Opinion The pre-finals bye

[BigVic]

Since 2016, only 2017, 2022 and 2023 has saw both qualifying winners from the first week of the finals advanced to the grand final after a week off

2016: GWS, Geelong (both teams lost prelims)
2017: Adelaide, Richmond (played in Grand final)
2018: Richmond, West Coast Eagles (West Coast advanced to Grand Final, won)
2019: Richmond, Collingwood (Richmond advanced to Grand Final, won)
2020: Brisbane Lions, Port Adelaide (both teams lost prelims)
2021: No pre-finals bye, bye was week before Grand Final
2022: Geelong Cats, Sydney Swans (both advanced to Grand Final
2023: Collingwood, Brisbane Lions (both advanced to Grand Final)
2024: Sydney Swans, Geelong Cats

Geelong played 1 game in 29 days between the QF and yesterday's PF with their QF on the Thursday.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Since 2016, only 2017, 2022 and 2023 has saw both qualifying winners from the first week of the finals advanced to the grand final after a week off

2016: GWS, Geelong (both lost prelims)
2017: Adelaide, Richmond (played in Grand final)
2018: Richmond, West Coast Eagles (West Coast advanced to Grand Final, won)
2019: Richmond, Collingwood (Richmond advanced to Grand Final, won)
2020: Richmond, Port Adelaide
2021: No pre-finals bye, bye was week before Grand Final
2022: Geelong Cats, Sydney Swans (both advanced to Grand Final
2023: Collingwood, Brisbane Lions (both advanced to Grand Final)
2024: Sydney Swans, Geelong Cats

Geelong played 1 game in 29 days between the QF and yesterday's PF with their QF on the Thursday.

What’s going on in 2020?

 

[Shane Heard]

The bye is a good thing.

It’s a good thing for amateur and junior footy finals.

It’s a good thing for the AFL league players to rest up. Because the h&a season is a long and brutal journey of hard knocks and hard running.

 

[RAPPA]

Since 2016, only 2017, 2022 and 2023 has saw both qualifying winners from the first week of the finals advanced to the grand final after a week off

2016: GWS, Geelong (both teams lost prelims)
2017: Adelaide, Richmond (played in Grand final)
2018: Richmond, West Coast Eagles (West Coast advanced to Grand Final, won)
2019: Richmond, Collingwood (Richmond advanced to Grand Final, won)
2020: Brisbane Lions, Port Adelaide (both teams lost prelims)
2021: No pre-finals bye, bye was week before Grand Final
2022: Geelong Cats, Sydney Swans (both advanced to Grand Final
2023: Collingwood, Brisbane Lions (both advanced to Grand Final)
2024: Sydney Swans, Geelong Cats

Geelong played 1 game in 29 days between the QF and yesterday's PF with their QF on the Thursday.

Geelong had a bye in Round 24 and the QF as well.

 

[BigVic]

Also prevents mass resting players in the final rounds of the season as what we saw with Freo in 2015

 

[PenfoldsFan]

Geelong had a bye in Round 24 and the QF as well.

Quite hilarious for a supporter of a club that only made finals due to a win on the road by the club he's hanging shit on, and who gave their elimination final opponant the bye until half time.

 

[Handsuper47]

The bye is a good thing.

It’s a good thing for amateur and junior footy finals.

It’s a good thing for the AFL league players to rest up. Because the h&a season is a long and brutal journey of hard knocks and hard running.

I'm all for the bye, stops teams resting the majority of their players in the last few rounds making them pointless games

 

[TP86]

It's the no.1 argument for the bookmakers having too much power in the game. They couldn't handle one game every 6-7 years where a team rests key players (and has only ever been done by two coaches) and thus kicked up a massive stink.

The suggestion of a 'wildcard weekend' or bye round to fill that gap means mass rotation might return for the final H&A round anyway. But I imagine nobody will have a problem with it then because wildcard weekend won't want to be blamed.

 

[deck]

The bye is a good thing.

It’s a good thing for amateur and junior footy finals.

It’s a good thing for the AFL league players to rest up. Because the h&a season is a long and brutal journey of hard knocks and hard running.

And 1 thing you have missed is there won't be a Thursday night final without the week off.

 

[010203]

Also prevents mass resting players in the final rounds of the season as what we saw with Freo in 2015

One could argue resting players in round 23 didn't do Fremantle any good anyway as they weren't impressive in their qualifying final win against Sydney and were outplayed by Hawthorn in the prelim final.

 

[Shane Heard]

I'm all for the bye, stops teams resting the majority of their players in the last few rounds making them pointless games

Exactly

 

[BigVic]

One could argue resting players in round 23 didn't do Fremantle any good anyway as they weren't impressive in their qualifying final win against Sydney and were outplayed by Hawthorn in the prelim final.

This was the exact reason the AFL bought in the pre-finals bye.