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AFL competition framework is better than ever. So can we stop the fiddling for five minutes?

If your definition of a great competition is every team having at least some sort of chance of beating any other team on a given day, then AFL football has never been in as good a shape as right now.

Take a look at the ladder. Two of the bottom three spots are currently filled by two of the three most successful sides of the past decade. The other has played finals the past three years and twice been within one win of a grand final berth.

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Cats slay Saints in final quarter

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FootyFix: Can the Tiges keep it up?

Rohan Connolly previews all the footy action ahead of round 5 in the AFL.

Cats slay Saints in final quarter

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Cats slay Saints in final quarter

Geelong remain undefeated after claiming a 126-88 win over a spirited St Kilda outfit at Etihad Stadium.

Tuohy tries a different tactic

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Tuohy tries a different tactic

Zac Tuohy tried something just a bit different as Tim Membreylined up a set shot.

AFL hit with another racist incident

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AFL hit with another racist incident

Footage shows a man launching a vile tirade at Saturday’s Brisbane Lions-Western Bulldogs game.

Heath Shaw’s insensitive sledge

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Heath Shaw’s insensitive sledge

Giant Heath Shaw has come under fire and since apologised after calling Swan Tom Papley a ‘f***ing retard’.

Dockers stun Kangaroos at the death

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Dockers stun Kangaroos at the death

Fremantle have claimed their third consecutive win, defeating North Melbourne 67-62 in Perth in a thriller that went down to the wire.

Outstanding Giants pour more misery on Swans

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Outstanding Giants pour more misery on …

Outstanding Giants pour more misery on Swans

Buddy Franklin’s 800th career goal was little consolation for the Swans as GWS condemned their cross-town rivals to a fifth straight loss.

Dockers’ last minute win

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Dockers’ last minute win

Having trailed since the first quarter the Dockers left it until the very last minute to make their push.

FootyFix: Can the Tiges keep it up?

Rohan Connolly previews all the footy action ahead of round 5 in the AFL.

Brisbane and Carlton, tipped almost universally this season to finish 17th and 18th, have at least won a game. And on Saturday, the Lions led the reigning premier by 38 points shortly before half-time, a Western Bulldogs outfit which came from seventh after the regular season to win a flag.

If that doesn’t signify evenness and unpredictability, what does? As for exciting games, we’re hardly short of them are we? So what’s with this incessant need to tinker, not just with laws of the game, but the very framework of an AFL competition that is working just fine?

The Bulldogs won the grand final from seventh place last year. Photo: AFL Media/Getty Images

We’ve become used to the annual night grand final kite-flying exercise. Last year there was a concerted campaign to offer Brisbane and potentially other clubs more assistance because they hadn’t been in the finals for – shock, horror – a few seasons.

And now we’re getting more impromptu “suck it and see” polling with the concept of a 17-5 fixture. Well, I’m sick to death of it. And I’m not the only one.

The 17-5 fixture concept is one of AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s favourite kites. And he’s got plenty of helpers (usually connected to TV networks) all too ready to take it out for a run seemingly every few weeks.

In the latest breathless dispatches, we’re told three groups of six teams would be ruled off after every team had played each other once, the top two “conferences” fighting out a top eight berth, but even more stupidly, a bottom-six side potentially given a finals chance as well as points to use in the next national draft.

Lions players look dejected after losing the round five AFL match against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday. Photo: Getty Images

The 17-5 model is necessary, apparently, because there’s not enough incentive for teams stuck in the bottom six after 17 rounds. Well, here’s one. Try winning more of your first 17 games. If you don’t, why on earth should you deserve a chance for a “wildcard” finals spot or whatever US sport-inspired jargon seems sexy right now?

Apparently, the fact that last year none of Carlton, Brisbane, Richmond, Fremantle or Gold Coast won more than one of their last five games highlights the need for a “new solution”. In fact, perhaps all it highlighted was that they just weren’t very good teams.

We play 198 home and away games a season now. News flash. Not all of them are going to be gripping, nor have finals spots riding on them. And even with close to 200 games to churn through, I’ll wager there’s a higher percentage that indeed do have something riding on them than the 132 we played in a 12-team competition until 30 years ago.

