Media owner and co-host of The Sounding Board podcast Craig Hutchison has outlined a new concept for the AFL fixture that places an emphasis on marquee Thursday games and introduces the wildcard round prior to finals.

Speaking to Damian Barrett on their weekly media industry podcast, Hutchison described a fixture involving an 18/8 system for the first 18 rounds, Thursday night games every week for the first 18 rounds, and the previously-floated ‘wildcard’ round on the weekend prior to finals.

“I’ve flagged this briefly before on Footy Classified. With the fixture there is a simple model, I feel, that tidies up the first 18 rounds of the season and makes it reasonably equitable before we go into a four-week reset.”

The system broken down:

• Rounds 1-18 everyone plays each other once and you have one deal with one other team who you play twice (SA showdown, Western Derby, Essendon v Collingwood etc)

• Rounds 1-18 there are eight games per round • Thursday night game every week Rounds 1-18, with Thursday games positioned as marquee matches • Two teams have a bye every round • The two teams who have the bye play the Thursday match the following round • The two Grand Finalists have the bye in Round 1, play each other Thursday night Round 2 • From Round 19 onwards, no byes • Rounds 19-22 TBC • Wildcard weekend wherein the 7th placed side plays the 10th placed side, and 8th plays 9th • Wildcard weekend takes place in the bye weekend following Round 22

“It’s all designed for a) Thursday Night Football, b) to get rid of the cumbersome byes and c) to lose one game a week that no one notices anyway. And the fourth thing is to get bigger games on a Thursday night that mean something, and showcase national games,” said Hutchison.

“That, for me, is such a neat 18 game model and Thursday Night Footy is the best new thing going. If we’re going to keep innovating as a code, as a sport – when something works, like Thursday Night Footy, grab it, run at it.”

“That’s my first stab at what I’d do.”

Listen to the full discussion on The Sounding Board below