FOUR-TIME premiership coach Alastair Clarkson has called for the pre-finals bye to be moved to the week before the Grand Final so a player who suffers a concussion in a preliminary final can still play in the biggest game of the year.

With the League's mandatory 12-day concussion protocols in place since 2021, any player that suffers a concussion in a preliminary final would be automatically ruled out of the season decider a week later.

While that scenario has not occurred in the three years since the rule was introduced, Clarkson said the timing of the bye is a "bug bear" of his.

"I'm a big advocate for the finals bye being in between the preliminary final and the Grand Final and to have a celebration of footy for two weeks leading into the Grand Final," Clarkson told AFL.com.au's Finals Focus.

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"I'd hate to think that one of these guys who have been playing the whole season gets concussed (in the prelim) and misses the Grand Final."

The pre-finals bye was introduced in 2016 as a way to give teams a chance to reset before September, but Clarkson also expressed his concerns over the qualifying final winners' match preparation for a preliminary final.

That pre-finals bye means teams who win their qualifying final have more time off than they have had previously, with Sydney having played just once in 26 days and Geelong just once in 29 days by the time they front up for their preliminary finals this weekend.

"I don't think it's great for the preparation for the two best sides to this point, in Sydney and Geelong, they've played one game in 28 days. That's not an ideal preparation," Clarkson said.

"If they didn't have the pre-finals bye they'd be in a much better position, in my view."

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said the qualifying final winners could have an edge this weekend if the game comes down to the wire.

"I'd prefer them to keep playing, but if (Sydney and Geelong) could be in front at three-quarter time (this weekend), they should roll over the top of those sides who had tough games last week," Lloyd said.

Preliminary finals between 2000 (when the current finals format was introduced) and 2015 were largely predictable, with the winners of the qualifying finals winning 28 of the 32 prelims in that period, a win rate of 87.5 per cent.

But the introduction of the pre-finals bye in 2016 has flipped the script, with qualifying final winners successful in nine of 16 prelims since then, a win rate of just 56.25 per cent.