'There won't be a boycott': Why angry AFL fans will never get their way despite latest vocal outcry

When Wildcard Round was confirmed as an addition to the AFL finals next season, the fairly common fan response was anger.

The phrase "money grab" was repeated in homes, offices and work sites around the country.

The AFL doesn't deny this. Extra content, extra "high value" games as Andrew Dillon puts it, equals more revenue for the game via the next broadcast deal.

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There's also extra ticket sales and, throw in the revamped State of Origin concept, additional merchandise revenue and corporate packages.

The upside is clear, the downside is considerably more murky.

While fans have voiced their displeasure, the AFL is banking on it being all talk and no action.

After Wildcard Round was announced, our Footy on Nine Facebook page ran a poll gauging whether fans wanted the extra week of finals or not.

The response was a clear 'no', with 830 votes against versus 295 votes in favour.

Yet, the AFL is clearly confident that the fan response will be nothing more than a passing storm, with no material impact on the support for the game.

Its got history on its side having changed the finals format multiple times since the game went national in 1990. Each time it put more teams into the big games at the end of the season it has copped the same response; almost blanket disapproval.

Yet, the AFL has only got more popular and every year it banks more revenue.

So what is really going on when the fans moan about fixture changes that are designed to fill the coffers at AFL House? It's quite likely that there truly is a moment of disquiet but it's not deeply enough felt to turn fans away.

It's effectively a version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf; time and again fans have thrown their toys out of the cot after an announcement, only to forget why they were angry soon after and return for a season ticket or a new jersey.

Speaking on his SEN Radio show Whateley on Tuesday, respected AFL commentator Gerard Whateley succinctly summed up the odd phenomenon.

He said 'letters to the editor' style correspondence had for years been used to make empty threats of boycotts, before reading out a text message from one of his own listeners - a St Kilda fan named Andrew.

The text said, in part: "If St Kilda make the so called Wildcard Round, I won't cross the road to see it."

Whateley was blunt in his response.

"So, I don't believe you Andrew," he said.

"This is indicative of the core that would hold the game hostage; if you don't do it my way, I won't participate.

"I don't believe for a second Andrew, that if your team St Kilda makes the Wildcard Round, that you won't go, that you won't watch - you'll call an early end to your season rather than follow it through to its end point.

"I think it's emblematic and I think it's a large group that would hold the game hostage. That text message gets right to the nub of it."

Whateley then set up respected Australian sports administrator and former International Cricket Council (ICC) boss Malcolm Speed to ram home the point, asking what the AFL would make of all the fuss.

"From an economic point-of-view, Wildcard Round and the State of Origin are extra games, they're extra prime time games," Speed said.

"They've described them as high value, high intertest games and despite the text you read, lots of people will be interested in that.

"They'll get big crowds, they will rate well. There won't be a boycott, that's the sort of hyperbole we see at this stage of the debate."

Make a change like this and you can set your watch to the outrage. But you can also guarantee few if any of the angry fans will follow through with their threats to abandon the game, so can you really blame the AFL for choosing to fill its coffers?