Great move if true

Hopefully Top 4 or 5 with two legged playoffs each round.

how would top 5 work? 1st goes straight to final and the other 4 play off?

That would work. Would also make the last couple of rounds in the regular season more intense.

Another pro to that idea is that 1st place would have a month to sell tickets to the final.

I can see value in a top 5 with the top team into the GF and the other 4 teams fighting it out to join them. Won't happen, but it really gets teams to push for top spot.

2 vs 5 and 3 vs 4 one leg and then the winners to play each other in one leg and then the gf. The only issue is the top team has a 2 week break.

I'd like to see:

Week 1

A: 2nd v 1st (leg 1)
B: 4th v 5th

Week 2

C: 3rd v WINNER of B
A: 1st v 2nd (leg 2)

Week 3

D: Loser of A v Winner of C

Week 4 Grand Final

E: Winner of A v Winner of D

The FFA Cup should replace the finals system full stop.

=d>

Yep.

I would think, that having 2 byes in 4 weeks as the top team heading into a grand final might not be beneficial.

don't think that's the best for the a-league. Football isn't the number one sport in this country, and may never be, and we've seen what a struggle it is for teams to get decent crowds.

We've already seen how the bottom teams in the league experience their lowest crowds (not the leagues lowest crowds, but their individual clubs lowest crowds) and generally when teams are winning and in a good position on the ladder they experience some of their highest crowds. IF there were no finals, even by half way through the season, there'll be teams where top position on the ladder will be unreachable, and basically their season will be over. And by the last 5 of the season you would imagine there would be only 3 or so teams that could actually get top position, eliminating the rest of the teams chances. If people know that their team doesn't have a chance of accomplishing something in the league, automatically for a great deal of the people who follow the team, the interest will simply not be there.

The great thing about this league is that we are almost half way through the season, and even a team like gold coast, who is sitting last, can theoretically still win the final. Things like that keep people interested and we need that in this country to get people interested in the league

This is what I was thinking as well.

+1

Top 4.

If you can't come in the top 4 of a small league like this you don't deserve to play for the title.

1 v 4
2 v 3

Two legs.

Winners play for the GF. Highest ranked team hosts.

How about you deliver on the promise of an FFA Cup first, ya gronks.

Gatt is an idiot, he is always misinformed, this will never happend, close thread.

A-league season ends, A-league champion is crowned based on 1st past the post.

The very next weekend, FFA Cup Quarter Finals 1st leg

Following weekend, FFA Cup Quarter Finals 2nd leg

Same the following 2 weekends for the Semi Final 1st and 2nd leg

FFA Cup final, held over 2 legs BUT on the same weekend! Friday night is leg 1, Saturday is big news day of which players can back up, can CCM possibly overcome a 5 goal deficit after the 1st leg against the Roar, etc, Sunday afternoon 2nd leg, FFA Cup winners crowned.

5 week FFA cup finals series, totally awesome.

Note, I propose FFA cup is played over 1 game with the lower league club hosting the game (ie if Sydney FC are playing Marconi, Marconi hosts as they are the lower league club). When 2 clubs are from the same league, hosting rights is random draw. Games are played over 1 leg until quarter finals, when 2 legs are introduced so as to not give any one club a home ground advantage. I decided against neutral venue's because if Perth Glory plays Wellington at the Telstra Dome, no one will turn up.



Edited by RJL25: 12/12/2011 11:59:05 PM

Of course they will. It's the fiercest rivalry in the world for some reason the FFA hasn't announced yet.

Anyway I thought the Phoenix weren't even in the drafts for the FFA Cup?

K bad example

Gold Coast v Perth

better?

I think this is the simplest and best type of format for the Finals.

Having a Top 6 in a 10 team comp just invites too much ridicule from the haters (even though it's only marginally worse than having a Top 8 in a 16 team comp); a Top 4 of course eliminates this.

Also, with a format like this you erase that dud game when the loser of the GF playoff has to back up again against the team who've battled their way through the elimination finals. From memory, that Finals game is always the lowest-drawing of the series.

i am going to go a little different here, id like to see a top 8, but not classed as a final series but classed as a league cup. this way first past the post is classed as champions then the next week the League cup begins with the top 8 teams from the league qualifying.

this gives every team something to play for as the bottom two miss out.

eventually when the ffa cup begins with the final being played on australia day involving all clubs at all levels across the country we have 3 trophies per season up fro grabs.

Maybe I'm not reading well enough but that looks far too confusing.

Top 4 imo.

Just duke it out 1v4, 2v3, winners play each other, bam final.

Its a ridiculous thing having finals anyways, may as well get it over with quickly :P

-PB

Why fix something that ain't broken? The A-League is leaking dollars and our finals are one of the few money spinners. Culling the finals or reducing the teams is not going to fix this. Everyone who complains about too many teams qualifying - how many teams outside the top 2 have actually made the GF? The system is rewarding the best and generating money. Running competitions on romantic notions of cups and first past the post is great unless you actually have to deal with any consequences.

I have been saying something similar for ages. The difference I have is that all clubs play in the League Cup with #1 to #6 seeded straight into the second round. #7 play #10, #8 plays #9 to fill the last two spots in the quarter finals.

I don't hold out much hope for this as I believe the FFA will be trying to greatly reduce the number of post season games having found out that it is extremely difficult to secure venues for finals in the body of the AFL and NRL seasons

Top 4.

1v4 2v3.

Home and away legs (1st and 2nd get choice of home or away first).

If 1st wins the 1v4 matchup the GF to be played at their home ground.

If 1st loses the 1v4 matchup the GF to be played at the winner of 2v3 matchup home ground.

GF can only be played at AAMI, Etihad, SFS & Suncorp. The rest of the stadiums IMO are too small/don't get enough of a crowd/not really suitable to host an Australian competition grand final. So I guess I'm saying if Newy or CCM get the hosting rights, play it at SFS. If Gold Coast get the rights, play it at Suncorp. If Perth, Adelaide or Wellington get the hosting rights play it at any of the 4 suitable stadiums.

+1

Exactly. Same goes for people saying we get rid of finals for Cup comp

Finals Footy is ingrained in Australian sporting culture. Yes its not how its done in mnsort parts of Europe. So waht: this aint Euroop.

After 6 years and the highest attendances of the season I can't believe people are still the questioning the finals series. Having finals is not negotiable. And keep the format as its. Its good for the bottom 5 to play for the 6 spot instead of nothing.

Why does the team who finishes in 3rd get rewarded a week off?

Here is the article:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/overhaul-of-finals-series-in-ffa-melting-pot/story-fn63e0vj-1226220296939

As long as the system they choose to go with for the finals will allow the top two teams to contest for the "Champions" honour then it's good enough for me.

The last thing you want is the 1st team eliminating the 2nd team (or vice versa) and then smashing whoever else makes the final. So whoever replied 1st Vs 2nd and 3rd Vs 4th contest each other in the Grand Final is not really fair in my eyes.

If you go with a top-four finals series over two weeks, it'd have to be the winners of 1st Vs 4th and 2nd Vs 3rd play in the Grand Final.

BUT if the FFA want an extra week of finals:
Week 1
A: 1st Vs 2nd
B: 3rd Vs 4th
Week 2
C: Loser of A plays winner of B (with the winner of A having a bye)
Week 3
D: Winner of A Vs Winner of C.