Australian Football League clubs have "given a lukewarm response to a proposal that would radically reshape the league's schedule, finals series and draft order," according to Daniel Cherny of THE AGE. Club CEOs, along with representatives from the AFL and AFL Players' Association, met on Thursday. Primary among the topics discussed was an idea to "dramatically tinker with the long-standing structure of a pre-determined 22-round fixture." Under the model, clubs would each "play each other once over a 17-week period, before being split into pools of teams ranked 1-6, 7-12 and 13-18 on the ladder" for the last five weeks of the season. The top group would "jostle for finals finishing positions, the middle band would contest for the last two spots in the top eight, while the bottom tier would play off for the highest draft picks." But speaking after the meeting, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan "indicated that there was 'zero' chance of the system being brought in" for '16, with several "key stumbling blocks standing in its way." McLachlan said that while he "didn't come to the meeting to sway the clubs, he was a fan of certain elements present in the model." McLachlan: "The driver of this is around equality, making every game count for something" (THE AGE, 5/14).
LEGACY IN MIND: In Melbourne, Caroline Wilson opined the "near-unanimous thumbs-down to the AFL's latest attempt to jazz up the last month of the season" should not defeat McLachlan and his team as they "work towards a fairer fixture." McLachlan "might not see it this way," but should he and his key fixture exec Simon Lethlean "iron out the substantial wrinkles, appease the individual club gripes and design a system in which every team plays each other once before the play-offs begin, that could remain a key legacy of his regime." The AFL boss "could say he had created a significantly fairer competition while at the same time dealing with the deadly winter rounds that no league home-and-away season has managed to avoid" (THE AGE, 5/14).
