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Important SN update for SouthlandTwo speed economy: Why Buckley advocates for a Wildcard Round
Jaiden Sciberras • June 30th, 2025 6:30 pm
The discourse around the Wildcard Round has picked up in its usual place within the AFL season cycle.
Following the bye rounds and all of Round 16's results, the top nine find themselves two games clear of 10th placed Port Adelaide, and three games clear from the rest of the AFL.
For the bottom nine, their best interests may surround falling in the table to secure a better draft pick, as pushing to finish in ninth or tenth place only elongates a club’s potential mediocrity.
With little to play for in the remaining eight games for those below the cut-off, former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes it might be time for the league to consider late-season remedies.
“If we project forward, the difference between ninth and tenth is two games and 20 per cent,” Buckley told SEN Whateley.
“At the end of this round, Brisbane plays Port Adelaide up there and we expect Brisbane to win that game, the Suns will play Essendon at Marvel, probably a 50/50 but with the Bombers’ injuries the Suns should be expected to win that.
“Collingwood play Carlton, you’d expect Collingwood to win that, and the Western Bulldogs play North, and you’d expect the Western Bulldogs to win that.
“If they were to come to pass, it would be three games and 20 percent. With seven games left to play, what are the bottom nine playing for?
“What are we worried about Essendon’s injuries for? I’m not worried about Essendon’s injuries.
“They are a mathematical chance of playing finals in 2025 but let’s be realistic, they are not getting there.
“What if there was a play-in game? What if there was a 10th spot? It’s so easy to do this in retrospect, but it was obvious and evident, was it not?
“If you had those nine teams playing for tenth, that would turn the next eight weeks on its head.”
In 2025, the top nine sides competing for a spot in the top eight each reside on at least nine wins, while Port Adelaide sit tenth with seven and the rest each hold six or less.
With the introduction of a tenth-place play-in spot, each side from 10th to 15th would remain within touching distance of a chance at the post season.
“Sydney, Melbourne, Carlton, Essendon, St Kilda and Port Adelaide would be the teams looking to finish tenth,” Buckley continued.
“The only teams that would be disappointed would be the seventh and eighth teams that were going to play finals that would have to have an extra final to get themselves into the final eight.
“There would be tension between 10th and 11th, tension between eighth and ninth because you want to get a home final.
“There’d be tension between sixth or seventh because you either avoid the play-in game or you’re in the play-in game.
“There would be tension between fourth and fifth, because there would still be a double chance on the end of it, and tension between second and third for a home game for a qualifying final.
“If we sat here knowing that there was a seventh v 10th and an eighth v ninth in what has been the bye period, I think we’d be much more excited about what the next eight weeks looks like compared to now.”
One of the reoccurring arguments against the Wildcard Round surrounds rewarding mediocrity in the form of handing a tenth placed team a spot in the finals.
That being said, Buckley believes that idea fails to appropriately encapsulate the concept of the round.
“It’s not so much about the outcome at finals,” he continued.
“It’s not that we think that a tenth team is going to be able to win the flag, that’s not why you would advocate for this and that’s not what I’d be advocating for.
“What I would be advocating for is that you maintain the competitiveness and the integrity of the competition for as long as you possibly could.
“Eight teams would still miss whatever the post-season looks like. Two teams would be out of that post-season after seven days, and then another two teams drop off every seven days until you get to the final day five weeks later.
‘That’s not a bad way to go about it. I don’t think the argument about rewarding mediocrity… a 13-win or a 14-win season might actually have you ninth this year.
“I just don’t know if you lose a lot by having it in there.”
