Caroline Wilson and Craig Hutchison trade barbs over AFL’s wildcard round

The AFL’s controversial wildcard round has sparked a fierce debate between footy commentators, with opinions sharply divided on whether the format is good for the game.

The league introduced the new round this season, effectively extending the finals to a top 10 and removing the old pre-finals bye.

Channel 7’s Caroline Wilson launched a stinging attack on the “sugar hit” round that has turned Round 24 into a dud of a round.

The final weekend of the home and away season is shaping as an anti-climax with the top 10 already locked in, and the prospect of teams resting players looming large.

Under the old top-eight format, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs would be fighting it out for the final spot in the finals.

On the other side of the coin, the top 10 has allowed Carlton to complete a remarkable turnaround under now permanent coach Josh Fraser to make finals after sacking Michael Voss mid-season.

Wilson said the introduction of wildcard round, or Round 25 as she called it, has robbed fans of a great finish to the season, and also some clean air for the AFLW.

“I’m not sold on the wildcard round, quite apart from the fact that Round 24 is now shaping up as a bit of a dud and even allowing for Josh Fraser’s scintillating journeys into the so-called finals,” Wilson said on The Agenda Setters .

“I’ve got a nasty feeling that once Round 25 is complete, and I’m calling it Round 25, we’re going to have an even more compromised finals series.

“In the good old days next week, we would have seen the Western Bulldogs genuinely contending for a spot in the finals, followed by a weekend of clean air for AFLW and potentially the best stage for a representative game between Australia and Ireland.

“Wildcard round for me is looming as a sugar hit of a weekend and a moneymaker for the AFL, and I’ll go as far as to say incredibly unfair on the teams that finish seventh and eighth.”

The Agenda Setters host Craig Hutchison immediately hit back, saying the wildcard cynics have been comprehensively beaten.

“You’d have to be joking. It’s been the most compelling 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 defeat of the wildcard cynics of all time,” he said.

“You’ve had Carlton and Collingwood keep their seasons alive and dream when there was no dream to be had for the prospect of making 10th and have created amazing marquee games over the next and last month.”