The great thing about finals is it lays you bare. There’s nowhere to hide. You get opened up and some players and some clubs rise above that and they shine and other players get exposed.
– North Melbourne coach Brad Scott
Memo to the AFL – do not expand the finals. Eight is often too much, but it is enough. Expanding the finals will cheapen the experience. Use North Melbourne as proof. At the weekend North, who finished eighth, lost the elimination final to West Coast by 96 points.
Two months ago, North lost to West Coast by two points. North is the latest argument that the final eight is rewarding mediocrity.
Since the inception of the final eight in 1994, just six teams that finished eighth have won an elimination final. North became the thirteenth team to lose.
Making the finals is no longer a grand achievement and it’s obvious some clubs should not be representing the AFL in the finals.
In March last year the AFL said it was considering a final ten, given the expansion to eighteen clubs. Under that proposal, St Kilda and Carlton would’ve played finals this year and neither club deserved to.
On 22 August 2012, football writer Mark Stevens said the AFL should consider a final nine. Steven’s wrote:
Footy is all about selling hope. Supporters at start of every season have to genuinely feel they are at least a chance of pushing for eight.
Right now, with benchmark set at 13 (wins) and seemingly headed that way in seasons to come as the obvious strangers seem stuck in quicksand, it is too easy to lose hope before the halfway mark.
Sure, there’s a bit of a tussle for eighth spot and we in the media hype it up, but it is hardly a log-jam. Six teams were gone 10 weeks ago.
Tough luck for those six teams. And if there’s hardly a log-jam for eighth spot, that means nine clubs aren’t good enough. Steven’s story, in an era of expansion, still has no historical merit.
Missing the finals is a wasted season, but the AFL should not be expanding to accommodate the unfortunates. Nine is too many, despite Steven’s suggestion that the top four would get a week off at the start of the finals.
The final eight system is working to its best ability, and that’s barely good enough.
Still, the AFL must be watching the lower rungs intently. Under the proposed system, the finals would run five weeks. In week one, the top six would have a bye while seventh played tenth and eighth played ninth. The two winners would progress into the current final eight system.
Carlton and St Kilda each won twelve games, but think what Geelong would’ve done to the Saints. Fremantle would’ve hammered the Blues. Those matches seem pointless.
Most people before the weekend thought North might’ve been competitive and they weren’t. They got thrashed, just like a lot of teams that finish eighth.
The final eight is 19 years old. Before the 2000 season, one played eight, two played seven, three played six and four played five. Concerned about the number of one-sided finals in the first week, the AFL changed the format and there are still too many one sided finals involving the eighth placed side.
North had to win ten of their last twelve to make the finals. They were spent, as Brad Scott said, but it was a pathetic effort.
No one at the AFL seriously believes a club finishing eighth, ninth or tenth could win the premiership. It would be a financial and marketing ploy without any meaning except to waste time. All it would have is more finals.
Club with nine wins and thirteen losses might qualify and that would be absurd.
Twenty years ago finishing eighth was regarded as a bad season. Now getting there is good enough, bragging rights over the bottom half of the eight, we made it, you didn’t.
So what…
Finishing eighth and playing a final is almost meaningless. Though North was expected to be competitive against West Coast, no one expected them to win the premiership.
Once again, the final eight is already needless extravagance.
Damn the supporters who lose interest as the season goes on. They’re not true supporters. The derisive term is bandwagon. Football is a brutal game and no club earns the right to play finals every year. Supporters must deal with that.
The AFL can spin the final ten proposal all they like, and journalists can write crap about a final nine, but making the finals is about taking the opportunity and earning the right.
It isn’t something to be gifted.
Not one club that finished sixth, seventh or eighth has achieved a meaningful victory late into the finals. It’s doubtful a club finishing sixth, seventh or eighth will never win the premiership. They’ve had almost two decades to do it and couldn’t, which is why the AFL can’t increase the number of finalists to nine or ten.
North couldn’t earn respect finishing eighth. No club would earn respect by qualifying for the finals in ninth and tenth place. Instead of 12 or 13 wins signifying a good season, clubs would be gunning for ten, just to say they’ve qualified for the finals, hey, this is now the big easy…
Since the final eight was introduced, just one club, Adelaide in 1998, won the premiership from fifth. The top four is where the action is. Until a club proves otherwise and wins the flag from the lower rungs of the eight, there is no feasible reason why more clubs should be rewarded for mediocrity.
The AFL must ensure the competition remains elite. The finals must remain exclusive, space to step into, not blunder into.
Eight is already enough.
