Ideally participation in the finals football should be a reward for an exceptional season. However, if it was limited to the top 4 out of the 16 sides, a significant number of the lower placed teams will just start their rebuilding and experimentation as soon as they determined that there is no realistic chance of making it to the finals.
It is even an issue now with commentary that Collingwood and Carlton trying to win as few games as possible with the reward of a bonus draft pick.
