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WILDCARD PRICETAG REVEALED AFTER SCOTT WHACK<\/p>\n
Midweek Tackle\u2019s Jon Ralph has revealed the league could earn as much as $5 million from its two wildcard finals fixtures. <\/p>\n
It comes after Geelong coach Chris Scott hit out at the AFL\u2019s new top-10 finals system, which will see 7th face 10th and 8th face 9th the week after the home and away season ends. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I shouldn\u2019t do this so close to the game, I speak my mind \u2026 I tend to think they just made it (wildcard round) up. Just threw in a couple more finals for no good reason except cash,\u201d Scott told AFL 360 on Easter Monday. <\/p>\n
And on Tuesday night, Ralph reported the lucrative figure the AFL could earn from its finals expansion, as well as why the \u201cconsensus\u201d reaction to Scott\u2019s comments was \u201cone of anger\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went to the people who run this game. There were some wild and whacky estimates,\u201d Ralph began on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome as much as $10 million for an MCG game if you get two magnificent contests, whether it\u2019s Carlton, Collingwood or another Victorian side. Someone said it\u2019s much less than that. The very best estimate from the very best person is they\u2019ll make about $4-5 million from ticketing, food and beverage, corporate seats and boxes. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut very quickly, the consensus was one of anger at Chris, that he has weaponised the fans\u2019 fears about Wildcard Weekend as a cash grab \u2026 just when he\u2019d lost an Easter Monday game. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, he\u2019d done it again, a long-running battle with the AFL, we saw it across the finals series last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFL\u2019s view is \u2018we never designed this as a cash grab, we did it for more compelling content\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midweek Tackle panellist and former Geelong Advertiser reporter Josh Barnes explained Scott\u2019s shrewd approach to speaking in the public forum. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t like losing, and that\u2019s why he doesn\u2019t speak to the players after the games \u2014 he doesn\u2019t front them either, because he\u2019s not sure what he\u2019ll say,\u201d Barnes began. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe told us multiple times on 360 last night that he wasn\u2019t sure what was going to come out of his mouth next, and he probably shouldn\u2019t be doing this \u2026 but after losing a game, he\u2019s probably a better deflector than Joe Root going through the slips. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows how to play the angles, and he knows how to get you not talking about it. But on this one, he has the fans behind him. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans are waiting for a chance to get on top of wildcard, and the overwhelming sentiment was \u2018this is the AFL asking for more money from us, the fans\u2019, who are going to fork out more money to watch our team play an extra final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voss brushes off questions on future | 02:40<\/p>\n
\u2018HE KNOWS IT\u2019: LYON SLAMS \u2018RUBBISH\u2019 BLUES ARGUMENT<\/p>\n
Demons icon and AFL 360 co-host Garry Lyon has criticised a Carlton star\u2019s Tribunal argument after a contentious Good Friday act. <\/p>\n
Will Hayward was suspended one match for striking North Melbourne\u2019s George Wardlaw \u2014 a ban that was upheld after Tuesday night\u2019s hearing \u2014 with the act graded as intentional conduct and medium impact. <\/p>\n
Carlton\u2019s legal eagles argued that the impact grading should be \u2018low\u2019, and that the conduct should be categorised as \u2018careless\u2019. <\/p>\n
The Blues attempted to hone in on a newly-introduced Tribunal change which dictates that intentional strikes to a victim\u2019s body or head will usually be classified as medium impact at a minimum. <\/p>\n
The Blues argued that change was designed to crack down on off-the-ball gut punches, rather than Hayward\u2019s act \u2014 which the forward claimed was typical by his standards. <\/p>\n
\u201cHayward gave evidence; he said his intention was to close space and apply pressure to the opposition to disrupt the kick,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s Tribunal expert David Zita told AFL 360. <\/p>\n
\u201c(He said) \u2018It was no different to any tackle or movement I\u2019ve done before or felt before.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also says he didn\u2019t know at the time he made contact whether Wardlaw had disposed of the ball or not, so he was still trying to apply pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AFL opposed Carlton\u2019s argument that the guidelines change doesn\u2019t apply to Hayward\u2019s incident. <\/p>\n
Prior to the verdict handed down, Lyon fiercely sided with the AFL, claiming Hayward\u2019s act was within the measures of this year\u2019s crackdown. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it is \u2014 we get tangled up in Tribunal speak,\u201d Lyon said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey say the impact should be graded as low \u2014 the impact should be zero \u2026 that\u2019s not a footy action, that\u2019s hitting a bloke in the guts. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we know that George Wardlaw will get up and laugh because he\u2019s tough, but that\u2019s not footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for him to say that that\u2019s how he tackles, that\u2019s rubbish, Will. And he knows it. \u201cThat\u2019s what Swanny was talking about (when the AFL made the change). Stamp it out, give them a week, and we won\u2019t see another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the Tribunal sided with the AFL, and Hayward will miss the Gather Round opener against Adelaide on Thursday night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL is set to generate an eye-watering sum from its expanded finals series this year, amid \u201canger\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[288733,9126,638,64,63,689,55,639,3239,12923,8011,285397,288731,288730,288736,13213,87590,37345,1127,10145,13658,13659,14414,2105,288732,249790,17066,681,91125,50178,3257,7198,677,288738,288734,1124,85,288735,660,288739,288737],"class_list":{"0":"post-591176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-addresses-players","9":"tag-adelaide-crows","10":"tag-afl","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-australian-football-league","15":"tag-australianfootballleague","16":"tag-carlton-blues","17":"tag-chris-scott","18":"tag-david-zita","19":"tag-demons-icon","20":"tag-expanded-finals-series","21":"tag-eye-watering-sum","22":"tag-finals-expansion","23":"tag-finals-series","24":"tag-finals-system","25":"tag-footy-action","26":"tag-fox-footy","27":"tag-garry-lyon","28":"tag-geelong","29":"tag-geelong-cats","30":"tag-george-wardlaw","31":"tag-getty-images-inc","32":"tag-guidelines-change","33":"tag-impact-grading","34":"tag-joe-root","35":"tag-jon-ralph","36":"tag-josh-barnes","37":"tag-medium-impact","38":"tag-michael-voss","39":"tag-michael-willson","40":"tag-oceania","41":"tag-off-the-ball-gut-punches","42":"tag-season-ends","43":"tag-south-australia","44":"tag-sports","45":"tag-swanny","46":"tag-victoria","47":"tag-wildcard-finals-fixtures","48":"tag-wildcard-sledge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}