Time for a drastic change

[Nardz]

the AFL/VFL was never designed to house this many teams in the same league.

throughout history it was always 12 teams playing eachother twice every season.. and bad administration saw the introduction of too many teams and the shift to the inequities we have with fixturing today.

AFL games are too long to shift to the 34 rounds that are required for an equal draw. If you think about it, AFL games are pretty long as it is.. in effect it's 2 hours of game play, while most other sports are only 60-90 minutes.

so is it time to bring the length of a game down to about 90 minutes? ie 4 x 15 minute quarters + time on.. or even 2 * 30 minute halves + time on

let each team play eachother twice, with games played more frequently to keep it between march-september? remove the sub and extend the interchange to 8 players so clubs can ensure players aren't over utilised.

the sooner we remove the inequities in fixturing the better off the game is for everyone.. no more whinging about collingwood not travelling, no more whinging about adelaides piss easy draw or the bulldogs and port adelaide getting butchered in the fixturing. everybody will be on a level playing field.

The broadcasters can't complain because they have more footy to air.

It's also more family friendly as night matches can finish by 9:30-10pm.

 

[DerpWerls]

There is 0% chance of that happening.

IMO if any change was needed, they should shorten the H&A to 18 rounds and put more into the preseason competition.
Surely dropping 4 rounds is a better solution than completely changing the structure of the game. Lol what next.

 

[Nardz]

There is 0% chance of that happening.

IMO if any change was needed, they should shorten the H&A to 18 rounds and put more into the preseason competition.
Surely dropping 4 rounds is a better solution than completely changing the structure of the game. Lol what next.

dropping 4 rounds won't acheive anything. still won't be an equal fixture. you'll still have the problem of teams travelling more than others etc.

the only way of having an equal fixture is to have each team playing eachother twice. it is the only way.

 

[DerpWerls]

Good point. Also it would be 17 rounds plus byes

 

[Nardz]

and i do know its about a 0% chance of happening. but it should happen. the game needs a shake up from this ridiculous situation we find ourselves in. it will actually bring some integrity into the game.

 

[jackn]

dropping 4 rounds won't acheive anything. still won't be an equal fixture. you'll still have the problem of teams travelling more than others etc.

There's always going to be teams inequities with travel, whether you play each team once, twice or 1.5 times as it is now. Under your idea freo would travel 16 times compared to a melbourne team travelling 7. The best solution to even up the draw is cutting the season so each team plays the others once and they rotate who plays at home across the seasons. It still wouldn't be perfect as each season half the teams would have 8 home games whilst the others only had 8, but that would turn around the next year. It will never happen though because the AFL is run for TV.

 

[blaze036]

the fixture will never be fair, lets move on and not make ridiculous drastic action to fix something that cannot be fixed

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Can be fixed

Over x years you play each team y times

That is why this fixturing system was introduced to begin with, it was to allow the early season blockbusters without being forced to have it repeat
Only problem is, uncle Andu saw the dollar signs

 

[Nardz]

the fixture will never be fair, lets move on and not make ridiculous drastic action to fix something that cannot be fixed

why not?

why does almost every sport in the world manage to get a fair fixture, but we write it off as something that will never happen?

not only do we reward mediocrity with our fixturing, but we also seem to accept it in the administration of our game.

 

[Coconut_twirl]

No chance of a fair fixture. Broadcasters will not accept a reduction in matches without a reduction of television rights payment. They will never be anymore than 22 rounds per season, as it would be too physically demanding on the players. Just live with it, the game is fine currently. The VFL was the ancient past, the AFL needed to introduce new teams to get the game of Australian football moving forward and add money for the code.

 

[RogersResults]

the AFL/VFL was never designed to house this many teams in the same league.

throughout history it was always 12 teams playing each other twice every season.. and bad administration saw the introduction of too many teams and the shift to the inequities we have with fixturing today.

