AFL Season draw - what's the solution?

[McRooster]

AFL Season draw - what's the fairest model?

Blockbuster games ala Carlton v Collingwood and Anzac Day Collingwood v Bombers should remain as long as a proportion of the extra revenue is shared amongst the clubs.

It is fine to tweak the draw to include these marquee matches but the other clubs must be compensated as they have essentially been excluded from these opportunistic games and have had their right to play Collingwood hamstrung by the corporate interest of Demetriou's demons.
There is plenty of history in the true spirit of Anzac and what the diggers fought and died for but there is NO history or right to that match being played by Collingwood and Essendon. It was created to generate coin, coin that should be shared by all clubs.

1. What about a conference system for 2012?

10 teams in Victoria divided into two, pool A and pool B.
Each other state has one of their teams in pool A and one in pool B.
Pool A has 9 teams and pool B has 9 teams.
Play each other twice in your own pool (Home and away) for total of 16 matches.
Then tables combine and even teams play each other once and odd teams play each other once for a season total of 24 matches.
Resultant top eight plays finals as we know it.

2. Rolling roster.

Begin 2013 by having odd teams play and even teams play for the first 8 rounds.
This ensures an even spread of finishing postions from the previous season playing an even spread of the field.
Once that is played out then you begin playing teams in order of finishing position until your team has played all teams singularly , ie. 17 games without repeat, then the next five are the first five you played in the season.
Season total of 22 games or up to 24 if preferred (by then NAB may be non-existent).
Then the next season begins by your team playing the next team in succession and so on until rnd 12 and the team that you played first up last year you play again.
This ensure over the years that our teams play everyone evenly as we roll through the opposing sides one by one.

Any other ideas for a fair and equitable draw?

[Justin Bieber]

2nd idea is interesting. But doubt that'll happen.

First idea was thrown up for when GWS comes in. The only thing that bothers me there, is that how do we decide what pools would be fair? How do we split the teams as we don't want a pool full of currently strong teams, and the others weaker. And will it be kept that way for years, or change on a yearly basis?

[ossie85]

I like the idea of everyone playing each other once (17 rounds), and then dividing in 3 (top 6, middle 6, bottom 6) and having everyone play off for finals positions and draft picks

[hawk_88]

I like the idea of everyone playing each other once (17 rounds), and then dividing in 3 (top 6, middle 6, bottom 6) and having everyone play off for finals positions and draft picks

Definitely my preferred option too. Means you have an totally fair and even season, 5 games of really high quality as they are all similar in ladder position and then finals.

[WatsamataU]

There is no doubt that the fairest way is to have each team playing each other team twice (1home&1away) but 4 this to happen there can't be a nab cup and finals series. Plus 34-36 games in a season is too much for footy players  :( :(

[bunyip]

Perhaps the league is getting big enough to divide into 2 conferences. When we have 18 teams that would mean 2 * 9 team divisions.
Each team in each division would play each other twice, so 16 games. Then the conference finals over 4 weeks and then the top 2 teams from each conference in a championship finals, another 3 weeks. All up a 25 week season.

[ossie85]

Been thinking about McRooster's proposal some more, and I really do like out-of-the-box stuff like this....


But if we were to go with a conference, reckon Bunyip's got it.

Victorian Conference: Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond, St. Kilda, Western Bulldogs

Interstate Conference: Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney, North Melbourne (well.. if someone has to move lol), Port Adelaide, Sydney, West Coast

But doesn't this go back to the VFL-days?? TV makes it different I guess.


I like this Championship League proposal the AFL and the second-tier comps are proposing... I think were the top 4 VFL Teams, Top 4 WAFL, Top 4 SANF Teams, (guessing) the Top 3 Teams from the new NEAFL, and the top team from the TFL play off in a 15-match competition.