{"id":169783,"date":"2025-12-05T17:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169783\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T17:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:08:21","slug":"supercars-driver-torches-finals-series-comparison-to-afl-and-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169783\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars driver torches Finals Series comparison to AFL and NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\u2018Not
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBroc Feeney during the Adelaide Grand Final. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n

The brutal reality of Supercars\u2019 new Finals Series was laid bare at the Adelaide Grand Final when the season\u2019s dominant driver lost at the last hurdle.<\/p>\n

Broc Feeney joined an unenviable group of Australian sports teams that did not convert their regular-season performances into the ultimate prize. And that, according to Mark Skaife and Garth Tander, is just how the cookie crumbles.<\/p>\n

This year marked the first for Supercars and its Finals Series. Some fans have gotten used to the idea of a four-driver showdown, while others have bemoaned comparisons to football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn context, Adelaide won the minor premiership, and they bombed out in straight sets in the finals,\u201d said Mark Skaife on Fox Sports\u2019 broadcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the NRL, Canberra won the minor premiership, and they bombed out in straight sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has happened in Australian sport all year in the biggest codes. We\u2019ve just seen it play out in Supercar racing this afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come Adelaide, Chaz Mostert emerged victorious after he finished second in all three races.<\/p>\n

Mostert only missed the podium in one of the seven Finals Series races. That included a run of three straight wins across Sandown and the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Skaife and Tander said Mostert and Walkinshaw Andretti United had Finals Series form \u2013 a term often used in football codes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you put it in the big perspective\u2026 you\u2019ve got to say that in the Finals they really stepped up, and they did a really, really good job.<\/p>\n

\u201cChaz was very good. Ryan Wood was the ultimate in being able to help deliver them a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to say it was thoroughly deserved based on their Finals performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tander added: \u201cThe Finals concept was announced over 20 months ago, so the teams and the drivers have had a huge amount of time to get their head around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalkinshaw Andretti United got their head around it the best, they created a Finals run.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you want to use an AFL analogy, the minor premier was Broc Feeney, but one of the Finals contenders had Finals form \u2013 and that was Chaz Mostert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey built that Finals form in the lead up to the Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a bad Bathurst, that really solidified the race team, and they came out firing at the first round of Finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Pye drives for Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Enduro Cup.<\/p>\n

Pye, however, bemoaned that comparison. He believes Feeney should have had a greater advantage over his rivals come the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cAFL, for instance, if you win the minor premiership, you get two goes at making the Grand Final. Broc had one mechanical for Sunday. So where\u2019s his second chance? It\u2019s not the same,\u201d an impassioned Pye said on his Apex Hunters United podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also don\u2019t have \u2013 we just talked about (Ryan) Woody, he finished 10th in the championship \u2013 I have never seen a team member from the team that came 10th in the standings walk out onto the pitch during the grand final and trip someone over while they\u2019re taking a goal from 20 metres out. We\u2019re not the same, stop comparing it to ball sports. It\u2019s not even comparable.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we want to bench the 20 drivers that are actually still out there on track and just let the four go race, don\u2019t compare it. So when TV compare it and do justify it, I think it\u2019s bad because a lot of the comments I see online are steered by that narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you\u2019re getting is an echo chamber out of broadcast because those guys all walk up to Broc Feeney and tell him he\u2019s robbed. So why are they going on TV and saying this is great? Tell us how you really feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying the format needs to be thrown out, I\u2019m saying it\u2019s year one. I actually love the Finals and for the podcast it\u2019s been great, but I think it\u2019s got to be weighted more in favour of someone, forgetting names, anyone next year that has success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tander said the Finals Series would likely divide opinion among fans, but that should not discount Mostert\u2019s achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known about the Finals concept for quite some time, over 20 months,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teams have known about it, the drivers have known about it, I have no doubt the fans will have their opinions on it, and that\u2019s fine and that\u2019s great because we love the passion about the followers of our sport, but this year, in 2025, the winner of the Finals wins the championship, and Chaz Mostert deserves to win the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supercars locks in 2026 Finals Series and race formats<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broc Feeney during the Adelaide Grand Final. Image: InSyde Media The brutal reality of Supercars\u2019 new Finals Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,21351,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-169783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-scott-pye","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}