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Lynch: Four reasons to move the pre-finals bye
SEN • September 1st, 2025 7:19 pm
It’s one of the most heavily debated topics in the AFL post-season, and now that it’s come and gone, the conversations surrounding the pre-finals bye has caught wind once again.
Each season, the AFL takes a breather a week before September action, allowing players to rest and recover following Round 24 and ahead of finals footy. The weekend, typically the final week of August, is cleared of any AFL action, with all four finals fixtures scheduled for the first weekend of September.
While the concept makes sense in theory, many have debated as to whether the bye should be shifted to a later stage in September, and with the new footy boss Greg Swann entering his first season, Brisbane legend Alastair Lynch has provided four reasons as to why the bye should take place a week prior to the Grand Final.
“I think this is the number one thing Greg Swann should get done,” Lynch told SEN Tassie Breakfast.
“I’m quite surprised that it hasn’t happened yet, for a number of reasons. I think it should be before our biggest game of the year, which is clearly the Grand Final.
“The reality is, if you finish in the top four, and you win this weekend, you get another weekend off. There are too many breaks.”
Schedule State League Grand Finals
“I would go, the week before the Grand Final is a bye, try to centre all your state league grand finals on that weekend.
“We should do that, so everyone can work back from that weekend, have your grand finals and if you still want to get to your footy, you can go out and watch the Grand Final.”
Concussion protocols
“The other things that go with that; we have a 12-day concussion protocol. If someone gets a head knock and they get cleared, they’re okay but they’ve gone into the protocols, they can’t play in a Grand Final.
“You’ve got your fingers crossed watching the prelim finals that someone doesn’t get a head knock and is out of the Grand Final.”
Brownlow attendance
“We’ve often had competing teams from non-Victorian clubs not able to attend the Brownlow, because their coaches and their clubs don’t want them to attend.
“We’ve seen Nat Fyfe not attend when he’s won, we’ve seen Lachie Neale do it in a Grand Final year, so he is not there either.
“I think also, the week before the bye, 10 days out on the Wednesday night, you have the Brownlow Medal count, so there’s no excuses, everyone can attend.
“Early in the week, so they’ve recovered, all teams that are competing in the Grand Final have recovered over the last couple of days. Go to the Brownlow, everyone attends so that it’s guaranteed that the winner is in the room.
“How often the winner is not in the room and the room is flat? I think you’ve got to do that.”
Awards ceremony
“The other one is All-Australian, all your awards are all that week, getting ready for the biggest game of the year. That’s what they should do.”
