anthak wrote: Fitzy wrote: Announcment on the format of the ORFFA 2013 Finals Series We have ended up coming to a conclusion that we would go with: Finals, week 1: top 8 qualify; 1st picks opponent, then 2nd picks opponent, then 3rd picks; then remaining two teams play each other. € Finals week 2: The four week 1 winners progress; top ranked (from final regular season standings) winner picks opponent; and other 2 play each other. Finals, week 3: The two week 2 winners progress to the Grand final. All games are at the home ground of the team that finished the regular season ranked higher on the ladder. Just for further clarity, The FIXture committee are all in agreement that in week 1 of the finals, the Top3 teams can only select their opponent from teams ranked 5-8 on the final ladder. We'll get back to you about week 2, and on what day the decision needs to be made in each week. now even further clarity We can announce that in Week 2, the highest ranked (at end of regular season) team can select any of the other 3 semi-finalists as their opponent. We are still ironing out the finer details of when such decisions need to be made and will get back to y'all in due course. We dont want to rush into a decision without giving it proper consideration, so thanks for your patience!
anthak wrote: anthak wrote: Fitzy wrote: Announcment on the format of the ORFFA 2013 Finals Series We have ended up coming to a conclusion that we would go with: Finals, week 1: top 8 qualify; 1st picks opponent, then 2nd picks opponent, then 3rd picks; then remaining two teams play each other. € Finals week 2: The four week 1 winners progress; top ranked (from final regular season standings) winner picks opponent; and other 2 play each other. Finals, week 3: The two week 2 winners progress to the Grand final. All games are at the home ground of the team that finished the regular season ranked higher on the ladder. Just for further clarity, The FIXture committee are all in agreement that in week 1 of the finals, the Top3 teams can only select their opponent from teams ranked 5-8 on the final ladder. We'll get back to you about week 2, and on what day the decision needs to be made in each week. now even further clarity We can announce that in Week 2, the highest ranked (at end of regular season) team can select any of the other 3 semi-finalists as their opponent. We are still ironing out the finer details of when such decisions need to be made and will get back to y'all in due course. We dont want to rush into a decision without giving it proper consideration, so thanks for your patience! I had hoped to give a detailed rationale of how we came up with our decisions, but I really dont have enough time or headspace. Got a fair bit of heavy shit going on at the moment. We've decided that everyone will have to decide their opponents by 6pm on the Wednesday of each week. We basically couldnt see much difference between Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, so figured the extra time would be handy, to give the top teams more of a chance to get online and post their preferences. In the end we (the Match Committee) were voting out of Tuesday and Wednesday and nobody voted for Tuesday... But 1 person respectfully abstained from voting as they felt indifferent considering the two options. So, how it is going to work, is that the top teams, top 3 at least (in week 1), will all need to PM me (anthak) their most preferred opponents (1 for 1st, 2 for 2nd, & 3 for any others) in order of preference, by 6pm (AEST) on the Wednesday evening (14/8 for Week 1; and 21/8 for week 2). I will then post the resultant fixtures publicly. If any teams do not lodge their preferences with me by that time, then they will lose the privilege of selecting their opponent, and that privilege will move on to the next highest ranked team. For example, if only 1st and 3rd send me their preferences by the cutoff, then 2nd will not get to pick and 4th will get to choose instead. For this reason, it would actually be a good idea for anyone in the top 8 to send me their preferences if they think they are some chance of gaining that privilege. If insufficient coaches send me their choices, then the remaining games will be allocated as per the more common top v bottom etc etc method. I hope I havent missed anything that we were supposed to announce, so if anyone else from the match committee wants to add anything, please do. And if anyone has any questions, please ask. As appointed Chair, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the other 3 Committee members, because it was great working with you all on this. Thanks for taking it seriously and putting in the time required to give it proper consideration. I was really happy with how we were all respectful of each others views and how we were able to come up with an agreement, considering there were many ideas thrown around. Good luck to everyone that does make the finals. It should be fun!
