AFL outlines radical fixture models to club bosses

Roger Vaughan |

The AFL has set out its plans for a 19-team league once Tasmania joins the action.
The AFL has set out its plans for a 19-team league once Tasmania joins the action.

A mid-season tournament and a pre-finals group stage are among a raft of fixturing ideas for when Tasmania join the AFL.

The league outlined four models on Monday at a meeting of club chief executives on the Gold Coast.

Tasmania’s inclusion will take the league to 19 teams in 2028 and plenty of options were laid out in the four scenarios. 

Even Gather Round, an undoubted success for the AFL, might not be safe, with one model scrapping the concept.

Another suggestion is for the season to be reduced to 20 games with a three-week block set aside in the middle of the year for a separate tournament.

Under the group model the season would also run at 20 games, before the teams’ ladder positions determine their seeding – four groups of four teams, with the bottom three to play each other in a separate grouping to determine their draft positions.

A three-week group stage would then determine who makes the final 10.

AFL action.
The AFL has got creative with its proposals over how to move to a 19-year league in 2028. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

* Option One

22 games per season, then finals

No Gather Round

* Option Two

24 games, then finals

Two neutral rounds – including Gather Round

* Option Three

20 games, then group stage over three weeks, then finals

Four groups of four (eg first group would be 1, 8, 9 and 16 on the ladder)

Bottom three play for draft positions

* Option Four

20 games, then finals

Three-week mid-season tournament

AAP