Ideas for Round 24 Bye.

[L_W_P]

Friday night - Brownlow Medal
Saturday night - All Australian Team

Would mean all the best players can attend the one venue and would fill in the 'free' weekend perfectly.

 

[parano1a]

Seven will probably organise for Round 1 of the VFL/WAFL/SANFL finals to be played in the Friday and Saturday night timeslots.... it will be a good chance for the state leagues to promote their finals series

 

[dylan93]

Remaining teams that didn't make it form 2 teams and play off?

 

[pazza]

Seven will probably organise for Round 1 of the VFL/WAFL/SANFL finals to be played in the Friday and Saturday night timeslots.... it will be a good chance for the state leagues to promote their finals series

Hmm.

Adelaide Oval and Subiaco will love more usage.

The trouble for the VFL is that there isn't a lot of grounds that have great lighting.

Werribee
Casey
North Ballarat

Sandringham has only just put theirs up.
Nothing at Port Melbourne, Williamstown and Box Hill.

 

[Scott Steiner]

One rep from each team outside the top 8 in an over the top rope battle royal for a spot in the finals.

 

[Suma Magic]

Problem with having the Brownlow would be that 8 clubs would be on the waters.

7 clubs and Hodgey

 

[shotgun_blues]

How about we start the finals a week early?

Teams will still rest players and/or instead manipulate finals outcomes by throwing the result regardless how long the break is between Rd 23 & finals.

Won't last 3 years. Stupidest idea I've ever heard. North & Freo had the bye virtually before finals by choice. Done them no good come Preliminary Finals. Can see it now.. Some other sport will just get a free kick that weekend and we'll be frothing for some real footy finals action thinking who thought that was a good idea? Morons.

 

[Pessimistic]

Everyone go their state league or local league finals. I'm expecting a significant increase in attendances for those matches as a result of the AFL's generosity.

OP ignorant that those clubs are actually playing foot that week end

 

[Pessimistic]

How about we start the finals a week early?

Teams will still rest players and/or instead manipulate finals outcomes by throwing the result regardless how long the break is between Rd 23 & finals.

Won't last 3 years. Stupidest idea I've ever heard. North & Freo had the bye virtually before finals by choice. Done them no good come Preliminary Finals. Can see it now.. Some other sport will just get a free kick that weekend and we'll be frothing for some real footy finals action thinking who thought that was a good idea? Morons.

If north did it to get a final in victoria, the bye makes no difference. Will the AFL insist on limited resting


Not that the strategy has ever delivered a flag, it has to be said

 

[Pessimistic]

They want to fixture a big TV Monday Night game as the last game of the H&A season which would have big finals implications.
It will still be hard to predict this correctly even a few weeks out though... could end up putting something like Richmond v North on the Monday Night and get a farce. If they want to do this, they should keep the 3 Sunday games still "floating" and announce which one will be promoted to Monday Night just one week before... bit like how the NFL does it with their last Sunday Night game of the regular season.

I don't see how a week off will prevent finals bound sides that have nothing to play for in the final round from resting players.

I'm not a fan of the bye week... absolutely kills the momentum going into finals... the final round this year had little interest given that the 8 was already set a whole week before and it would have had to have taken some bizarre/upset results to change the expected ladder... now add a week off on top of something like that... zzzzzzz.

The other thing is that it is more than likely the Grand Finalists will end up playing only playing 3 games in the 5 weeks leading up to the GF.... do they really need 2 byes in the lead up, I guess its a bit like 1st back in the Final 5 days.

Maybe the alternative to all of this would be to spread Week 1 of the finals over 2 weeks.... Elim Finals in Week 1, Qualifying Finals in Week 2.

Wasnt it the north dead rubber which got selected as the friday night blockbuster ? Ooops

 

[Jeremias]

Something which resembles an "All Star" weekend and encompasses some (or all) of the ideas in the OP would be a great initiative.

 

[Pessimistic]

All star game, while not the answer here, should be supercoach v dreamteam sponsored by the respective competitions.
Gets peoples passions going so much they hate the staggered bye, which is OK from my pov

 

[SgtSchulz]

For those who want an all star game

 

[falcons2]

Scrap it.

 

[M Malice]

Scrap it.

agree. mass resting of players hasnt worked for any of the teams that have done it anyway in as far as winning flags. its a long wait between games.

