Mark Stevens said, after the top 8 being locked away early this season, the AFL is seriously considering altering the Draw next year along the 17/5 split fixture idea mentioned previously. Apparently, has the support of the AFL head honchos and clubs.
Each club plays the other once (first 17 H/A rounds) and then ladder is split into three groups of six (top, middle and bottom) and each club plays the other teams in their respective group once more (last 5 H/A rounds).
So if applied to this year at round 17:
Top 6: Middle 6: Bottom 6:
Hawthorn Geelong Richmond
Adelaide North Melb. Carlton
Bulldogs Port Adel. Gold Coast
GWS St Kilda Fremantle
Sydney Melbourne Brisbane
West Coast Collingwood Essendon
You can't rise or fall below your respective group level. So in our case, we couldn't finish any higher than 13th.
Thoughts?