The end-of-season bye is a lock for 2017 with the AFL Commission looking to financially reward the minor premier from next year as one of several new measures to enhance the longer lead into finals.
While the commission could resist a push to reschedule the Brownlow Medal count from grand final week, there is growing support for a cultural shift that would celebrate the club finishing on top of the ladder after the home-and-away rounds.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and his team introduced the contentious bye as a probity measure after coaches Ross Lyon and Brad Scott had challenged the integrity of the competition by resting a raft of players leading into the finals.
Unable to devise legal means to prevent a recurrence of the coaches' tactics, the commission's view was that it was prepared to wear the logistical risks associated with the week off. Now the view is that despite those reservations the bye has proved a clear success.
The move to follow international football codes and further delineate between the home-and-away season and finals with a reward for the minor premier gained momentum on Sunday when chairman Mike Fitzpatrick hosted a lunch for the 18 club presidents.
The often maligned McClelland Trophy would prove part of the celebration of football with the AFL to repeat a women's exhibition game, the E.J. Whitten game, beefed up All-Australian and rising star presentations, although serious misgivings still surround moving the Brownlow.
Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham, whose club was the 2016 minor premier, admitted a stigma surrounded the McClelland Trophy because of the all-encompassing emphasis on the premiership cup.
"It's been an afterthought," Pridham said, "and not something anyone frankly has strived for except for the advantages in the finals fixtures. But clearly there's support for reward for effort.
"Now it's almost embarrassing to win it because the job's not done." Both Pridham and Geelong chairman Colin Carter have called for the AFL to increase the finals prizemoney pool. "In the past it's been inadequate given the size of the achievement," Pridham said.
"No one wants to win it for the money but I think the prize pool should be reflected in the revenue that's achieved in the finals."
Geelong's Carter, whose club has long campaigned for the AFL to increase the finals prizemoney, also supported the initiative. "If they have the bye week again it's a recognition of the team at the top of the ladder. It has always managed to get lost in the momentum of the finals."
At present, according to clubs, competing in finals comes at a financial cost unless you win the premiership. The Cats' 2016 September campaign will cost the club $21,000 and had they reached the grand final but lost, that would have cost the club $125,000 despite the runner-up prizemoney of $660,000 – half of which is allocated to the players.
The 2016 premier will receive $1.2 million with half that amount divided among the players. "It shouldn't be a big money-making exercise," Carter said, "but you shouldn't be in the negative either."
The commissioners pointed on Sunday to the increased intensity to the opening week of the finals along with the notable momentum the week off handed the second-tier state competitions along with country and metropolitan leagues.
The McClelland Trophy, named after the Melbourne footballer, president and VFL president Dr William McClelland, has since 1991 rewarded the team finishing on top of the ladder after the home-and-away series.
Previously it awarded the most successful team in the VFL across the three tiers of competition from the firsts through to the under-19s.
Next year the season will start one week earlier with the availability of the MCG meaning that – despite the second bye – the grand final will return to the last Saturday in September.
