Wildcard Round is in.
Reports of the AFL extending the finals series into previously a bye weekend was the sport's latest leaf out of an American playbook and immediate reactions have been harsh.
The seventh-placed side will play the 10th-placed side and eighth will oppose ninth on what is currently the pre-finals bye weekend, separating the home and away season from September footy.
In 2025, the two clubs which would have benefitted were Western Bulldogs and Sydney Swans - both clearly better than the rest of the competition, and the Dogs viewed as a club which was among the unluckiest to ever miss an AFL finals series, having recorded 14 wins.
Gold Coast would have been the big losers, forced to play an extra game against a side it finished three wins and percentage clear of, which could have taken a toll on its ability to beat Fremantle in a stirring last gasp elimination final thriller.
The optics of more than half of the competition's sides playing in a finals series are strange, but with a 19th and likely 20th time on the horizon, a top eight would eventually have felt too skinny.
Late season dead rubbers plagued the AFL in 2025, a phenomenon amplified by so many such games occurring in prime-time slots.
By including two further teams in finals to provide hope for fans of mid-tier clubs playing in the post-season, the move significantly diminishes the already slim premiership hopes of the seventh and eighth-placed clubs.
The top eight system long proved the enormous difficulty of winning four consecutive games on the road in a finals series.
The introduction of the pre-finals bye provided those teams with a rest and opportunity to regenerate, with Brisbane's 2023 side and Western Bulldogs' 2016 team tasting success off the back of it.
With the home and away season longer than it has ever been before, teams winning five straight games, including at least four on the road, against rested opposition, is decidedly unlikely.
In short, 10 teams will play finals, but very likely only six will compete for the premiership.
Collingwood springs to mind as an immediate loser of the new regime.
The Magpies are set to have one final crack with an ageing core and most pundits have their ceiling being a finish in the lower half of the top eight.
Having grown weary late in 2025, a similar trend occurring late in 2026 without the opportunity to refresh would be a dagger.
Wildcard Round could spark consideration from clubs to rest several players late in the season, particularly if a club's position is locked in entering the last home and away round, to neutralise the disadvantage of not receiving a bye.
The clear rebuttal, though, is that a finals system which protects fully against that doesn't exist.
Clearly there is a bottom-line benefit at play; both through the staging of two extra finals-like games per season, and likely increased average attendances and viewership later in seasons as more teams remain in the hunt for finals.
The current AFL administration is often criticised often for its decision-making, and often lack thereof, and the kneejerk from many pundits online has been outrage.
But the league has been conditioning fans to an adjustment to the finals format for a sustained period.
Speaking about the current structure and potential introduction of Wildcard Round earlier in 2025, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said: “We're always looking at the structure of our season - obviously we'll look at it…but (the current system) does open up the final eight to be a true final eight, so any team who has made it has the opportunity if things go their way, to make it to the last Saturday in September…(Wildcard Round) would have added a lot to the season but we just need to hasten slowly. I'm not ruling it in or out.”
It is an extension of the Americanisation of the sport through several means, most recently notable by the thirst of AFL Trade coverage.
What fans must not fall into the trap of doing is using the makeup of an individual season's ladder to determine the success of the change.
Two teams qualifying when they would otherwise have missed by percentage doesn't make the new format a success; nor does two teams qualifying after finishing three wins behind eighth make it a failure.
This is a fundamental change in structure and it doesn't follow a pattern of ninth and 10th-placed sides just missing finals in recent years.
In fact, in the 18-team era, the 10th-placed side averages more losses (11.5) than wins (11.4).
Only after a reasonable sample size will the industry get an understanding for the typical competitiveness of the extra two sides and how much of a finals feel the games have.
More teams and players being exposed to finals footy before they are legitimate flag contenders could be viewed as a positive by narrowing the gulf of finals experience closer to the pointy end.
Fifth and sixth placed sides also shape as big winners.
Hawthorn reached the preliminary final from eighth in 2025, but those below sixth causing upsets in finals series will become exceptionally rare.
The format was introduced in the VFL in 2023, with Wildcard Round winners 1-5 in the elimination final the following week with an average losing margin of 64 points.
Only one of those games has been closer than 10 goals.
In the three prior full seasons of VFL, the lower ranked elimination finalist won three of six games, with an average losing margin of 25 points.
What is certain is the 10-year pre-finals bye is gone.
Introduced in 2016, it was designed to build up the hype ahead of finals and give teams a refresh before a finals assault.
Regardless of personal opinion, the decision has been made.
The industry and fans alike must now let the change unfold.
….. and another reason?
A “KPI” that entrenches further americanisation and stretches to 10 the number of finalists so as to reward even more mediocrity (with finals appearances)……
Those “bonuses” won’t just appear, they need to be organised… “paid for”.