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The current AFL finals system was devised by the Australian Football League in 2000 as its end-of-season championship playoff tournament. It is a revision of the McIntyre Final Eight System, used by the AFL from 1994 to 1999, designed to address several perceived issues with that system. A similar system was previously used by the Australian Rugby League in the 1995 and 1996 seasons, however there was no crossover in 1995, and in 1996 teams crossed over in Week 2, rather than Week 3. The system has also been adopted by the Victorian Football League.

The eight highest-ranked teams in the AFL regular season standings participate in a four-week tournament, with two teams eliminated in each of the first three weeks. The seventh team is eliminated (and the premiership awarded) at the Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the AFL's historic home arena.

The system is designed to give the top four teams an easier road to the Grand Final than the second four teams. The top four needs to win only two finals to reach the Grand Final, while the second four needs to win three; and, two of the top four teams receive a bye in the second week of the playoff and then play at home in the third week, while the other two play at home in the second week.

Summary

Finals Format

Week one

• 1st Qualifying Final: 1st seed hosts 4th seed
• 2nd Qualifying Final: 2nd seed hosts 3rd seed
• 1st Elimination Final: 5th seed hosts 8th seed
• 2nd Elimination Final: 6th seed hosts 7th seed

The 8 finalists are split into two groups for the opening week of the Finals Series. The top four teams have the best chance of winning the premiership and play the two Qualifying Finals. The winners get a bye through to Week Three of the tournament to play home Preliminary Finals, while the losers play home Semi-Finals in Week Two. The bottom four teams play the two Elimination Finals, where the winners advance to Week Two away games and the losers' seasons are over.

There is a game on Friday Night, Saturday Afternoon, Saturday Night and Sunday Afternoon.

Week two

• 1st Semi-final: Loser of 1st QF hosts winner of 1st EF
• 2nd Semi-final: Loser of 2nd QF hosts winner of 2nd EF

One semi final is played on a Friday Night and the other is played on a Saturday Night.

Week three

• 1st Preliminary Final: Winner of 1st QF hosts winner of 2nd SF
• 2nd Preliminary Final: Winner of 2nd QF hosts winner of 1st SF

One Preliminary final is played on a Friday Night and the other is played on either Saturday Afternoon or Night.

Week four

• Grand Final: Winners of 2 PFs meet at the MCG on a Saturday Afternoon.

Venues

The Australian Football League's contract with the Melbourne Cricket Club requires ten finals matches to be played at the M.C.G. in the first three weeks over a period of five years (2006-10). This means an average of two games must be played at the venue per year, plus each Grand Final. This means that in a period when non-Victorian clubs dominate the competition, it is possible that the AFL will still have to schedule non-Victorian teams' home matches at the MCG. This has happened in the past under previous agreements with the MCC which dictated that at least one finals game be played at the M.C.G. each week.

Week One: Games are held at the home teams' venue. If all four games would be held outside of Victoria, and the AFL needed to schedule a match at the MCG, it would be the 2nd Elimination Final that is moved to the MCG. If any of the four games would be hosted by a Victorian team, at least one of those is played at the MCG and all non-Victorian teams get their home games.

Week Two: The MCG isn't guaranteed a game this week. The home teams each host the match at their own venue. If both games would be held outside the State of Victoria, and the AFL needed to schedule a match at the MCG, it would be the 2nd Semi Final that is moved to the MCG. If any Victorian teams host a game, at least one will be played at the MCG.

Week Three: The MCG is no longer guaranteed a game in this week either. The home teams each host the match at their own venue. If both games would be held outside the State of Victoria, and the AFL needed to schedule a match at the MCG, it would be the 2nd Preliminary Final that is moved to the MCG. If any Victorian teams host a game, at least one will be played at the MCG.

Week Four: The Grand Final is played on the last Saturday of September every year at the MCG.

Advantages for ladder positions

Under this finals system, the final eight teams are broken up into four groups of two. Each group of two earns one extra benefit over the teams beneath it. These benefits are home ground finals and the double-chance, whereby a first-week loss will not eliminate the team from the finals. Note that the "home" designations may be irrelvant for games played between teams from the same state - almost all finals games played between two Victorian teams will be held at the MCG, regardless of the "home" team's home ground.

First and second

First and Second receive the double-chance, and will play their first two finals matches at home: their qualifying final, and then either a semi-final if they lose their qualifying final or a preliminary final if they win their qualifying final. They need to win two finals to reach the Grand Final.

Third and fourth

Third and Fourth also receive the double-chance, but receive only one finals match at home: either a semi-final if they lose their qualifying final or a preliminary final if they win their qualifying final. They need to win two finals to reach the Grand Final.

Fifth and sixth

Fifth and Sixth receive one home final: their elimination final. They need to win three finals to reach the Grand Final.

Seventh and eighth

Seventh and Eighth receive no home finals. They need to win three finals to reach the Grand Final.

Drawn Games

Under the current AFL finals system (and under all previous AFL finals systems since 1991), a game during the first three weeks of the finals cannot finish in a draw. If two teams are tied at the end of regulation time, extra time is played until a winner is decided. This replaced the former practice of replaying the final on the following weekend, and delaying all other finals by one week.

Extra time is not played if the Grand Final is drawn. In the case of a drawn Grand Final, a Grand Final Replay is played on the following weekend.

Criticism

The biggest criticism of the current system previously stemmed from the AFL's former contract with the MCC, rather than the seedings of the system itself. The contract required at least one game in each week of the finals series to be played at the MCG. The difficulty arose when the top of the ladder was dominated by teams from outside Victoria, to such an extent that no Victorian team qualified for a home game in a given week. When that situation arose, it was necessary to force teams from outside of Victoria to stage "home" games at the MCG, even if the "away" team came from Victoria, thus reversing the home-ground advantage. Although this was not a regular occurrence (it occurred only once since the present finals system was introduced in 2000, in the 2004 Preliminary Final between Brisbane Lions and Geelong), a new agreement has been in effect since 2006, under which no match must be played at the MCG each week (except the Grand Final); instead ten pre-Grand Final matches are played over a five year period (at an average of two per year).

Conversely, there has been pressure for rival code the NRL to use this system, especially following a major upset in the 2008 NRL Finals, when the 8th-ranked New Zealand Warriors upset the 1st-ranked Melbourne Storm; the first time that this has occurred in either the AFL or the NRL (this result was repeated in 2009 when the 8th-ranked Parramatta Eels defeated the top placed St George Illawarra Dragons).

See also

• Early VFL Final systems
• AFL Grand Final
• McIntyre System
• Top five play-offs
• Top six play-offs
• Super League play-offs, adopted by the European Super League rugby league competition in 2009, and almost identical to the AFL finals system

References

1. ^ Under the AFL finals series, the term "semi-final" has different usage to that a traditional knock out tournament. The two games played immediately before the Grand Final, which would be known as semi-finals in a knock out tournament, are called "preliminary finals"; the semi-finals refer to the two games preceding the preliminary finals. This is consistent with the terminology used by the league under the McIntyre System from 1931 until 1993
2. The day a band of Warriors stood tall

External links

• Grand Finals at the MCG Contains a brief summary of the finals systems used in the VFL/AFL

• Australian Football League
• Tournament systems