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Speaker 1: They are meddling with the game. We love, Jason Lauren,

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Speaker 1: don't touch it. A bit of a traditionalist at heart.

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Speaker 2: We're not getting rid of warm up round.

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Speaker 3: Or round zero.

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Speaker 1: It is. And they've just revealed that there's more teams

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Speaker 1: playing in opening round plus games in Melbourne as well.

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Speaker 1: That's you know, that's a furfy in my opinion.

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Speaker 2: So it's becoming just a round.

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Speaker 1: So it's Round one minus a few teams yea, which

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Speaker 1: doesn't make sense any way. So yesterday it emerged that

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Speaker 1: the AFL will in fact adopt a system they use

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Speaker 1: in the NFL, which is a wild card round to

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Speaker 1: allow a couple of teams that sit outside the eight

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Speaker 1: to give them a chance to play finals. Those teams

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Speaker 1: being that the ninth and tenth finishing placed side. So basically,

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Speaker 1: under this system, in the bye week before the finals set,

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Speaker 1: the seventh place team will play the tenth place team

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Speaker 1: and the eighth place team will play the ninth place team.

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Speaker 1: Those two teams will then proceed to Week one of

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Speaker 1: the finals.

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Speaker 4: So you're not guaranteed to make the finals if you

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Speaker 4: finish seven or eight.

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Speaker 1: No, so top six qualify and then seventh and eighth,

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Speaker 1: which which this year, by the way, was gold Coast

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Speaker 1: and Hawthorne, So gold Coast would have played Sydney and

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Speaker 1: Hawthorne would have played the Bulldogs for a spot in

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Speaker 1: the finals. It's trash in my opinion. It's rewarding mediocrity

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Speaker 1: and I don't know they're doing it just make a

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Speaker 1: bit more cash, you know, keep the.

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Speaker 4: Broadcast is that people don't like that week off between

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Speaker 4: the finals or whatever.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's that, there's that. It's just I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Let's get let's get Mitch Cleary's opinion. He's the Channel

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Speaker 1: seven chief footy reporter.

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Speaker 5: Morning Mitch, Morning, Morning guy.

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Speaker 2: Is it a cash grab? Mitch.

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Speaker 5: Oh, you gotta argue that, Jase. But there's two extra

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Speaker 5: games of footy fans to watch on the weekend of

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Speaker 5: that by round. So although the fans are up in

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Speaker 5: arms this morning and everyone's losing their mind over it,

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Speaker 5: I think once it rolls around, people will watch those

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Speaker 5: games and you're going to have more competitive teams in

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Speaker 5: the competition for longer for the season. Now, I'm a

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Speaker 5: bit like Clint, I'm a traditionalist, but I can understand

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Speaker 5: why the af I was doing this because this year

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Speaker 5: there were so many dead rubbers in the second half year,

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Speaker 5: so now it's the top ten. That means eleventh, twelve,

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Speaker 5: even thirteenth might be alive the longer in the season

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Speaker 5: to supposed to what they were this year.

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Speaker 3: So is anyone happy about it?

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Speaker 4: Or is it just everyone blowing up because it feels

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Speaker 4: like it's come out of nowhere.

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Speaker 5: The broadcast are pretty happy lot the results for more

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Speaker 5: eyeballs on matches, but yeah, a lot of people are

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Speaker 5: really frustrated by this, even you know, Richmond Great Matthew

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Speaker 5: Richardson was saying last night there's actually more teams in

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Speaker 5: finals now than teams that miss out, So as Clint,

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Speaker 5: that doesn't reward mediocrity. But I think once it rolls

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Speaker 5: around and the dust has settled, people will will find

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Speaker 5: a way to watch these games. And footy fans hate

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Speaker 5: change are the best of times, so once these things

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Speaker 5: get taken away, I thought personally we'd wait until Tazzi.

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Speaker 5: So you know, you have the nine eight teams. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: ten teams in finals might be better than that now,

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Speaker 5: but they've rolled the dice with it, and as Clint mentioned,

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Speaker 5: it's getting a bit more of that American style in

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Speaker 5: our game.

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Speaker 2: You know, what I think you hit an eye on

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Speaker 2: the head right at the start of the chat, that

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Speaker 2: we get an extra gate, like extra week of footy.

