Get ready for a seismic shift in the AFL landscape! The league is shaking things up with a bold expansion of its finals series, introducing a wildcard round starting in 2026. This isn't just a tweak—it's a game-changer that will redefine the race to the premiership. But here's where it gets controversial: with this move, over half of the AFL teams will now qualify for the finals. Is this dilution of the competition a step too far, or a necessary evolution to keep the game exciting? Let’s dive in.
The AFL has announced a transition to a 10-team finals series, with the 2026 season marking the debut of a wildcard round. This means teams finishing 9th and 10th will now have a shot at post-season glory. The wildcard round will feature two additional elimination finals—7th vs 10th and 8th vs 9th—played during the current pre-finals bye week. The winners of these matches will then join the traditional top eight, setting the stage for a longer and more intense finals campaign.
And this is the part most people miss: the top six teams will still enjoy a bye before the usual qualifying and elimination finals resume. After the wildcard round, teams will be re-seeded, with the highest-ranked wildcard winner taking 7th place and the lowest-ranked winner securing 8th place. This re-seeding adds an extra layer of strategy and unpredictability to the finals.
Here’s where it gets even more intriguing: a team finishing 7th—like the Western Bulldogs in 2016—will now need to win five finals to claim the premiership. In contrast, a team finishing 4th would only need a minimum of three wins. This disparity raises questions about fairness and whether the wildcard round truly levels the playing field.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon expressed enthusiasm for the change, stating, “We’re thrilled to deliver fans an extra weekend of finals footy, while giving more clubs and players the opportunity to compete for a Premiership. The Wildcard Finals Round reflects our commitment to evolving the competition, building on innovations like Gather Round and AFL Origin.” He also highlighted that all teams finishing in the top eight out of ten will host a home final, ensuring fans get to see their clubs in action during September.
This decision comes on the heels of the 2025 season, where a top-heavy ladder effectively reduced the finals race to just nine teams with six rounds remaining. Since the AFL expanded to 18 teams, the average 10th-placed team has won just under half of its games (11.4 wins and 11.5 losses, pro-rated for a 23-game season). With Tasmania set to join as the 19th team in 2028, expanding the finals series was widely anticipated.
The VFL has already implemented a wildcard round since 2023, due to its 21-team structure. Interestingly, only once has a wildcard winner gone on to win its elimination final the following week (Williamstown in 2024), suggesting the bye week for 5th and 6th-placed teams may provide a significant advantage. In both 2024 and 2025, the 10th-placed team won its wildcard final but was decisively beaten in the next round.
Here’s a thought-provoking question: Should these wildcard games even be classified as finals, or do they dilute the prestige of the traditional finals series? The change means that, in reality, over half of the AFL teams will now qualify for the finals—a scenario that hasn’t been seen since the top eight was introduced in 1994, when the league had 15 teams.
The finals format has remained relatively consistent since then, with the only major tweak occurring in 2000 to address issues with the McIntyre Final Eight system. That system, with its odd matchups like 1st vs 8th, often left teams in limbo, unsure of their elimination status until other games were completed.
Under the new top-10 format, teams finishing 7th and 8th will gain an additional home final but face longer odds of winning the flag, needing to string together five consecutive wins. For example, Hawthorn’s 2025 run to the preliminary final from 8th place would have required an extra wildcard win against the 9th-placed Western Bulldogs under the new system.
Meanwhile, the other wildcard final in 2025 would have seen 10th-placed Sydney, with 12 wins, travel to face 7th-placed Gold Coast. This scenario underscores the increased challenges lower-ranked teams will face in their quest for premiership glory.
Interestingly, the NRL experimented with a top-10 finals system in its inaugural 1998 season following the Super League war. The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, who finished 9th, made it all the way to the Grand Final, proving that wildcard teams can indeed make a deep run.
As the AFL prepares to announce the 2026 fixture later this week, fans and pundits alike are buzzing with anticipation. But the big question remains: Is this expansion a brilliant move to enhance excitement, or a step too far that risks watering down the competition? We want to hear from you—share your thoughts in the comments below!
