Essendon coach James Hird has endured a stressful season amid the probe into the Bombers' supplements program. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Salpigtidis George / HeraldSun
ESSENDON has given the AFL Commission ample reason to have a long, hard think about the 2014 season at its meeting on Monday.
Of course there is the obvious question - do the Bombers deserve to play for points next season?
But the commission will also consider in recent weeks how the 2014 season will actually look.
And that is where Essendon's situation this year is relevant, because as much as the Bombers have hijacked season 2013 they have also given it an unwitting benefit.
The uncertainty over their finals participation has meant that as many as 13 sides have had reason to believe they could play finals as recently as last weekend.
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Normally we are at live kill stage, where a million meaningless dead rubbers are played out to dwindling crowds and zero interest from TV viewers.
In the next fortnight the AFL commission will consider a raft of proposals.
Included are the less likely conference system, and another where every team plays once before being split into three groups of six for the last five games.
They will also consider a wildcard weekend that gives finals contenders one last chance to qualify for September.
As AFL executive Simon Lethlean told Dwayne Russell in The Adelaide Advertiser on Sunday, 7th would play 10th and 8th plays 9th for the last two spots in September.
"Wildcard round has its merits," said Lethlean.
The commission is a short-back-and-sides, line-and-length conservative group who will probably stick with the status quo, but wildcard weekend has massive appeal on multiple fronts.
Especially when you consider the momentum with which so many sides are finishing 2013, setting us up for a massive 2014 season.
So often you can identify as many as four or five horror sides for the coming season.
Melbourne will probably be terrible next year because they are Melbourne, and St Kilda has a host of kids who will take time.
But the Dogs are rampaging their way into late-season form, Adelaide and West Coast will bounce back hard, and the expansion sides will have found their feet.
The success of Richmond and Port Adelaide looks sustainable, Carlton is thereabouts, and North Melbourne will hit 2014 with unrestrained fury.
Even Brisbane -which sacked Michael Voss in a perplexing decision - is charging to ten wins with a host of kids on the rise.
That decision to remove Voss is shaping as the most mystifying of the season, along with who took what and who gave it to them at Essendon.
The improving form of sides like Brisbane and the Dogs should give us a competition with some serious momentum, and one where 15 quality sides will be hard to fit into eight finals positions.
The obvious drawback of a wildcard weekend is it forces a week's break on a minor premier which might be about to win a qualifying final and then have another week's break.
But imagine the anticipation as four sides slug it out for September, allowing the top six sides to rest up injured players.
On current ladder positions North Melbourne would face Essendon for a spot in the eight, with Port Adelaide and Carlton facing off.
All four bar Essendon could stake a claim to doing damage in September if they eventually qualified.
Football's ultimate elixir is hope - and daring to dream for even a wildcard play-off would fix all ailments for a battered supporter base.
Football fans have endured the most punishing 12 months in memory given scandal after scandal on myriad fronts.
Could this be the AFL Commission's gift back to them, allowing them to believe even after a poor first month or two of the season?
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