Australian Football League Shelves Plans To Revamp Competition

The Australian Football League "has all but set aside plans to revamp the competition fixture next season" and abandoned -- in the short term at least -- consideration of controversial "wildcard" playoffs for the last two spots in the final eight, according to Patrick Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. Clubs said that their "enthusiasm depicted earlier this season for the wildcard playoffs had evaporated and might even have been overplayed" by league officials in the first instance. After the AFL Commission met club CEOs last month, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said that club support for "wildcard" games to settle the final two spots in the eight "had surprised him." At the time, McLachlan said, "There was more interest in the wildcard round leading into the ­finals than I thought there would be." It "is dead in the water now" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 6/16).