“Last-ditch attempt”: Lyon questions status of Wildcard ‘Finals’

Garry Lyon firmly believes the Wildcard Finals Round should not be classified as a Final.

For the first time in 2026, the AFL has opened up ‘finals’ to the teams who finish the home and away season in ninth and 10th, giving them the chance to compete for the final eight with a play-in game against those who finish seventh and eighth - 7 v 10, 8 v 9.

Unless we get some upset results in Round 24, the Wildcard teams will be Adelaide, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Carlton. There will likely only be movement if the Crows beat the Giants AND Geelong, in sixth, loses to lowly Richmond.

Regardless of the status of the two Wildcard games, they will provide footy fans - particularly those of a Crows, Magpies, Dogs or Blues persuasion - with plenty of hope and excitement.

But Lyon does not want to see these fixtures referred to as finals as they are merely play-in qualification games for the real finals series.

“In two weeks’ time, four teams are going to play two games to determine the eight sides that will compete in this year's finals,” Lyon commenced on SEN Breakfast.

“It's been dubbed ‘Wildcard Weekend’. It is not the commencement of the AFL final series.

“I’m a fan of the concept, it’s worked well, but it's a qualifying game. It's a play-in game. No more, no less.

“I want to see the AFL come out and say, ‘Listen, we were asked on the spot - Will the Wildcards be finals? And we said, yes, they will be. But on further discussion, we determined that that is not the case and they won't be recognised as finals, they are qualifying games’.

“The backtracking, if that is the case, will win the AFL fans across the country. ‘Oh, look at the AFL, they've had a think about it, they've realised they're wrong and they've been man enough to stand up and say, these aren't finals’.

“These are just qualifiers to play finals. They're play-in games. They shouldn't go down on your record as a final when you're playing in a Wildcard game.

“Look, we go off now, we make the admission, we can see we got it wrong, the AFL. These are no longer finals. And then we, the media, go, well done. Now let's promote these two games. Let's build them up as magnificent qualifiers, but let's just promote them as exactly what they are.

“And that is a last-ditch attempt at being involved in the 2026 finals series.”

Following the raucous scenes after Carlton’s draw with the Doggies, which saw them qualify for the Wildcard round, Tim Watson asked what Blues fans would be feeling.

Watson said: “If you're a Carlton fan, are you treating this as a final or are you treating this as a play-in?”

Lyon replied: “Treat this as a golden opportunity introduced by the AFL this year to play finals. You are in a privileged position. Your season's not done, Carlton.

“You've got the opportunity to win your way into a final series. And how good's that? And yes, we will pump these two games up, whatever they are, Carlton versus Collingwood or Carlton versus Adelaide, Adelaide versus Western Bulldogs, and we'll say, ‘What about this last-gasp attempt? We've got six teams that have qualified for the finals. They've earned the weekend off. They're standing there, they're waiting to see who's going to join them in the 2026 final series’.

“Not this nonsense on the weekend.”

Watson added: “So if you finish seven and eight - because last year you would have been in the final - you're no longer in the finals?

“So it doesn't just apply to eight and nine?”

Lyon concluded: “You're a qualifier. You're playing in the qualifying. You're in a play-in game to make the finals. The finals start when we've got eight teams left. Bang.

“Let's get the finals going.”