Malcolm Blight has ripped into the AFL for scheduling a bye in place of the Grand Final on Saturday, saying they’ve made a “panic decision.”
The AFL scrapped the pre-finals bye to keep the season moving in the COVID-era, however kept the Grand Final date as September 25.
The Brownlow medal has been scheduled on Sunday to make up for the absence of footy, however, come Grand Final day Melbourne will have played just one match in 27 days.
The former North Melbourne coach believes the AFL “changed this world forever” when they implemented the original pre-finals bye.
“The AFL have done some magnificent things, (but) panicking over a Fremantle Ross Lyon team that he picked the last round of the year in Tasmania (in 2015) has changed this world forever,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
Lyon famously rested almost half his team in Round 23 when he was Fremantle's coach to avoid injuries for the upcoming finals.
The AFL introduced the pre-finals bye a year later.
“I think it’s a wrong call, I’ve always thought it’s a wrong call and it’s a wrong call this year,” Blight said.
“I would have thought to try and finish the season as quickly as possible, as good as possible, and to keep it flowing.
“I just don’t think it’s the game, our game is a continuous one and the tough survive at the end.
“I think the AFL made a panic decision and we’re still paying the price for it.
“If a coach wants to play the seconds for one round that’s his problem, not the AFL’s.”
Gerard Healy has also previously disagreed with the idea to have a bye week before the Grand Final, hitting out at the lack of logic behind it.
“It’s got to be one of the more uninspiring decisions in Gillon (McLachlan's) reign, surely,” Healy said on AFL Nation.
“This just lacks any sort of logic."
The only game the Demons will have played in September before the Grand Final was their shellacking of Geelong by 83-points in the Preliminary Final, their last game with a close margin coming in Round 23, also against the Cats, way back on August 21.