You would like to think that last Friday morning, Gillon McLachlan entered AFL House in the manner of an undertaker, walked past the burgeoning HR department and towards the sign announcing how many days had passed since the last workplace accident. There, with visible regret, he climbed up on the ladder and flipped the number back to zero.
The accident from the day before was the announcement of a potential wildcard round to decide the last two spots in the top eight – an idea that could be introduced as early as next year. The proposal would likely see two wildcard games – seventh versus 10th and eighth versus ninth – with the winners then entering a finals format. Although a more radical model could see the winner of six teams in the 13th-18th placed pool winning a wildcard spot.
But there is nothing resembling regret from AFL’s head office, and instead the wildcard round is simply the latest sally in a war on common sense that has lasted at least 10 years. If there is one football rivalry an occasional viewer might be conversant with, it is the one between AFL house and good judgment. And it would appear most of the clubs – likely the two the AFL underwrote and others to whom it regularly lends money – are complicit.
McLachlan said he was surprised by interest in the wildcard round, an idea that had a “significant level” of support.
The popularity among the AFL clubs is not so unexpected if you also consider they have a self-interest that is not unlike the parochial Japanese parents who ensured a primary school production of Snow White featured no dwarves and 25 Snow Whites. Everyone should play finals.
The proposal of a wildcard round was part of a broader 18-month discussion with the club CEOs about overhauling the current season format.
“What you’re trying to do is have more live games in the back end of the season if possible and more compelling content, but equity is the key, it’s where it started,” said McLachlan. It is a statement that is either truthful or duplicitous, depending on your definition of “equity” – and definitions haven’t been McLachlan’s strongest suit since his “tanking” stumble in 2013.
Broadcaster Channel Seven could barely mask their elation, and wasted no time in confirming that it was open to the idea of two extra “blockbuster” games. The broadcaster claimed they are in constant dialogue with the AFL about what works best for fans and viewers. God help us all if that is indeed the case.
Were you to let fans speak for themselves, they would continue to say, “leave everything the hell alone!” We are nine weeks into one of the most absorbing AFL seasons in memory, with the weekend having just delivered two remarkable comebacks.
On Saturday night, early in the second quarter, Collingwood was seven-goals-and-change behind an undermanned Hawthorn after a first term that would’ve had Lou Richards rotating anti-clockwise in his grave. But then Scott Pendlebury got going, and when he did, so did Collingwood. Everything Pendlebury does, kick, handball or clearance, feels in tune with the energies of his team. And the energy of the second half was all Collingwood’s, kicking 9.6 to 1.2. Even when the Hawks turned into the last quarter with scores level, there was little more than cautious optimism among a fan base that’s no longer “riding the bumps with a grin”.
Cautious optimism is a little harder to find among the Richmond faithful after their team found yet another way to suffer a soul-destroying loss – the third in as many weeks. This week it was a disallowed goal from Tiger debutant Shai Bolton and the resultant kick-in that led to a chain of possession that ended with a Jeremy Cameron goal and a three-point Giants lead with less than a minute to run.
For those who don’t support Richmond, watching them has become required viewing, as you know halfway through the last quarter that surge of schadenfreude will inevitably come again. The camaraderie non-Tigers get in watching Richmond find new ways to lose in the last two minutes of a game is as real as it is fun.
And fun is a good a term as any to describe football in 2017. Wins to North Melbourne and a resurgent Sydney Swans mean that as we approach the halfway mark of the season you could reasonably mount a case for 17 of the 18 teams having a say on the shaping of the final eight. If there were ever a time where floating the idea of tinkering with the finals system was idiotic, surely it is now.
It would not be a controversial opinion to say that McLachlan could do a better job if he walked into AFL House each morning for the remainder of the season and simply turned on the lights. The competition is providing more than enough “compelling content” without his help.
