The AFL’s move to have a ‘wildcard round’ ahead of the finals is gathering steam with new details emerging.
The possible plan revolves around the seventh and eighth-placed teams taking on the ninth and tenth-placed teams in the bye round before the finals actually start.
The winners of the those games will qualify for the finals, but critics of the concept just say the games are just an elimination final before the real elimination finals begin the following week.
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7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary has exclusive new details about the concept, and has revealed the AFL is considering selling off the round — like it has done with Gather Round — to a state outside of Victoria.
“Wildcard weekend will be thrashed out at the next commission meeting on Brownlow Medal day — to come in as early as 2025,” Cleary said.
He said the AFL liked the idea of creating create two extra games, more AFL content, and keeping teams’ finals dream alive for longer.
“The twist (is) those two games could be sold to the highest bidding city — just like Gather Round — for another AFL revenue stream,” Cleary said.
Using the current ladder system, the top-four teams would still get the double chance and fifth and sixth would still host elimination finals in week one.
But the seventh and eighth-placed teams are not guaranteed to finals and could possible head to Sydney, Adelaide, Perth or Brisbane for a sudden-death playoff.
“We had some really good conversations with club CEOs a few weeks back in Perth,” AFL boss Andrew Dillon told 7NEWS.
“It’s now with the commission and our footy department to consult further with our clubs, chatting to our broadcasters and venues about an opportunity to open up the finals series, but our final eight has served us really well for a long time as well so it’s a really good conversation.
“There’s a lot of work that’ll happen between now and Brownlow Medal day in relation to that so we can look at what the impacts would be on the competition as a whole.
“It’s a change to our finals series (and) would be a big move so we really want to make sure that the work’s done.
Asked is was an option to take it to market and see id there is interest, Dillon said it was “one of the alternatives”.
“That got discussed when we were with the CEOs.
“It would be part of the consultation with clubs and venues about the different ways it might be able to take place.”