Triple M Footy’s James Brayshaw doesn’t get what Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is angry about with regards to the fixturing of this year’s finals series.
Eddie let his fury be known on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast on Monday morning about the fact that Collingwood or GWS will only have a six-day break before a preliminary final against Richmond, whereas Hawthorn or Melbourne will have an eight-day break before a preliminary final against West Coast.
Eddie believes the Friday night Richmond preliminary final and the Saturday night West Coast preliminary final should be switched to give the winning semi-finalists a seven-day break.
But JB said that if a team finishes on top of the ladder, and wins its qualifying final, as Richmond has done, it deserves the maximum eight-day break heading into the grand final if it wins its preliminary final.
JB believes the main issue for Collingwood was the fact that their opening final was on a Saturday night, as opposed to a Friday night.
“I don’t get what he (Eddie) is saying,” JB told Triple M’s Rush Hour on Monday.
“For me Colingwoood’s issue was being scheduled Saturday night this weekend just gone - their game should’ve been Friday night.
“Because they’re top four, they deserve the maximum break if they were to lose that game, which they now have, going into their next game.
“Now they played Saturday night in Perth, they get a seven-day break to meet the Giants but it’s always the following week going to be a six-day break to meet Richmond ... that’s where I think the AFL got it wrong.
“If you went to (Collingwood coach) Nathan Buckley and said, ‘Where do you want your seven-day break?’, he would say, ‘Coming off a grueling interstate final, I would rather have seven days to prepare for GWS and then at least the six days we get to stay in our own bed if we were to win it, and then (hopefully) prepare for a granny’.”