AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon says wildcard weekend is “here to stay” as two MCG games drew over 170,000 viewers and added millions into the AFL’s coffers.

The pair of 7 v 10 and 8 v 9 games were a huge success as Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs played out an MCG epic and Carlton outlasted Melbourne on Saturday night.

The Pies-Dogs game was labelled by some as the game of the year in front of 81,036 fans, while the Blues-Demons clash drew 91,733 supporters.

The gate takings will go to the AFL under finals rules and the two MCG clashes will also support the local economy with only one finals game in Melbourne next weekend.

Richmond legend Matthew Richardson doubled down on his criticism of the concept across the weekend, adamant two quality games did not make up for the inequity built into the system.

Melbourne won 15 home and away games but was thrust into a knockout clash against Carlton, with only 12 and a half wins this home-and-away season.

“It’s the fact you have more than half your teams playing finals after six months of toil. Finals should reward only the minority of teams over a season,” he posted on social media.

But Dillon said on Fox Footy at half time on Saturday night the first-year experiment had been proved a raging success.

“Our fans come out in force and we know that but we are so happy with how it’s gone and it’s here to stay,” he said.

“81,000 last night and we have 91,000 in the house [tonight]. And what a finish to the game. The last quarter (of the Dogs victory), I watched it back a couple of times. You couldn’t have scripted it.”

The AFL reviewed Tim Membrey’s last-gasp shot at goal and ruled that he had a second left before the countdown clock expired in the final moments of the Pies loss.

Luke Beveridge maintained that watching live at ground level, the clock hit zero seconds on the MCG scoreboard.

But the AFL said the mark was paid at 34 seconds on the official time clock and by the time the clock hit four seconds he had started walking in on his ‘runway’.

An over-exuberant Beveridge walked onto the ground by a few steps with three minutes left before quickly retreating backwards but there is no AFL rule which would penalise a coach being on the ground for a second or two.