A solution to tanking? It’s talk that had some credence when teams stood to earn an extra priority draft pick as well as one for finishing at the bottom of the ladder. But the AFL dispensed with institutionalised priority picks five years ago.

Now that the only gap between clubs’ draft hands is determined by ladder positions, is the difference between draft selection No.1 as opposed to Nos. 2-3-4-5-6 on a 40-man playing list really enough to have AFL clubs even considering deliberately dropping games? Give me a break.

As for adding excitement? So the top six spend the last five rounds playing each other. Given they’re the best-performed teams to date, it’s more than likely they lock horns at least once again, if not more, during the finals proper. Is that more exciting? Or more a case of familiarity breeding if not contempt, boredom.

And speaking of incentives, if we adopted the 17-5 model, would clubs, knowing they could still potentially play finals even were they 13th on the ladder with just five games left, still hit the regular season as hard?

What would be the point if you only had to be somewhere vaguely beyond the bottom five to still have a chance in September? You could spell some players for half a season and have them hit a physical peak for two months only.

We could effectively call the first 17 rounds pre-season, scrap the home and away tag and have a nine-week finals series. See how ridiculous this gets?

Perhaps I’m getting old and cranky. But the goldfish memories, driving of agendas and constant refusal to consider history as context infecting football more and more drives me batty. The 17-5 fixture and the rationale for its necessity are just another example.

But I’m also not too old and wedded to the past to realise that right now, we have a framework of an AFL competition that is the best it’s ever been. The model isn’t broken. It doesn’t need fixing. How about we leave it the bloody hell alone for at least five minutes?

AND WHILE I’M AT IT

Up for grabs: North were unlucky to lose out in another close contest. Photo: Paul Kane

So how are North Melbourne going? Depends who you ask. My suggestion on Twitter on Saturday evening that the Roos had been stiff this season certainly drew plenty of scorn.

There was the usual “chokers” label regularly applied indiscriminately to any team which loses by a kick after leading. And in North’s case, the increasingly regular “Brad Scott must go” lines.

I wonder, though, how many people throwing those tags around expected much more from the Roos this season than they’re getting? Not many, I would have thought. And if those that did were unrealistic to expect more, I reckon they’re also being a bit harsh now.

This is a team that has calculatedly taken the rebuilding route, with the departures of five veterans at the end of last year shedding close to 1600 games worth of collective experience to do so. This year was never going to be smooth sailing, most people consigning the Roos to the bottom four, where with a 0-5 scoreline now, they’re every chance to wind up.

The question now is whether the focus, after three losses by under a kick, should be on the five-goal leads North have given up each time, or the effort in getting to those winning positions. I think it’s the latter.

Fremantle and North Melbourne line up for ANZAC ceremonies at Domain Stadium. Photo: Daniel Carson/AFL Media

Two of the defeats have been to a reigning premier and a preliminary finalist of last season, both in pretty decent form again. The other, on Saturday, was against a clearly revitalised Fremantle in Perth, the most difficult of road trips, where North have won just twice in their last dozen appearances.

It’s true the Roos under Scott have issues in the tight finish. In his eighth season as coach, North have lost 21 games decided by single figures, and won only nine. Then again, how many expected them to be that close to those three teams this season anyway?

The effort can’t be questioned. And the gains have been considerable, the Roos already using 29 players and handing six their AFL debuts, all of whom have had some sort of impact when given a chance.

Senior recruits Nathan Hrovat and Marley Williams have added plenty, Trent Dumont has improved out of sight, Mason Wood is now back in the mix, and while senior types Jarrad Waite and Ben Jacobs are still several weeks away, there’s more good kids ready to have a crack in Ryan Clarke, Sam Durdin and Corey Wagner.

If there’s one thing Scott should look at harder now, it’s playing even more of their like and having the courage to drop some under-performing veterans. But this is a team playing much, much better than a 0-5 win-loss record would indicate. And while it’s easy to parrot lines like you’re only as good as the scoreboard, in North’s case right now, that is patently untrue.

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