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NRL is looking at 10 team finals.
I rather the old top 5, can't see why you should be rewarded for coming so far down the ladder.
From memory, since the NRL started no team has come from worse than 4th spot.
I think the Bulldogs may have come from 5th in 1995 during the ARL days.
The NRL finals will undergo a radical revamp next year if clubs agree to the introduction of a wildcard concept that would increase the number of teams in the playoffs from eight to 10.
Officials at League Central hope the proposed wildcard weekend - in which teams from seventh to 10th would play off in the first week of the finals to secure a spot in the top eight - will revolutionise the run-in to the grand final and halt the worrying number of "dead games" in August.
Outside the eight: Robbie Farah's Wests Tigers finished ninth last season and missed the finals by a point in 2016.Credit:AAP
NRL head of elite football operations Graham Annesley was involved in a phone hook-up on Monday about how the idea would potentially work from the 2020 season.
In a nutshell, teams that finish in ninth and 10th place will still get the chance to play in the finals.
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The top six teams at the end of the season would enjoy a weekend off as seventh hosts 10th and eighth hosts ninth in elimination matches.
The matches would be played at home grounds, not regional venues, with the winners to nail the remaining two finals spots.
A similar concept has been used in the NFL and NHL, and the NRL hopes it will help maintain the interest of supporters whose clubs are no longer in the hunt for the top eight as the regular season draws to a close.
In 2018 the NRL featured 36 "dead" or "half-dead" games in which one or both clubs competing were out of the finals race. Under the proposed system, only eight games would have fallen into that category last year.
Over the past decade television audiences have dropped about eight per cent for games with no bearing on the finals and crowds have dipped by an average of 3300.
Canberra and Wests Tigers supporters will be buoyed by the news given the Raiders have finished 10th on three occasions in the last four years and the Tigers have wound up ninth in two of the past three seasons. Raiders CEO Don Furner told the Herald: "It's a good idea, but we're certainly keen to explore it more."
Annesley, who found out first-hand at the Gold Coast Titans how long August becomes when a club is not a chance to qualify for the finals, said at League Central on Monday: "The number of dead games is increasing and I don't think that's in anyone's interest.
"If this is a way of trying to arrest that, that's a good outcome.
"The question for people to determine is, 'Is this the right way to do that?' and 'is the trade-off worth it?' Everyone will have a different view on it.
"At the Titans last year we were probably done and dusted early. There was still some hope but it gets to the point you have to string a lot of wins together.
"If you're a team who has won less than 50 per cent of your games in the first half of the season, expecting you can suddenly turn that around and win 75 per cent of your games or even higher in the second half of the season to qualify for the top eight is not a realistic outcome.
"That does impact on your crowds, the players, the coaching staff, revenue and the fans.
"If this is a way of keeping that engagement and involvement from everyone associated with the game, it's at least worth considering."
Annesley was first briefed on the concept when he returned to the NRL in October. He was given the ARL Commission's blessing to go through the consultation process with clubs and expects to know the view of clubs by next week.
If there was an appetite for change, the concept could be given final approval by the ARLC in a matter of months.
If an extra round of finals was added to the schedule, the season would be moved forward by a week and while the players involved in the wildcard weekend would be required to play an extra game, those at the clubs in the top six would have an additional week's rest.
The AFL now has a week off between its regular season and finals.
"In terms of player welfare and workload, teams getting a week off before the finals is beneficial to them," Annesley said.
"The four teams who play the extra game ... you wouldn't think under normal circumstances they would go as deep into the finals as other teams."
Parramatta and North Queensland have come from eighth to make the grand final but no team has ever won the NRL title from outside the top four.
I rather the old top 5, can't see why you should be rewarded for coming so far down the ladder.
From memory, since the NRL started no team has come from worse than 4th spot.
I think the Bulldogs may have come from 5th in 1995 during the ARL days.
The NRL finals will undergo a radical revamp next year if clubs agree to the introduction of a wildcard concept that would increase the number of teams in the playoffs from eight to 10.
Officials at League Central hope the proposed wildcard weekend - in which teams from seventh to 10th would play off in the first week of the finals to secure a spot in the top eight - will revolutionise the run-in to the grand final and halt the worrying number of "dead games" in August.
Outside the eight: Robbie Farah's Wests Tigers finished ninth last season and missed the finals by a point in 2016.Credit:AAPNRL head of elite football operations Graham Annesley was involved in a phone hook-up on Monday about how the idea would potentially work from the 2020 season.
In a nutshell, teams that finish in ninth and 10th place will still get the chance to play in the finals.
Advertisement
The top six teams at the end of the season would enjoy a weekend off as seventh hosts 10th and eighth hosts ninth in elimination matches.
The matches would be played at home grounds, not regional venues, with the winners to nail the remaining two finals spots.
A similar concept has been used in the NFL and NHL, and the NRL hopes it will help maintain the interest of supporters whose clubs are no longer in the hunt for the top eight as the regular season draws to a close.
In 2018 the NRL featured 36 "dead" or "half-dead" games in which one or both clubs competing were out of the finals race. Under the proposed system, only eight games would have fallen into that category last year.
Over the past decade television audiences have dropped about eight per cent for games with no bearing on the finals and crowds have dipped by an average of 3300.
Canberra and Wests Tigers supporters will be buoyed by the news given the Raiders have finished 10th on three occasions in the last four years and the Tigers have wound up ninth in two of the past three seasons. Raiders CEO Don Furner told the Herald: "It's a good idea, but we're certainly keen to explore it more."
Annesley, who found out first-hand at the Gold Coast Titans how long August becomes when a club is not a chance to qualify for the finals, said at League Central on Monday: "The number of dead games is increasing and I don't think that's in anyone's interest.
"If this is a way of trying to arrest that, that's a good outcome.
"The question for people to determine is, 'Is this the right way to do that?' and 'is the trade-off worth it?' Everyone will have a different view on it.
"At the Titans last year we were probably done and dusted early. There was still some hope but it gets to the point you have to string a lot of wins together.
"If you're a team who has won less than 50 per cent of your games in the first half of the season, expecting you can suddenly turn that around and win 75 per cent of your games or even higher in the second half of the season to qualify for the top eight is not a realistic outcome.
"That does impact on your crowds, the players, the coaching staff, revenue and the fans.
"If this is a way of keeping that engagement and involvement from everyone associated with the game, it's at least worth considering."
Annesley was first briefed on the concept when he returned to the NRL in October. He was given the ARL Commission's blessing to go through the consultation process with clubs and expects to know the view of clubs by next week.
If there was an appetite for change, the concept could be given final approval by the ARLC in a matter of months.
If an extra round of finals was added to the schedule, the season would be moved forward by a week and while the players involved in the wildcard weekend would be required to play an extra game, those at the clubs in the top six would have an additional week's rest.
The AFL now has a week off between its regular season and finals.
"In terms of player welfare and workload, teams getting a week off before the finals is beneficial to them," Annesley said.
"The four teams who play the extra game ... you wouldn't think under normal circumstances they would go as deep into the finals as other teams."
Parramatta and North Queensland have come from eighth to make the grand final but no team has ever won the NRL title from outside the top four.
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