Demetriou got an idea?

[Aerie]

An open fixture after Round 17 would be the best and fairest way to do it with 18 teams IMO. Given commercial appeal is an important priority to go along with the integrity of the competition, this is what I came up with for a fixture a couple of months ago, which I think is fairer and more interesting than the current set up.

Minor Round (Rounds 1-17)
17 Rounds – each team plays each other once with 8 home, 8 away and 1 neutral game. Fixtures reversed following year.

WEEK BREAK AFTER ROUND 17

Qualifying Round (Rounds 18-22)
5 Rounds – 3 groups of 6 teams based on positions at end of minor round. Play each team in your group once (top 3 of each group get 3 home and 2 away matches, bottom 3 get 2 home and 3 away matches).

GROUP A (Positions 1 – 6)
Top 5 start in those positions in Finals. Bottom goes in as Seed 1 to Round 23 sudden death match.

GROUP B (Positions 7 – 12)
Top 4 go in as seed 2, 3, 4 and 5 in Round 23 sudden death match. Bottom 2 eliminated.

GROUP C (Positions 13 – 18)
Top goes in to seed 6 in Round 23 sudden death match. Bottom 5 eliminated.

Round 23 Sudden Death Matches
Seed 1 (Bottom Group A) vs Seed 6 (Top Group C)
Seed 2 (Top Group B) vs Seed 5 (4th Group B)
Seed 3 (2nd Group B) vs Seed 4 (3rd Group B)
3 Winners fill positions 6, 7 and 8 in Finals based on seed.

FINALS
Top 8 with same system used as now.

[Benchwarmer]

A better, more even and fairer fixture for an 18-team competition would be to have an 18 round-season as follows:

Minor Round to see everyone play each other once (e.g. Adelaide v Carlton at Footy Park) and the 18th Round is an extra Derby/Showdown/Rivalry Round at the reverse venue to the earlier meeting to allow the greedy pigs at HQ to maximise their revenue streams.

Rounds 6 and 12 are split rounds with a 5-4 or 4-5 split in terms of matches scheduled. This allows every club to play 18 matches in 20 weeks to give players a rest-up every six rounds and give players more time to recover from niggling injuries and put their best 22 on the ground as often as possible.

The finals should be no more than 6 sides - i.e. the best third of the comp gets to the finals and means you have to win in the region of 55-60% of your matches to make the finals instead of this season's farcical 47% (10.5 games out of 22) by Essendon, who limped into an absolute shellacking in the Elimination Final which was hardly surprising and far from an exhibition to promote the biggest month of the season to people overseas. You could play under the old Final 6 or a fairer version if one can be created (I must admit that I am struggling to remember the full nitty-gritty of the Six, but I remember few issues with it).

The next year all Round 1-17 matches (apart from the Derby/Showdown/Rivalry Round matches) are reversed (e.g. Carlton v Adelaide in Melbourne).

That way every two years, you play a team both home and away ... and teams like Collingwood don't shy away from trips to Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide instead of only (or just about only) their money-making split round game in Sydney.

None of this dodgy second-round scheduling based on past season's performances, current season fixturing like the Scottish Premier League which is a disaster if you wanted to plan to see your trips to see your team play each week, and the infamous 'list of club requests', where the AFL gets up to 80 requests from clubs and they try their best to satisfy the clubs based on how much moolah is shaken from the money tree. We know that certain clubs get a better deal more often than not most times and also clubs tend to change ladder positions (apart from Fremantle and Melbourne of course , which compromises the evenness of the competition.

[Squawk]

Minor Round the 18th Round is an extra Derby/Showdown/Rivalry Round at the reverse venue to the earlier meeting to allow the greedy pigs at HQ to maximise their revenue streams.

While were on to "Ideas", how about we make Round 19 the State of Origin Round. The winning state gets to host the Grand Final. If the Grand Final is not to be held in Melbourne but at a smaller venue interstate, then all corporate tickets are void and the stadium is split between the members of the two clubs plus 2 tickets per AFL player and 50 for each club to distribute as they see fit (not auction off in "travel packages").

[Benchwarmer]

Hope you want Tassie in the State of Origin Round, too - it'd be hilarious to see the GF at York Park, Launceston or Bellerive Oval in Hobart

[Squawk]

Hope you want Tassie in the State of Origin Round, too - it'd be hilarious to see the GF at York Park, Launceston or Bellerive Oval in Hobart