The AFL is expanding in 2028 and the need to overhaul its fixture is on the agenda.

A quartet of options have been posed by club bosses.

Essendon coaching race is tipped to narrow between 'Essendon people' while a Hawks coach responds to links to Tasmania.

All that and more from media buzz...

How the AFL could look

Competition structures was on the agenda at the AFL chief executives meeting, among other things.

This is what was presented to the football bosses, according to AFL Media.

OPTION ONE
* Home and away season decreased to 22 games
* 18 games and four double-ups
* Gather Round removed, or AFL would buy back home games off clubs to retain each club's structure of 11 home and 11 away games

OPTION TWO
* Home and away season increased to 24 games
* 18 games and six double-ups
* Two neutral rounds (including Gather Round)
 
OPTION THREE
* Home and away season decreased to 20 games and three-week Group Stage structure
* 18 games and two double ups (which would be Gather Round and Rivalry Round)
* Top 16 teams split into four groups of four (bottom three teams form their own group) and play each other once before final 10 is determined

Loading matchup…

OPTION FOUR
*Home and away season decreased to 20 games and a three-week 'in-play' tournament
* 18 games and two double up matches (Gather Round and Rivalry Round)
* Carved out three-week block in the middle of the season for a separate tournament
* Four groups of five clubs, with the 20th team a 'State League Stars' concept

AFLPA seeking clarity on De Koning call

The AFL players union is looking for clarity over St Kilda ruckman Tom De Koning's return to the field despite having fractured ribs.

De Koning suffered a heavy hit in the second term of Sunday's loss to the Western Bulldogs. He was assessed in the rooms but was given the all clear to play on.

The Saints recruit was taken to hospital for two fractured ribs and a punctured lung.

According to SEN, the AFLPA has made contact with De Koning and St Kilda.

Albeit crisis was averted, the incident was similar to Christian Petracca's in 2024, when the star Demon suffered life-threatening spleen laceration as well as cracked ribs and a punctured lung from a knee from Darcy Moore.

Changes demanded a tightened audit process.

Silly Sidebottom

Luckily Collingwood has a draw under their belt with percentage taken out of the equation but a moment from Steele Sidebottom could cost the Pies.

After the win over Port Adelaide, Sidebottom had the ball in his defensive 50, and kicked the ball through his own goals. As a result, the Power were awarded a point.

Collingwood won by 26 points instead of 27, and made the barest of changes to their percentage, if any.

But a quirk nonetheless.

A fourth time clock error

It's happened again.

The AFL has conceded human error in Carlton's win over GWS with 37 seconds added to the clock late in the game.

It is the fourth time this season there's been a time issue.

In May, 109 seconds was added to Geelong's clash with Collingwood, while earlier in the season, the Giants and Saints also dealt with an error, losing 29 seconds on the stroke of half time.

Hird or Solomon

Essendon is likely to be hiring an 'Essendon person' for its next senior coach.

James Hird and Dean Solomon are the early frontrunners for the role, and given their strong links to the club, it's hard for anyone to edge them out.

Bombers great Matthew Lloyd said on Footy Classified Andrew Welsh is a leading candidate given the amount of respect the players show him.

Mitchell responds to Tassie links... and declares runsheet 'blunder'

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was pressed hard by the panel on the Agenda Setters about the potential of becoming Tasmania's inaugural coach.

Mitchell cheekily revealed the runsheet given by the Channel Seven show was slightly different on his piece of paper, which didn't include questions about the Devils vacancy.

The Hawks coach is keen to remain in the brown and gold, and even led with a joke.

Transcript (part of) between Melbourne and May revealed

The infamous pre-season meeting between former Demon Steven May and a host of key figureheads at the club is unravelling as more information comes to light.

May's partner is suing the club, coach Steven King and footy boss Alan Richardson.

St Kilda didn't want Murphy Reid. Why?

Saints coach Ross Lyon didn't want to draft Murphy Reid two drafts ago. But why?

Reid has dominated in the first 18 months of his AFL career, and is deemed a steal at Pick 17.

St Kilda opted to pick up Tobie Travaglia and Alix Tauru.

1 COMMENT

  1. … and which of these options makes for a “fairer” competition?
    Which of these options is simply an extension of the grossly unfair FIX(ED)ture that overtly favours the selected few? Where a fixture is devised so that a few clubs get way bigger and then the league takes some of that advantage and throws crumbs to the other clubs?

    What are the executive’s “KPI’s and what kind of “bonus” is gifted?

    The fact is there are too many teams to realistically have all teams play all teams once at home and once away (it’d mean a minor round of 34 games)…. and where qualification to the finals results in the intended advantage to the teams that finish higher after the season…..that is to have a competition that is based of reaching a result where the “best team wins”.

    Given the logistics – the only fair system would be a conference – with inbuilt mitigation between the conference to alleviate any instance where “all the strong teams are in the one conference”.

    But given the nonesense put forward in the presented options – it suddenly becomes obvious as to why the AFLW was subjected to the supposed “conference” year…. to simply discredit the concept of any conference model (cheap politics “101”).

    The only other “fair” system would be to discard the finals and only have a “minor round” of 34 rounds (with 18 teams)… but it’d still be too long a season.

    .. but then, as illustrated in the given “options” and in the current fixed script, a genuine competition to find a premier winning as the “best team” is not the aim and has not been since the vfl was expanded to fleece the other states.

    It’s about the money – from the many to the few and the even fewer who facilitate the few..

JOIN THE DISCUSSION