Bandit wrote: Right, that's that then! Not necessarily but don't ask TiB what he thinks of collective action lol... if anyone has any strong views about why we shouldn't go with this proposed finals format for this season, then by all means speak up. We appreciated the feedback in this thread and if just 1 match committee member voted for Tuesday, we would have been in a better place to go for Tuesday, but given there wasn't 1 committee member that voted for Tuesday, it would have been strange to go down that route, especially since there are more committee members than people who stated their preference for Tues in this thread.
And just reading over my post from last night, 1st and 2nd obviously don't need to pm me 3 preferences 1 from 1st and 2 from 2nd will obviously be sufficient
Philosoraptor wrote: I presumed this whole time we were using a standard finals format with a top 4 double chance. That would be ideal IMPO, but not enough weeks in the season unfortunately
anthak wrote: And just reading over my post from last night, 1st and 2nd obviously don't need to pm me 3 preferences 1 from 1st and 2 from 2nd will obviously be sufficient Ive fixed this now. And Ive added it to the OP... And Ive finally gotten around to fixing up the rest of the OP: anthak wrote: anthak wrote: Gee, sorry about the OP!!! I tried to include the match committee's announcement on the finals system for this year, and it stuffed it ;/ My net connection at home does my head in cause its so slow at the moment, so I'm gonna wait til Im back at work to fix it. Sorry, kept forgetting to fix the OP here. I've just had a rough go at it, but it still needs a little work. I havent got time right now, but will try and fix it up another time. Happy Walesy Round everyone!
P'Raptor, that's one of the key points we all need to understand. Ideally, we would mimic the AFL play off system but after not playing through the byes (a good decision IMO) we end up short of weeks to set that process up. The decision was made to give the top teams a double chance alternative via a choice of opposition a la the ORFFL system. Note that next year if the AFL goes to two byes per team we will face an even bigger hurdle to producing a viable home and away and play off series. Any and all input for ways around this conundrum to Ant - then the FIXture committee will work through them.
chels wrote: P'Raptor, that's one of the key points we all need to understand. Ideally, we would mimic the AFL play off system but after not playing through the byes (a good decision IMO) we end up short of weeks to set that process up. The decision was made to give the top teams a double chance alternative via a choice of opposition a la the ORFFL system. Note that next year if the AFL goes to two byes per team we will face an even bigger hurdle to producing a viable home and away and play off series. Any and all input for ways around this conundrum to Ant - then the FIXture committee will work through them. It may actually be better achieved with less weeks, but you would need to have less teams play finals.. Finals are not necessary for mine anyway, if it's good enough for the EPL it's probably good enough for us. I am not saying I'd prefer we didn't have finals btw, just noting that the list of options is top 8, 6, 4 all play, just 1st and 2nd, or run 1st past the post... I am not sure I have a preference but if I was asked to pick one, I'd go top 4. We can reward the top 2 properly, I am just not sure we can with 8 playing finals whilst there are 3 byes.
Speaking up......... 1) The fixtures committee recommends. No different to the draft. 2) The reason for setting opponents early in the week was to avoid advantage to the top 3 who will now have foreknowledge of tribunal results, injuries and selection news to help them choose their opponent. That gives them an advantage over 5-8 which for mine is unwarranted - they have enough advantage as it is. 3) Coaches of teams 1-8 (current) should not be involved in any finals recommendation if they happen to be on the committee. 4) Citing Wednesday to give 1-3 enough time to PM ant should not be an issue. If they are not excited and chafing at the bit to get their choices in, they should take a long hard look at their involvement. That said, little benefit in altering or discussing anything now - especially EPL.
