For the sixth time in seven years, frustrated footy fans and coaches are asking the same question: why is there a bye weekend before the AFL finals series?
This year, more than any other year since its inception in 2016, it truly is confounding to again see the pre-finals bye as a feature of the fixture.
Twelve months ago, due to circumstances out of its control as a result of the pandemic, the AFL was forced to scrap it and revert to the traditional format of jumping straight into the finals after the last round.
Did any “integrity” issues arise from this return to normality? Of course not.
The league has been guilty of some massive knee-jerk reactions in recent times, but the advent of the pre-finals bye makes the process that led to the introduction of the sliding-below-the-knee free kick look reasonable and well thought-out.
After former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon and ex-North Melbourne coach Brad Scott rested at least half of their best team in the final round of 2013 and 2015 respectively, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan had had enough of the supposed undermining of the integrity of the competition.
McLachlan was hellbent on removing any motivation for finals teams who had nothing to play for (ie. their fate for week one was already sealed) to take it upon themselves to give their star players an additional bye that wasn’t written into the fixture in a bid to freshen them up for the most important month of the year.
To combat this, his idea was to introduce a week off before the finals, and the Western Bulldogs benefitted immediately, as they were able to play Easton Wood, Jake Stringer, Jordan Roughead, Jack Macrae and Tom Liberatore for their elimination final in 2016 against West Coast, and never looked back, riding an incredible wave of momentum to win their first premiership in 62 years.
Some might say that it’s a bad look for teams to purposely roll over in the final round and potentially give other teams battling for a top-eight spot an unfair leg-up over fellow finals aspirants. But surely teams who have earned the right to rest large numbers of players can do just that? Surely, it’s a case of bad luck to other teams who find themselves scrapping to snare a top-eight spot at the death after failing to be good enough throughout the season to have more control over their destiny.
Besides, it is possible to play the final round without a host of star players and still win, as Essendon did in 2000 against Collingwood without James Hird, Mark Mercuri, John Barnes, Damien Hardwick and Dean Wallis.
The pre-finals bye also unfairly gives teams who missed out on a top-four spot a week off, drastically diluting the coveted double chance which the top-four sides worked so hard to earn over the course of a 22-game home-and-away season.
The winners of the qualifying finals play just one game in four weeks prior to their preliminary final. Not the most ideal preparation for the most important month of the year.
In the five years of the pre-finals bye, the minor premier has never won the flag, while three teams have gone out in straight sets (Hawthorn in 2016 and 2018, and Brisbane Lions in 2019) which is a significant number considering only six other teams suffered that fate in the 22-year history of the current top-eight system.
“You start to get concerned with how ready are you, after playing the one game in the four weeks,” AFL legend Leigh Matthews told 3AW on the weekend.
“The bye weekend, it certainly helps the teams in the bottom four that just have to keep winning if they are good enough to keep alive.”
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan also expressed his dislike for the concept.
“I think particularly for those teams that finish top four, I think if you win in that first week then you have got another week off,” Fagan told 3AW.
“And then fundamentally what that means is you have worked hard all year to finish top four but you have played one game in roughly 24 to 27 days by the time you have played that prelim final, and that isn’t always an advantage I don’t think.
“I thought it was better when the teams that finished in the top four played in their qualifying final, if they won, then they got a week off, which was an advantage.
“So, I think all the advantage should go to the teams that finish in the top four. They have worked hard for a six-month period to get there and that should be what they receive.”
First-year Collingwood coach Craig McRae said as much last week as well.
McLachlan will also argue that having superstars such as Richmond’s Dustin Martin, Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron and Sydney’s Tom Papley all fit and available for the first week of the finals further justifies the week off prior to this year’s finals series.
He’s partially correct there, but he has got the timing of the bye back to front.
With the advent of the concussion protocols last year, and the mandatory 12-day rest period for players who have been concussed, the bye simply has to be moved in between the preliminary final weekend and the grand final.
We had a situation last year where Bulldogs livewire Cody Weightman was ruled out of the preliminary final against Port Adelaide after he was subbed out in the semi-final the week before against Brisbane due to a head knock.
During the game against the Power, Weightman could be seen on the sidelines cheering excitedly as his team smashed Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval to make their second grand final in six years.
For all intents and purposes, there was nothing wrong with him, yet if that happens to him in a preliminary final this year, he will have to miss out on playing in a grand final, like Adelaide’s AFLW superstar Chelsea Randall in the women’s 2021 grand final.
Again, last year’s finals schedule was staring the AFL right in the face when it set about drawing up the 2022 fixture, yet it didn’t take heed.
There was a week’s break prior to the grand final last year at Optus Stadium because of Western Australia’s strict quarantine protocols at the time. A fantastic by-product of that was that any player that copped a minor concussion in the preliminary final weekend would’ve been right to go for the premiership decider.
But just like it did in deciding against abolishing the pre-finals bye permanently this year, the AFL opted against retaining the pre-grand final bye. It truly beggars belief. Honestly, how hard is it? Is such a common-sense approach really that hard for the sport’s administrators to grasp?
After one of the most exciting finishes to a home-and-away season in VFL/AFL history, it would’ve been electric to head straight into the finals last weekend.
And while of course there will still be plenty of anticipation and excitement as we embark on the finals this week, there definitely has been a lull in momentum which should never be allowed to occur at this time of year.