Essendon coach Brad Scott has slammed the concept of a wildcard spherical, saying a change to the finals construction can be “fraught with danger”.
Incoming AFL boss Andrew Dillon will elevate the concept of an NBA-style format after the home-and-away season when he meets with the league’s chief executives on Tuesday.
Scott, who was the AFL’s basic supervisor of soccer previous to taking over the Bombers teaching job late final yr, believes it might be an “unjust” approach for the league to go.
“Maybe I’m a bit overly cautious of these things, but you fight tooth and nail for 23 games of the year to get to a position,” he stated on Tuesday.
“I think the seventh-placed team playing the 10th-placed team or whatever format that would be, there’s potential for some almost unjust outcomes based on a 23-game season and then it comes down to one game when a team has qualified well in front of another.
“In a fixture that’s clearly inequitable, in nearly each approach, in a system the place broadcast and attendance is prioritised over equity and fairness, to place one thing else which is probably inequitable into the system is fraught with hazard, in my view.”
The NBA introduced a play-in tournament in 2020, pitting teams ranked seventh to 10th in each conference against each other for the last two spots in the top-eight for the playoffs.
It comes as just one-and-a-half games separates fifth-placed Geelong and Gold Coast in 13th as teams outside the top four scrap for the remaining four positions in finals.
GWS coach Adam Kingsley said on Monday night he was “” in the wildcard round idea but North Melbourne caretaker coach Brett Ratten was firmly against it.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley insisted the idea had some merit.
“With the ladder trying as squeezed as it’s, it type of warrants that you have to win that final one on a wildcard weekend,” he instructed Fox Footy.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
