Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos believes the winners of the two qualifying finals should play each other in a modified match in a bid to keep fitness levels up given the pre-finals bye.
The bye was implemented last season for the first time, with Geelong and GWS both failing to deal with their extra week off.
The Cats and Giants won their qualifying finals and enjoyed a week off before the penultimate weekend of the season, but were both knocked out in the preliminary finals after playing just one match in the four weeks prior.
Given clubs would love to take some momentum into their preliminary final clashes this season, Roos told the Herald Sun he wants to see the two top teams play each other during the semi-final weekend to combat their second weekend of rest in three weeks.
“You have to have a very physical game, or some sort of game and it’s probably more likely going to be an intra-club match,” Roos told the Herald Sun.
“But if you were, say, two Melbourne-based teams or two Sydney teams, if you were ‘Horse’ (John Longmire) or Leon (Cameron) you would certainly pick-up the phone and say ‘let’s get together’ (and consider playing).
“They would be thinking about that already and considering all different things.
“Because I think everyone involved in the system understands not playing those games (in Round 23 and week two of finals) is certainly not an ideal preparation (for a preliminary final).
“You have already had week off, you’ve got yourself freshened up, you play a game, and then you have another week off?
“There wouldn’t be a coach in the AFL that would say that’s great preparation.
“And it’s unequivocal because we saw last year for the first time the Bulldogs came from 7th and the two teams which won first (finals) didn’t make the Grand Final.
“So it’s a big gamble (to play another game in week two of finals) but the bigger risk is not winning the following week.”
Roos' comments may well be heard by senior coaches around the league, with the pre-finals bye a big topic of conversation at AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan's house back in June during the coaches' dinner.
In a recent coaches' survey conducted by AFL.com.au, 14 of the 17 coaches surveyed said they were not fans of the pre-finals bye, which was originally introduced to stop teams from resting players in the final round of the season.
As the ladder currently stands, the Giants and Cats will face off in a qualifying final, meaning one of those two sides will go into a preliminary final on the back of just one game in four weeks for the second straight season.
Given both sides didn't make it to the grand final in 2016, the structure around their second week off may need to change, and a scratch match could possibly be one the cards.
