumbled each year so the top teams play each other more but even if Carlton Collingwood are at opposite ends in their standings they still play each other once a year. The 3 extra games against potentially arguably weaker sides in your conference is only 14% of your fixtures but it means less travelling (except for Collingwood), les poorly attended games in the heartland and races for the conference finals and conference second place all the way up till September.
Mandrake
Guest
18 game season and you explain to the punters why they get 20% less in TV rights and the NRL and Super Rugby get a free hit for 4 weeks.
Joe B
Guest
Nothing really wrong with the fixture given the objectives. Better off focusing on consolidation in Melbourne, either through merger or relocation to Tasmania. Tassie, even though a small state, is valuable in terms of player talent, and the AFL needs a large talent pool to sustain an 18 team comp. Furthermore, if the AFL allows Hawks and Kangaroos to play 7 combined 'home games' in Tassie surely this would indicate that they could host 11 home games of a local team.
Leonard
Guest
That fine old (and jocular) saying "Too much footy is still not enough" works for me - within reasonable limits (of course!). Players should never be polled on 'Would you like a shorter season?' Much less on 'Would you like a shorter season with the same pay?' It should be 'Would you like a shorter season with an 11% pay cut for 11% fewer games?' (And 11% less of all your other perks, lurks and entitlements.) If 17 + 5 does come in, I'd like it to be 18 + 4 to preserve the four Australia-wide clubs' crosstown derbies and rematches of some of the Big Vic 'blockbusters', with Rd 18being a Derby / Blockbuster rematch round, with each club playing its 16 non-derby / blockbuster opponents over a four-year cycle. And about more expansion forget it till about 2027. And stop fantasising about Tasmania as if it is the same as every other State. It's not - its more like Belgium, only worse: if it gets only one AFL club half of it won't be happy because, those in the half where it's not just won't go to games or have anything to do with it. And can that absurdly moronic nonsense about a Melbourne club playing four 'Home' games down in in the North and four in the South, as is repeatedly urged by one of its dailies: name the Melbourne club president or GM or CEO who is going to announce at an AGM (or, worse, at an XGM),"By the way, eight of your 'Home' games next year will be down there in li'l ol' Tazzee!!" (Exit, stage left, pursued by 10,000 members.)
Brian
Guest
They're not going to cut down from 22 games. What they could do is cut the pre-season to 1 game each only in regional venues, and no games for 2 or 3 weeks before the season, that will help with Round 1 build-up and maybe the CBA negotiations. One day they should also look at the timing of the season. Playing in hot weather is hazardous. Ideally GF should be late October players return to training new years AFLW Feb-April Mens pre-season March-April season starts late April.
Alchemist
Guest
Firstly, the AFL would have to build all new grounds as the majority of venues are tied to cricket for 6 months of the year. Secondly that would be a 34 week home and away season and the season already gets a bit boring towards the end of the current 22 rd system. Thirdly current aussie rules is a hell of a lot more taxing than those other sports you mentioned. Fourthly the players only get 6 to 8 weeks break as they're pretty much straight into it not long after the season finishes.
Last Straw
Guest
Add Tasmania and Canberra to make 20 teams. Then split the competition into first and second divisions with promotion and relegation. Keeps interest all year through with a fairer 18 round home and away competition for each division, plus top four or five final series for the first divsion. Broadcasters get additional games at no additional cost. The smaller first division lifts the quality and excitement levels for play-off qualification and relegation battles. The second division has the prospect of promotion for one or two teams each year. Properly promoted (if the AFL can sell out AFL Women's games, surely there is no issue with a second division competition being successful!) .. It represents a shorter but more intense season with a lot more talking points than the current lopsided, uneven draw with so many dead-rubber games. And don't tell me its not in the Aussie sports phsyc to have second division. That's a cop out a proven wrong by the success of the AFLW. Its all about the marketing and TV exposure!