EDFL 2018: Essendon District Football League CEO Craig Armstead discusses Premier Division finals system
Essendon District Football League boss Craig Armstead discusses the merits of introducing a top five in the hotly-contested Premier Division.
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The Essendon District Football League has not ruled out implementing a top-five finals system in the hotly-contested Premier Division.
The 10-team top flight has always had four finalists, but the strength of the competition this year has renewed calls for the finals series to be expanded.
The Western Region and Northern leagues are among the suburban competitions that have a five-team finals series in their top grades.
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Little has separated the top-six teams in Premier Division in 2018, with Maribyrnong Park, Keilor, Pascoe Vale, Aberfeldie, Greenvale and Strathmore all in contention to extend their campaigns beyond the home-and-away rounds.
While a sizeable gap has been established between the contenders and bottom-four sides Glenroy, Avondale Heights, West Coburg and Essendon Doutta Stars, the jostling for positions in coming weeks is set to be enthralling.
“It’s certainly on the agenda for us to look at and discuss, and I’ll be talking to the board about it,” EDFL chief executive Craig Armstead said.
“There are certainly lots of considerations and if we make a change it would want to be for the right reasons and permanent.
“This year you look at Premier Division, and there’s six strong teams.
“That adds weight to the argument, but we’re not just going to react to that and make a change on that one basis.”
Introducing a top five would extend the finals series to four weeks.
It would also reward the minor premier with a rest in the opening week, but there is the potential for the best-performed team of the regular season to have two weeks off between the end of the home-and-away season and the grand final.
Supporters of a top-four system believe that can hamper continuity, while history suggests it is also unlikely a fifth-placed side would be good enough to win three cutthroat finals to advance to the decider.
In the past five years, only one fifth-placed team (Macleod, 2014) has progressed as far as a preliminary final in the NFL.
During the same period, one fifth-ranked WRFL club (Hoppers Crossing, 2014) has made it past the first week of finals.
Armstead said he had been impressed by the quality of Premier Division this year.
“While I’ve only been in the role since February, I’ve followed the league for 5-10 years,” he said.
“I think it’s a really good standard and there’s been lots of good, close matches.”
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