On Tuesday the AFLPA released a discussion paper on the subject, entitled ‘Expanding the code, an opportunity to secure the future of the AFL’, which association chief executive Brendon Gale hopes will kick start the debate on how the expanded competition will work.
“It’s something we’ve come up with internally. We intend to put it to the players and, ultimately, take some sort of formal position," Gale told The Herald Sun.
"We intend to take it to the AFL; we think it's a solution the AFL should consider.
"It's an opportunity to restructure the competition and deal with this fundamental flaw, which is the inequitable draw.
"Let's start the debate."
Under the proposed plan, clubs would play each other once per season with home games to be rotated on an annual basis.
Other measures included in the plan would see up to 10 teams involved in a longer finals series, a week’s break leading into the Grand Final and a restructured pre-season competition that would also include state league premiers.
The Brownlow Medal count would be held in the ‘off’ week before the Grand Final with that weekend set aside for state league and community football grand fnals to avoid a clash with the AFL premiership decider.
The AFL, which has previously flagged a possible extension of the season to 24 matches when the Gold Coast and western Sydney teams are added to the league, offered a lukewarm response to the proposal via chief executive Andrew Demetriou.
"I doubt whether we would ever go less than 22 (rounds), particularly with the impact it would have on our contractual obligations at venues and in terms of our broadcast rights," he said.
Gale said the league’s response was not surprising, but maintained the slimmed-down format would lead to an improved end product.
"The typical response in the past has been, 'We'll give you 16 weeks, even 12 weeks, if you want, provided you're prepared to take the commensurate hit',” he said.
"We think it can be structured in such a way as to promote a higher-quality competition which will optimise the product which, in turn, will optimise revenues."
