Gerard Whateley has called on the AFL to ensure that never again will clubs be given two byes before another team has one, in the wake of Brisbane’s crushing win over the Western Bulldogs.
The Lions were the better team from the opening bounce on Friday night and went on to punish a tired Bulldogs outfit by 43 points, despite going in as outsiders.
But Opening Round had handed the Lions a fixture peculiarity that may have played a role in the Round 13 triumph that got Brisbane’s finals hopes somewhat back on track.
After playing in the second game of the season, the Lions missed Round 2 to make up for Opening Round. While it raised discussion at the time, a bye after two games wasn’t seen as a major competitive advantage.
The eight teams to play in Opening Round all had a bye in the first six weeks.
But the Lions were also one of four teams to have the Round 12 bye, meaning they had two weeks off before the Dogs had even one.
It was a recipe for disaster, according to Whateley.
“We don’t do fairness in the AFL, but this has skewed things wickedly,” he said on SEN’s Crunch Time about teams having two byes before another team has had one.
“It can’t be allowed to repeat. It cannot.”
In what is set to be a much anticipated aspect to Round 13, the same scenario will occur twice more.
Both GWS and Sydney are coming off the Round 12 bye but also had the week off in Rounds 3 and 5 respectively.
The Giants play Hawthorn on Saturday afternoon, while Sydney hosts Geelong on Sunday.
Hawthorn great Luke Hodge echoed Whateley’s sentiment.
“You cannot next year have another to have two byes before anyone has one, it just should not work that way,” Hodge added.
“The Hawks are a young team but they’ve got a pretty good injury list… but the Doggies have been depleted (with injuries), you could really see it last night.
“Next year and moving forward, this cannot happen.”
Tom Liberatore (concussion) returned for the Dogs’ Friday night loss, however Luke Beveridge was missing Aaron Naughton (knee), Sam Darcy (suspension), James Harmes (hamstring), Jason Johannisen (hamstring), Ed Richards (concussion), Cody Weightman (elbow) and Nick Coffield (shoulder) with short term injuries.