One of the biggest talking points of the 2016 AFL season was the decision to schedule a bye week between the home-and-away season and the finals. 

Two games and percentage was all that separated first and seventh on the AFL ladder after 23 rounds of football. The smallest gap between first and seventh outside of that this decade? Three games. With the numbers showing that this has been the tightest season in years, should it be any surprise that the Bulldogs have come from seventh to be within four quarters of ending a 55-year drought? No.

That’s not the directive being taken by members of the AFL and some media personalities, however. According to Gil Mclachlan, without the bye the Bulldogs would not be where they are, with Mclachlan claiming that the bye enabled them to field a stronger squad throughout their finals campaign.

He may well be right, but every club was afforded that right with the week off, so it becomes irrelevant. Furthermore Mclachlan suggested that both the Giants and Cats were a victim of the bye week. To anyone who watched both games it was clear they were a victim of being outplayed on the day of their Preliminary Final.

The losses of the Giants and Cats on the weekend mark the only occasion since 2000 (when the current finals format started) where both Qualifying Final winners lost their Preliminary Final. Perhaps rather than looking at the results of two games, look at the unpredictability in the 23 rounds that preceded what has become one of the most talked about finals series in a decade. That’s why the Swans and Dogs are gracing the MCG on Saturday afternoon – because they got through every hurdle that was placed in their way.

A cynic (not me personally, but I’m sure we could find five or ten thousand) would suggest that Gil and others are upset because the Grand Final isn’t the marquee Greater Western Sydney V Sydney or Greater Western Sydney V Geelong game that many pundits had mentioned throughout the year.  On the balance of play across the weekend, the two teams who deserve to be there are.

There was talk on 1116 SEN  this morning that the AFL have broken something by implementing the bye week. There were many skeptics when it was announced (myself included), yet looking at the quality of football that has continued throughout the season I think it has been a great addition to the year.

Roll on Saturday.

Marquee games. There is nothing better in sport – apparently. 

Easter Monday is a great day for sport, the Stawell Gift is beamed to televisions around Australia, which gives me a chance to reminisce about the times spent growing up in not only such a great town, but the time I spent at Central Park watching the Redlegs train and play. The fact a close personal friend has won at Stawell has added to the love I have the place.

Marquee game? If you say so AFL.

Forgive me, I’m getting off topic.

The AFL have also decided that Easter Monday means that fans need to have another Hawthorn and Geelong clash rammed down their throat every year, a decision based on the fact that the sides have had a few great Grand Final clashes across the years.

Monday was a great game, but let’s face facts. This game is only great while these two teams are and begs the question of what is going to happen when these teams fall off the radar?

Let’s take a look at the marquee games the AFL have thrust upon us (again) this year and see if they are worthy of the spots they are given:

• Richmond V Carlton – Season opener. Two historically successful clubs who have both struggled to make an impact this millennium. Marquee rating – 2/5.
• Hawthorn V Geelong – Easter Monday – Good while the going is good. Marquee rating – 3/5.
• Melbourne V Richmond – ANZAC Day Eve – Dear AFL, when a team has only won 51 games in the last ten full seasons they don’t deserve a marquee game (let alone two), Friday night games or anything else. At least this game is a near-lock to be an upset every year. Marquee rating 0.5/5.
• Essendon V Collingwood – ANZAC Day – Don’t let Essendon and Collingwood administrators fool you, the sport could survive without this game. Marquee rating 2.5/5.
• Melbourne V Collingwood – Queen’s Birthday – It’s not the 1950’s and Melbourne are no longer broke and don’t need the help. See previous comments about both clubs and marquee games. Marquee rating – 1.5/5.

The AFL struggle with the concept of moving with the times. All of the equalisation measures that they have tried have failed desperately, and favouring clubs in the fixture list is intensifying the problem, not offering a reasonable solution.

If we must have a marquee game, have the two Grand Finalists (but do not call it a Grand Final replay, as that implies the winner gets the cup) on Easter Monday at the home ground of the winner of the previous season’s decider. Not only does that get fans excited for another year of football but it provides the opportunity to see the two best teams in the league have a shot at each other early in the season.

The game must continue to evolve if it wants to retain the status it has as the most popular league in Australia. Fixing the draw would be a great place to start.

Preseason is the most interesting time of year in any sport. Some people take it seriously, others think it’s a joke. Most sports love taking the chance to obscure their own rules for entertainments sake.

With the rule twists the AFL have tried over the years (the Supergoal springs to mind) here’s five things I’d like to see the AFL try in the 2016 preseason

Hit the post? Play on – I’ve harped on about this for at least a decade. If the ball hits the post you shouldn’t be rewarded with a score / give away a free kick or a boundary throw in – you should just keep playing. If it goes through for a behind or a goal the score stands, if it goes out for a stoppage, the stoppage occurs and if it rebounds into the field of play we play on. What’s so wrong with players being alert in every scenario?

Out of bounds? Opponent gets the ball – There aren’t many sports in the world where you can take the ball out of the field of play and not turn it over. All the out of bounds on the full rule does is punish inaccurate kicking. If you want to reduce the length of the game a simple way to do that is to keep the ball in play. Players aren’t going to want to take the ball out if they know they’re going to turn it over.

Shot clock – Not in the here’s 30 seconds after you mark sense. From the time the team come in to possession of the ball (regardless of their position on the field) they have two and a half minutes to take a shot. How often do fans complain about slowing the game to eat up the clock? The easiest way to stop that is to put a cap on the time each team has to do something with the ball.

To mark or not to mark? – If you can take a mark one-handed inside your forward fifty metre arc you’re given a free ten metre advance. What’s more important? possession or field placement? Fans love to question the decision making process of players at any opportunity they get. What will players do when they have the carrot of field possession intertwined with the risk of losing the ball?

Stop the repeat stoppage – If there are three repeat stoppages within a 60 second period  the team in possession of the ball at the last stoppage gives away a free kick. Fans are looking for incentives to rid the game of congestion and if teams are going to give away free kicks for causing stoppages they are going to want to dispose of the ball.

Note: Obviously some of these are never going to happen but it would could completely change the thought process during the game.

Note 2: A big shoutout to the suggestion that an interesting preseason rule would be the “”nobody gives Joel Selwood a free kick”rule.