 

[chiwigi]

Under 18 All Star Game so we can actually see the potential draftees instead of pretending we have.

 

[Thats Wright]

How about we start the finals a week early?

Teams will still rest players and/or instead manipulate finals outcomes by throwing the result regardless how long the break is between Rd 23 & finals.

Won't last 3 years. Stupidest idea I've ever heard. North & Freo had the bye virtually before finals by choice. Done them no good come Preliminary Finals. Can see it now.. Some other sport will just get a free kick that weekend and we'll be frothing for some real footy finals action thinking who thought that was a good idea? Morons.

As Gill said, they wanted to stop another Malthouse disciple from draining the life out of the game. Is going to backfire big time though.

 

[falcons2]

Under 18 All Star Game so we can actually see the potential draftees instead of pretending we have.

No. When your team qualifies for finals all you want is to get on with it.

This will prove to be the most ridiculous move in AFL history and never will occur again after 2016.
Seven teams will lose momentum and the old Hawks will refresh and go onto another flag completing the Fourthorn. Everyone will then go berserk.

This can only be about the broadcaster. Something must be on that weekend and they don't want the football. Its the weekend Sept 2,3,4. that's between the Olympics and Paralympics. Or they want the Grand Final on the weekend of October 1.

 

[chiwigi]

No. When your team qualifies for finals all you want is to get on with it.

This will prove to be the most ridiculous move in AFL history and never will occur again after 2016.
Seven teams will lose momentum and the old Hawks will refresh and go onto another flag completing the Fourthorn. Everyone will then go berserk.

This can only be about the broadcaster. Something must be on that weekend and they don't want the football. Its the weekend Sept 2,3,4. that's between the Olympics and Paralympics. Or they want the Grand Final on the weekend of October 1.

The All Star game would have draftees not professional players.

We get to see the top 50 of the upcoming draft in one game.

If Hawthorn benefit more from the break, so what! Everyone has the same break, makes it much fairer than some of the crappy fixture decisions (like Port having to travel to Freo two weeks in a row before the prelim last year).

All clubs want their battered and bruised rested.

Hawthorn will never get to the magical 6 in a row anyway, so we aren't bothered....only Collingwood

 

[Greater Gattsby]

Championship of Australia sounds really interesting.

It's a good refreshing idea. Not sure that it'd pull crowds, but I'd certainly go to the games I could.

 

[Borussia Teeth]

How about we start the finals a week early?

Teams will still rest players and/or instead manipulate finals outcomes by throwing the result regardless how long the break is between Rd 23 & finals.

Won't last 3 years. Stupidest idea I've ever heard. North & Freo had the bye virtually before finals by choice. Done them no good come Preliminary Finals. Can see it now.. Some other sport will just get a free kick that weekend and we'll be frothing for some real footy finals action thinking who thought that was a good idea? Morons.

Definitely this.
Start finals a week earlier and have a September grand final.

 

[falcons2]

The All Star game would have draftees not professional players.

We get to see the top 50 of the upcoming draft in one game.

If Hawthorn benefit more from the break, so what! Everyone has the same break, makes it much fairer than some of the crappy fixture decisions (like Port having to travel to Freo two weeks in a row before the prelim last year).

All clubs want their battered and bruised rested.

Hawthorn will never get to the magical 6 in a row anyway, so we aren't bothered....only Collingwood

I like your game idea so why not play it on the Friday night before the Grand final as part of the build up? Same with all the other game ideas posted. They could even be on the Sundays of weeks 2 and 3 of the finals. The Bye week is a stinker. Have the AFL given a reason for it?
2014 Port played Freo in Perth round 23, then the kick against the howling gale tigers final in Adelaide before returning to Perth the following week.
Underestimate Hawthorn at your own peril!

 

[Lemma]

I like the U18 game, doesn't have to be state-based. Just broadcast some U18s so people can be more in the know come the draft

 

[Dan26]

If two teams are out of finals contention with a few weeks to go, perhaps that match could be played in the last round as a standalone game?

The AFL normally announces the last round fixture with about 5 weeks to go, right? Suppose Essendon and Carlton are towards the bottom of the ladder with 5 week to go, and can't make the finals. They could play a standalone game during the "bye" round to finish the season.

 

[Lemma]

^^Really like that idea