1897: 8 teams played each other twice.
1898-1900: 8 teams played each other twice, then were divided in two sections comprising teams in positions 1,3,5,7 and 2,4,6,8. They then played each other once. The top 2 teams of the sectional ladder then played off in a final to decide the premiership. (4 opponents played twice - 3 opponents played 3 times.)
1902-1907 Same as the above except that the sectional matches were added on to the ladder from the first round of 14 matches. (4 opponents played twice - 3 opponents played 3 times.)
1908-1914:10 teams (9 opponents played twice.)
1915: 9 teams (8 opponents plated twice.)
1916: 4 teams (3 opponents played 4 times.)
1917: 6 teams (5 opponents played 3 times.)
1918: 8 teams (7 opponents played twice.)
1919-1924: 9 teams: (8 opponents played twice.)
1925: 12 teams (6 opponents plated twice, 5 opponents played once.)
1926-1941: 12 teams (7 opponents played twice, 4 opponents played once.)
1942:11 teams: (5 teams played 4 opponents twice and 6 opponents once and 6 teams played 5 opponents twice and 5 opponents once.)
1943: 11 teams. (5 opponents twice and 5 opponents once with the bottom team dropping out after each team had played each other once.)
1944: 12 teams (7 opponents played twice, 4 opponents played once.)
1945: 12 teams (9 opponents played twice, 2 opponents played once.)
1946-1949: 12 teams (8 opponents played twice, 3 opponents played once.)
1950-1951 12 teams: (7 opponents played twice, 4 opponents played once.)
1952: 12 teams (8 opponents played twice, 3 opponents played once.)
1953-1967: 12 teams (7 opponents played twice, 4 opponents played once.)
1968-1969: 12 teams (9 opponents played twice, 2 opponents played once.)
1970-1986 12 teams (11 opponents played twice.)

1970-1986 50% of teams won 50% or more of their home and away matches for the period.
1995-2010 62.5% of teams won 50% or more of their home and away matches for the period.
1970-1986 25% of teams won less than 40% of their home and away matches for the period.
1995-2010 No team won less than 40% of their home and away matches for the period.

 

[RogersResults]

​

2011 ladder with all the second meetings removed compared to the 22 match final ladder.​

Note the difference?​

 

[speedpeck23]

The finals system exists to cover the inequities of the fixture. Don't worry about it.

 

[stmookeyj]

There may be alterations in the playing time, where time on is only measured in the last 10 minutes of playing time per quarter, but it will never be 2 halves in the regular season. Plus the next move in the interchange system will be either restriction or reduction as opposed to expansion.

 

[Colonial]

dropping 4 rounds won't acheive anything. still won't be an equal fixture. you'll still have the problem of teams travelling more than others etc.

the only way of having an equal fixture is to have each team playing eachother twice. it is the only way.

I dont see any problem playing every one once. Then on the next year swap the home teams. Fair and easy. Also if you could get back to back, surely that would be a great thing to aim for.

 

[Nardz]

for starters, it would breach all of the broadcast contracts that are in place for x amount of games.

 

[SCHUMACHER]

Everyone playing once still won't solve anything. 'Ohhh our draw is rigged because every second year we have to travel too much whereas x team's travelling is more spread out over the 2 years' etc etc etc. You'd just never be able to make it fair for every team. The broadcasting rights would also be worth a hell of a lot less due to the serious lack of blockbusters, derbies, showdowns etc etc. If you think about it it'd be pretty boring to have all the BIG powerclub matchups of the year always only happen once. Basically there'd be a lot less footy being played and the % of games that were interesting would also be less.

 

[Gibbke]

4 Conference System...

 

[FootyJunkie]

Bring back 25 min quarters!

 

[Eastern Rangers]

There is 0% chance of that happening.

IMO if any change was needed, they should shorten the H&A to 18 rounds and put more into the preseason competition.
Surely dropping 4 rounds is a better solution than completely changing the structure of the game. Lol what next.

or 17 H&A games. Extended preseason and finals series.

 

[MaddAdam]

the AFL/VFL was never designed to house this many teams in the same league.

throughout history it was always 12 teams playing eachother twice every season.. and bad administration saw the introduction of too many teams and the shift to the inequities we have with fixturing today.

No it wasn't. The league in 1897 repeatedly expanded - and contracted - until it hit the magic 12 team figure in 1925.

 

[Doss]

No it wasn't. The league in 1897 repeatedly expanded - and contracted - until it hit the magic 12 team figure in 1925.

And to expand on that, it wasn't until 1970 that seasons were expanded to 22 rounds.

1970-86 was the only time period the VFL/AFL every truly had a perfect fixture.

 

[hitthepost]

Make each team play 12 games in their home state and 10 in different states
For non-Victorian teams this is your 11 home games plus your Showdown/Derby/QClash/Sydney-GWS
For Victorian teams it means playing neutral matches against other Victorian teams in places other than Victoria
Every match's gate profits are shared 50-50 between the two teams
So everybody has to travel 10 times a year
Just need to make all the venues equally close to each other now

 

[Slattery_20]

or 17 H&A games. Extended preseason and finals series.

Wouldn't be against 17 rounds. How could you extend finals?

 

[Doss]

You probably couldn't without expanding the final 8 to 10 or 12- which I hate the idea of.