The Real Finals Begin....the other finals.

[imuninformedtwo]

Carlton has had a quarter and a half of total dominance but are two goals up. For all the excitement about their play by the commentators, they lack connection going forward.

[mcs]

I wonder if Carlton will rue not getting more on the scoreboard when they were dominant. Scrappy football for so much of that half, but carlton played the conditions better until Geelong finally kicked into gear in the 2nd part of Q2.

[Kafka's Ghost]

Well, at least we don’t have to listen to the commentators rabbiting on about Carlton for the rest of the finals. Their ravings are absolutely vomit-inducing.

[dejavoodoo44]

In the first clash between a top 6 side and a wildcard side, the team that was resting up for a week, overran the wildcard team in the final quarter. Hopefully that's the first small bit of evidence, that the wildcard finals are totally irrelevant when it comes to who's going to win the premiership. I'm sure that the AFL will look at the Carlton and Collingwood crowd figures and continue with the concept, but if in, say five years from now, will they be still able to justify it, if the furthest a wildcard team has progressed is a losing semifinal?

I'm also wondering if wildcard round statistically counts as finals? If it does, it seems a little unfair to past players. Throughout most of the VFL era, the finalists were the top 4 sides of a 12 team competition. So I don't really think that finishing 9th or 10th in an 18 team competition should be regarded as an equivalent achievement.