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Revamped bye round structure on the cards under Swann regime
Sam Edmund • September 6th, 2025 2:23 pm
AFL football boss Greg Swann has flagged the introduction of an all-of-competition mid-season bye as part of a significant fixture revamp.
And Swann has given the strongest hint yet that the contentious pre-finals bye will be scrapped.
Swann and former Sydney CEO Tom Harley – his incoming AFL colleague – have previously lobbied the league to push the bye back to before the Grand Final.
And speaking exclusively to SEN for the Grand Final edition of the AFL Record, Swann said other fixture adjustments could spell the end of the pre-finals week off.
“We’re having a look at the way we do the fixture. There’s a couple of other things that might come in as well,” Swann said.
“My personal view is I’d like everybody to have the same bye. A bye for the whole industry after Round 15 or something. Then we come back and go again.
“That might temper what happens later in the season for that pre-finals bye or whether there’s a wildcard round. We’re looking at all of it. That’s a watch this space.”
Asked specifically if a wildcard game or a wildcard weekend was a legitimate chance to be introduced after the home-and-away rounds next year, Swann said: “Yeah, we’re looking at it.”
An all-of-competition bye would need the approval of rights holders Seven and Foxtel, who agreed to a $4.5 billion TV deal through until 2031.
But Swann said he didn’t like the drawn-out, multi-week bye window in the heart of the season.
“It’s only me floating it ... but the season gets a little bit disjointed in the middle when everybody is having byes at different times,” he said.
“It’s only me floating it ... but the season gets a little bit disjointed in the middle when everybody is having byes at different times,” he said.
“But if the broadcasters don’t want to do it then we won’t do it.”
The pre-finals bye has been a tough sell for fans since it was introduced in 2016, while critics have argued it dilutes the advantage – and even disadvantages – top-four sides who win the qualifying final.
“There’s a little bit of that,” Swann said.
“But Sydney and Brisbane played in a Grand Final (in 2024) and we had a chat about it. It’s more to do with somebody getting concussed (in the preliminary final) and not being able to play (in the Grand Final).
“That’s why we think that bye would be better off before the Grand Final.”
