Graham Cornes: The AFL should be applauded for introducing Wildcard Round to the 2026 fixture
The Adelaide Crows must have pictures of someone at AFL House given parts of their fixture next year, Graham Cornes says. But he’s saved his biggest praise for Wildcard Round.
What a week in football – and it’s cricket season!
The introduction of a wildcard round and a fixture that is as confusing as it is intriguingly creative. It’s called a fixture for a very good reason.
Crows chairman John Olsen and chief executive Tim Silvers must have photos of someone at AFL House because in terms of national exposure, this is the best draw the Crows have ever had.
Five Thursday night games and three Friday night games in the first 15 rounds, will promote the Crows on the national stage as they have never been promoted before.
All that is now required is for Nicksy and the team to deliver, and that won’t be easy.
They are drawn to play Geelong, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide twice. Tough opponents.
They also play Richmond twice but unless the Tigers improve markedly on last year, that will be eight points in the bank.
Now, after the dismal exit from the last year’s finals, the challenge for the Crows will be to shine in the spotlight, not wilt.
Port Adelaide has fared pretty well in the draw – apart from those Sunday games.
The worst day of the week to play, certainly from a players’ perspective, is Sunday and Port’s first three matches are on a Sunday.
However, as a result of their disappointing season last year, at least five of their double match-up games are against poorer performed teams that finished outside the eight – Essendon, North Melbourne, West Coast, Sydney and St Kilda.
Unlike last year, if they have a good run with injuries, you would expect them to be in September action once again.
Thankfully both Port and the Crows have been saved from those terrible trips to football’s outer reaches.
Port travels once to Darwin to play the Gold Coast in round 10, and the Crows play Hawthorn in Launceston in round 11.
Night time in Tasmania on a Thursday night in May should be pleasant, unlike the Arctic conditions of last season.
Thankfully the AFL has passed on the construction site that masquerades as a football oval in Ballarat and saved the Crows or Port that trip.
The biggest disappointment for the two teams is that neither will feature on Adelaide Oval in round one.
In fact, here in Adelaide we have to wait until the third round of the season before we can see either of the teams live here at Adelaide Oval. (It’s actually called round two but because of the peculiar – some say silly – opening round in the first week of the finals the third week of the season is called round two).
Apparently South Australia is playing NSW in a National Women’s Cricket League match and the Oval has been allocated for that match.
Seems silly when the women cricketers will be playing to an empty stadium when they could easily play on Karen Rolton Oval to a better audience with a better atmosphere.
However, think back to last year when football wouldn’t give up the ground for the Sheffield Shield final because the official date when football takes tenancy of the Oval had passed.
Unfortunately, on the date of the first round of football, cricket still has tenancy rights to the Oval. It’s tit-for-tat and seems childish but football can’t complain.
By and large, however, the draw has been kind to both Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
It’s bound to turn up some surprises and anomalies but there is no use complaining; if you’re good enough you’ll make it through to September.
September is going to look extremely different with the introduction of a “Wildcard Finals Round”.
It’s the most exciting AFL innovation that we have seen for many a year.
I love it and thought the general football public would be excited about it as well. How wrong was I.
Depending on which survey you look at, anywhere between 77 and 88 per cent disagree with the innovation.
Where is the imagination and sense of adventure of the average footy fan?
Many comments suggest that the teams that finish ninth and tenth do not deserve to play finals, but that is absurdly wrong.
Last season the Western Bulldogs won 14 games with a better percentage than six of the top eight teams and missed out on playing finals. Surely they deserved an opportunity.
There are plenty of other examples in recent history. In 2024 Collingwood won 12 games and drew two, and missed out on eighth position by percentage to Carlton who won 13 games.
In the same season Fremantle with a better percentage than two of the finalists missed out by half a game.
And remember the tragic case of Carlton in 2022? They lost by one point to Collingwood on the last day of the last round and missed the finals by 0.55%.
And, as we know only too well, there is the tragic tale of Adelaide in season 2023. Denied their first finals appearance under Matthew Nicks by that now infamous goal umpiring decision, the Crows finished 10th with a better percentage than five of the other finalists.
Those wildcard games would have been fantastic to watch and would have determined whether or not teams that finished ninth or tenth were worthy to play finals.
Participants in wildcard games are unlikely to progress through to the grand final, particularly when the other six teams have had a rest in the first week of the finals, but fate decrees that it will happen one day.
The American system is fantastic and teams do progress through the wildcard games to ultimate glory.
Particularly memorable for this writer is the case of the New York Giants in season 2011-2012.
On a study tour of overseas sports teams, I had previously been introduced by Trevor Jaques, the Adelaide Football Club’s first fitness coach and runner, to a gentleman called Ronnie Barnes who was a medical director of the New York Giants.
At dinner in early November, the subject of the Super Bowl came up, and how great it would be to be able to attend one.
The Giants were having a terrible year, so Ronnie felt safe in making the grandiose statement that it the Giants made that year’s Super Bowl he would get tickets for three of us – Trevor, me and ex-Port player Jordan Erskine to attend.
But slowly the Giants improved and slipped into the play-offs with nine wins and seven losses.
They won the wildcard game against Atlanta, then in the following week beat Green Bay, who led their conference and had only lost one game for the season.
It was at that stage that the three of us watching from back here in Australia wondered if Ronnie Barnes would come good on his reckless, but generous offer.
The following week when they beat San Francisco to claim the NFC championship (comparatively our preliminary final), things really got serious.
It’s a long, convoluted, tense story but Ronnie did come good with the tickets and two weeks later, the three of us were sitting in the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis watching the Giants beat Tom Brady’s New England Patriots in one of the great Super Bowls. There is magic in those wildcard games.
The AFL will always have its critics but you have to applaud their creativity.
This year’s fixture will prove to be one of the most innovative and exciting ones yet. Can’t wait.
More Coverage
Originally published as Graham Cornes: The AFL should be applauded for introducing Wildcard Round to the 2026 fixture
Every pick, bid, trade in the first two rounds of the draft predicted
