From 2026 the AFL drops the pre-finals bye and puts a wildcard weekend in its place — the biggest change to September since the top-eight system came in for 2000.
Finish in the top six and you go straight into the eight-team finals, with a week off first. Finish 7th to 10th and you play for the last two spots.
The ties are 7th hosts 10th, and 8th hosts 9th. Win, and you join the top six in week one of the usual finals. Lose, and the year is over.
That extra week is the point. There are more games that actually matter, and the gap between 6th and 7th is worth chasing: sixth gets the week off, seventh has to host a knockout at home.
Once the wildcard winners are through, week one of the main finals is 5th against the lower-ranked wildcard winner, and 6th against the higher-ranked one. After that it is the finals system supporters already know — double chance for the top four, home finals, and so on.
The league has been looking at play-in ideas used in the NBA and the NBL. Andrew Dillon’s argument is that it does not reward mediocrity: it rewards the clubs that get into the six, and it gives the next four a genuine shot instead of a dead last round.
If this had been in place in 2025, Gold Coast would have hosted Sydney and Hawthorn would have played the Western Bulldogs. That is only a what-if — the first real wildcard weekend is 2026.
On our ladder, the red line is the top six. The navy WC line is 7th to 10th.