I knew someone would say that. Its ridiculous thinking Jedi. The modern game is a lottery with ref decisions, momentum issues etc. Its completely unfair to go into an 80 minute battle having earnt a finals spot after 26 or 27 rounds of football and have it ripped away by a team that didnt earn it because on that day they got the calls.
What if 7th and 10th both finish on 13 wins ? Or there’s some abominable ref decisions that factor in one way or another . What about injuries and bogus suspensions like api getting 3 weeks for a hip drop that they stopped penalising the moment he came back .
My point is if you’re the 9th or 10th team and you’ve been in your opinion hard done by , and the 7th team is someone like the roosters or Brisbane , who seem to get forever ending rub of the green , do you still think that you will have the same ideas around traditionalism ? I genuinely don’t think so mate .
I actually think the game should be in 2 conferences come 20-22 teams .
A south and a north . Drawing an imaginary line right along the parramatta river .
You could go with a top 4 of each conference or a top 4 , with the 5th placed teams of both conferences playing each other , with the team with the best overall record getting a bye in round 1 , and the play in game happening mid week, say Thursday , to follow up the final round 1 playoff game on Monday night , against the seeded 2 team overall . So a massive advantage for the 2 seed , and a massive disadvantage for the play in team .
There would be drama galore , never ending chat about burnout , and maintaining freshness , it would absolutely own the zeitgeist .