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Speaker 2: Like you think back to last year, remember there was

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Speaker 2: that quiet week before finals and more like, ah, this sucks,

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Speaker 2: is no footy? Come on, let's go and let's just

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Speaker 2: launch into it. So I think from that angle, it's

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Speaker 2: a good thing.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, And for those teams if it means that eleven

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Speaker 5: is playing thirteenth in the last game and it's rather

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Speaker 5: than just being oh, they're getting ready to go to

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Speaker 5: Bali for their yeah, the whole day, if it means

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Speaker 5: they can somehow sneak into tenth, it might mean that

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Speaker 5: there's a bit more excitement in those last few rounds

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Speaker 5: as well.

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Speaker 4: So if we're doing this, does that mean we don't

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Speaker 4: really need to do this round zero opening run?

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Speaker 3: Can we get rid of that and just start at

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Speaker 3: round one?

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Speaker 5: Yeah? Victorians hate that, don't they. That was because it's

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Speaker 5: weird because right now you've got more teams playing in

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Speaker 5: that than you have missing out as well, so you've

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Speaker 5: gone from four games to five. It means that there'll

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Speaker 5: be ten teams playing eight teams out. I do like

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Speaker 5: the Sunday night game on Labor Day Eve, because think

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Speaker 5: about next Sunday, March eight next year, you'll have the

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Speaker 5: F one and the RVO. You'll have one hundred and

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Speaker 5: thirty thousand there. Then you might have eighty thousand watching

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Speaker 5: some Kilda Collingwoods before the Labor Day public holiday. It

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Speaker 5: does sound pretty cool, but I can understand the frustration

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Speaker 5: of fans saying, what play all nine games?

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Speaker 3: So just call it round one.

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Speaker 1: So the AFLCO Andrew Dylan will speak to the media

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Speaker 1: at nine point thirty this morning. Do you think Mitch

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Speaker 1: when he's asked, Because let's be honest, I think fans

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Speaker 1: at the moment are quite puzzled, if not frustrated, that

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Speaker 1: they're not being listened to. The people's yeah right, If

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Speaker 1: the fans don't want it, what is how is Andrew

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Speaker 1: Dillon going to justify the fact that we need a

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Speaker 1: wild card round?

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Speaker 5: Probably everything we just discussed the fact that he'll argue

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Speaker 5: that if you're a team, if you're a fan of

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Speaker 5: supports eleventh and twelfth, next year, with the round to go,

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Speaker 5: you're seeing you're still alive rather than you're getting ready

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Speaker 5: to trade you. So there's that glint I just worry

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Speaker 5: what happens. You know, fans are losing their marbles this

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Speaker 5: morning over there. What happens when we see the nights

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Speaker 5: on Grand Final of twice Grand Final?

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Speaker 1: I don't controversially, Mitch's not like a night time.

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Speaker 2: Oh God, pick your sor before.

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Speaker 3: The Grand Final?

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Speaker 4: Mitch, do you think that this means Richmond might make

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Speaker 4: the finals next year?

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Speaker 5: It gives them a chance. It goes back to those

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Speaker 5: years ago when they used to finish ninth every year.

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Speaker 3: I know we needed it.

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Speaker 5: Back then, so maybe maybe. But what the big question

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Speaker 5: I want to know is if Eon win a wild

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Speaker 5: card game, does that mean their final strategy order that

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Speaker 5: have to win the next week?

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Speaker 2: Now they're going to win the next week. I give

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Speaker 2: them a bit rolls on not officially finals, it's just

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Speaker 2: wild card round. Mitch Clary, chief AFI reporter, Channel seven,

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Speaker 2: join us on the air. Good on you mate, Thanks

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Speaker 2: your time this morning, Mitch. Guys, tell you what are

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Speaker 2: you facing the media fire this morning? Andrew doing money?

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Speaker 3: Did this come out of nowhere? Clint? Or is this

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Speaker 3: like rumored to happen?

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Speaker 1: It's it's just picked up, it's been it's been rumored

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Speaker 1: to be happening for a while. But you know, according

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Speaker 1: to stat seventy seven percent of fans don't want it,

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Speaker 1: so it is the people's game. I'll be intrigued to

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Speaker 1: know how he sort of justifies it.

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Speaker 2: What do you want, like an Instagram poll or something

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Speaker 2: from me?

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Speaker 1: Now, this is a this is a legit illegit fan

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Speaker 1: pole which has been commissioned.

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Speaker 2: So all right, well they're justified this morning after nine

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Speaker 2: when they hold a press conference. But it is happening

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Speaker 2: a wildcard round in twenty twenty six for the AFL.

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Speaker 1: Jason Lauren Lauren wake up feeling good following

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Speaker 4: Them on the socials