Firstly... TiB, let me know if you would like a response to your last comment, from your match committee... Now... With 2 games left, I wanted to look at the run home for all still with a chance at making finals. in order of current rank: 1st - Iron Knob - 56 - 20887 -v Charlies Opening; @Whitsundays - Highest possible finish = 1st; lowest possible finish = 3rd Big test this week, but likely to win both remaining games and finish 1st. 2nd - Foul Bay - 48 - 20157 - @Gariwerd;v Gundagai - Highest possible finish = 1st; lowest possible finish = 6th Two fairly easy games for this team and should finish 2nd. 3rd - Waikikamoocow - 48 - 18956 -v Wagga Wagga; @Birdsville - Highest possible finish = 1st; lowest possible finish = 6th Tough run home. Could easily lose both games and miss the opportunity to pick their finals opponent - with the final round game at Birdsville the most influential in that regard. In excellent form though, and would be favorites to win both games, so I think they'll hang on to 3rd spot. 4th - Birdsville - 44 - 18614 -v Venus Bay;v Waikickamoocow - Highest possible finish = 2nd; lowest possible finish = 7th Big game in the final round to try and sneak into the top 3. Has been bubbling along nicely and could win both games, but I'll predict them to finish 4th. 5th - Charlies Opening - 40 - 19311 - @Iron Knob; @Powlett Plains - Highest possible finish = 2nd; lowest possible finish = 9th Probably the toughest run home of all finals aspirants, especially with both games on the road, and is in danger of slipping out of the 8, which would hurt, considering their solid points total. My prediction is that they will finish 6th. 6th - Powlett Plains - 40 - 18408 - @Darraweit Guim;v Charlies Opening - Highest possible finish = 2nd; lowest possible finish = 9th Massive games coming up, with both opponents currently on the same amount of wins as PP. Darraweit Guim is in some sparkling form of late and Charlies Oppening are certainly formidable opponents, given their superior points total, so I cant see the Packers winning another game, which would probably see them finish 7th. 7th - Darraweit Guim - 40 - 18276 -v Powlett Plains;v Mount Beauty - Highest possible finish = 2nd; lowest possible finish = 9th In excellent form and both games at home. I would expect them to win both games and finish 4th or more probably 5th. 8th - Wagga Wagga - 34 - 18587 - @Waikickamoocow; @Lovely Banks - Highest possible finish = 7th; lowest possible finish = 10th After showing some great form throughout the season, Wagga have begun to stutter a bit lately, and have also got two road games against good opponents (Lovely Banks are better than their ladder position). They probably only need 1 win to secure their finals spot, and I think they will get that and finish 8th. 9th - Venus Bay - 34 - 18120 - @ Birdsville;v Cradle Mountain - Highest possible finish = 7th; lowest possible finish = 10th Tough game this week against Birdsville, before finishing with a not easy but winnable game against Cradle Mountain. Due to being about 450 points behind Wagga, they probably need to win both games to get in the 8, and I dont think they will, so will probably finish 9th. 10th - Gariwerd - 30 - 17940 -v Foul Bay; @Nunnawading - Highest possible finish = 8th; lowest possible finish = 13th Very slim chance of making the 8. Best chance would be to win both and hope Wagga Wagga and Venus Bay both lose both their remaining games (although if the latter wins just 1, theres still hope). They can still make it with 1 win, but would have to catch up a lot of points to usurp Wagga Wagga who are about 550 points ahead. Will probably finish 10th.
Many thanks to the FIXture committee for engineering such a tight run home for the year... keeping a lot of us still interested
Bandit wrote: Many thanks to the FIXture committee for engineering such a tight run home for the year... keeping a lot of us still interested Agree 100%, great job Ant and the guys, the effort put in to prevent it being vanilla adds a lot of interest.
anthak wrote: Looks like we'll have a top 4 finals series next season. Yeah those proposed changes do present some challenges to say the least.
Actually, when I wrote that, I was presuming a 24 round season, but I think it may be 25 rounds. I think it's right that there'll be 5 bye rounds, but there may be 6. if there's 25 & 5, we'll be able to continue on with a 3 week finals series. If its 25 & 6, then it'll be 2 weeks.
anthak wrote: Actually, when I wrote that, I was presuming a 24 round season, but I think it may be 25 rounds. I think it's right that there'll be 5 bye rounds, but there may be 6. if there's 25 & 5, we'll be able to continue on with a 3 week finals series. If its 25 & 6, then it'll be 2 weeks. Sounds like the first round is to be split over 2 weekends so it think it may be 24 rounds over 25 weeks. So 24 rounds with 5 of them possibly bye affected. Guess we'll wait and see.
Yeah, that must be it. I think I was right at first. The 25 week thing threw me, but it doesn't add up. 22 games, 2 byes, 24 rounds; 5 bye rounds = 19 playable rounds for ORFFA; ability to play each other team once each and then have 2 weeks of finals. Interesting... heres the full statement:http:/afl.com.au/news/2013-08-28/full-statement-from-the-afl