The AFL keeps coming back to the idea of a wildcard round. But don’t be fooled by the hype, it’s a bad idea for our game.
The introduction of a wildcard weekend, pitting the teams that “finish” the home-and-away season ranked seventh to 10th against each other in two games, is an AFL idea that keeps being regurgitated like a bad, burpy attack of reflux.
Those hypothetical match-ups underscore how: a) the wildcard concept is all about generating more revenue and “product”; and, b) it actually undermines the integrity and merit of the home-and-away season. It is tough enough to make the eight in a competition decided by micro-margins – four games were decided by less than a goal within 24 hours last weekend – without having to front up for pre-elimination elimination finals; there is no need for repechages when you’ve already played 23 games.
In the old VFL days, only one third of the 12 clubs played finals. This was – rightly – expanded to five out of 12, then six out of 14 as the VFL went national, and – after one season in which a majority made the top eight – the final eight became ensconced. It is only the NBA that lets the majority of its 30 teams compete in some form of play-offs, permitting 12 to make it plus four more who play a version of wildcards .shorter
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