So in the Age today (scabbed out of the bin - who throws away the sport section these days ) I read with interest an offering from one of the best footy brains (Brendan Schwab, President of Australian Professional Footballers Association, and ex Richmond VP) about a possible two tiered competition starting from 2014.

Now after we have some wise crack about the fact that at least if theres 9 teams in the top half of the competition (AFL Premiership) that Richmond would therefore make it (hehe), we should then look at whether its a good idea.   Personally, I wasnt really in favour of it, but now I think its a cracker - and could even give a chance for fantasy competitions to move into the finals.

The basics:

Fixture: Each team plays everyone in their division twice, in the other division once.   Parity and fairness at least to some level.   25 game season, so sayonara NAB Cup and State Games
AFL Premiership - Top 9 teams.  Top 5 finalists, Bottom 2 (8,9) relegated, 6 and 7 in relegation playoffs
AFL Championship - Lower 9 teams.   Top 2 promoted, Next three in relegation playoffs, bottom 4 remain (but get top 4 draft picks so they stay rewarded somehow)

Personally my liking for this is mainly because it heralds an almighty return of the Final 5, in my view clearly the most equitable and fair (grand daddy one might say) finals system of them all!

More musing over the break...

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So the practical outworking of this is that when finals time comes along, there are two finals systems of a final 5 being played out.

The Premiership has 1 getting the week off, 2v3 and 4v5 playing in the qualifying and eliminations.

The Relegation Finals has 6 getting the week off, 7 v 12 and 13 v 14 playing in the qualifying and eliminations.

After week 1, you go back to the inspired McIntyre Final 4, where there are first and second semis, followed by one prelim, and one Grand Final (with the winner of the 2nd semi getting the "saloon passage")

Some might say, well 6 and 7 are going to destroy 12-14 and its fairly likely that will occur (though you never know what can motivate a team when they see the prize of going up a division).   The true genius of the Relegation rounds is that only one team will progress back to the Premiership, and in my view, probably will lead to two cracking contests between 6 and 7 trying to remain in the Premiership race for the following season!   Talk about high stakes footy!

Further to that, the latter rounds of the Premiership will be dominated not just by the top 5, but by the makeup of the bottom 4 in that division.   Two will get the automatic boot down to the Championship, costing the club a chance at ultimate glory for the next season.   Basically, in the Premiership division, its finals or trouble.

It helps in September to give broadcasters more to offer the fans than just the one or two matches.

It also allows the "Relegation Grand Final" to be played during GF week, maybe on the Wednesday night, and can easily be played in any state.   The most likely thought is that if results go to plan, the 6th team would get the home game, in their state or at their ground.   (In Melbourne maybe a slight caveat, meaning that the game is played at Docklands with the MCG getting frocked up for the game later in the week.)

Other good points is that there will be many more very crucial matches in the latter part of the season.   Those who follow the EPL would recognise the value of the Europe opportunity - at the top (Champions League and Europa) and the cut throat drop zone - in making the competition action packed until the end.

The Final 5 (and the 4 for that matter) was great because it led to serious rivalries being created.   Teams that played in the second semi often again came to blows in the GF.   Im looking at you Hawthorn and Essendon, who seemed to play 4 games against each other every year.   Add to this a night GF and you often had 5 games with the intensity of Anzac Day between the two best teams of the competition for 3 years (83 to 85).

The current top 8 and the way its structured often leaves you wanting more repeat contests, and being denied.   The only repeat contest I think in recent times was Brisbanes reversal and flag in 2003.   Collingwood and Geelong are still awaiting their date with destiny after playing in 3 prelim finals in 4 years (not that they are complaining - the game sharpened them up to win the big one a week later!)

A final good point is that I think this style of structure really helps fans to appreciate where there team is at the time.   If they are bottom of the Championship they are rebuilding, and can probably - with free agency - get good value trades and picks from their champions who may want to move to a top 5 Premiership team.    If a team is relegated, they can use the year for teaching players a game plan with the view of a quick jump back into the Premiership.

The concept ticks boxes with: Free agency, rebuilding through the draft, better and more charged rivalries, less "dead" matches late in a season, engrossing finals action.   Theres also a handy extra three rounds of footy (30 matches) plus a few extra finals to give the media more exposure to the game.

The downsides: If you call it that - less "mockbusters".  9 teams start a season knowing they cant win the Premiership (so what >10 teams probably started this season thinking that...).   There might be a downside of too much footy.   But thats not something that will ring true here I reckon!   And even the downside that a team might find itself more permanently in the Championship means "get your act together on the draft scene".

From a Supercoach perspective:

You can have a 25 round competition, so that allows for repeat matches in a 12 team comp, plus finals (final 4).

You could, indeed have a more effective finals competition, with trades allowed only for finals (say 15), and so the fun of fantasy footy can go for 28 weeks rather than the current 22.

All good in theory.   Id like to know your thoughts!