Matty Stewart and Aussie Rules Legend Spida Everitt are back for another year to talk all things AFL! Get all the news happening around the league, plus expert tips for every match. Tune In weekly to ‘In The Pocket’ to get all your AFL insights.
Matty and Spida are back for Wildcard Round on In The Pocket, and for the first time in AFL history, the road to a premiership now runs through the league’s brand-new finals play-in format. After a dramatic home-and-away season, Fremantle has secured the minor premiership, Sydney and Brisbane have earned top-four advantages, and six clubs have already booked their place in the traditional finals series. But before September truly begins, four teams now face sudden-death football with everything on the line. The pressure has never been higher as the inaugural Wildcard Round takes centre stage.
The boys break down all the major talking points from the final round of the regular season, including Carlton’s remarkable late-season surge that carried the Blues from outside the finals conversation into tenth spot and a wildcard berth. They also discuss Fremantle finishing on top despite a final-round setback, Sydney locking away second position, and Brisbane, Hawthorn, Geelong and Adelaide securing crucial top-six finishes that allow them to bypass wildcard weekend entirely.
There’s a major focus on the two blockbuster wildcard clashes that will decide who keeps their season alive. First up, the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood meet at the MCG in a do-or-die Friday night showdown, with the winner advancing to face Geelong in the first elimination final. The Bulldogs have spent much of the year inside the eight, while Collingwood has fought its way into September after a strong second half of the season, making this a fascinating matchup.
The second wildcard final sees Melbourne take on Carlton in another MCG blockbuster. Melbourne enters September after securing seventh place and has spent the majority of the season in finals contention, but the Blues arrive with enormous confidence after one of the competition’s strongest late-season runs. With the winner progressing to face Adelaide and the loser heading straight into the off-season, the stakes could not be higher.
The boys also examine the broader impact of the AFL’s new finals system and how the wildcard format changes the premiership equation. For the first time, teams finishing ninth and tenth have a pathway into September glory, while clubs finishing seventh and eighth no longer receive the immediate reward of a traditional finals berth. The result is a finals race that has remained alive deeper into the season than ever before.
Looking ahead, Matty and Spida preview every angle of wildcard weekend, from key individual matchups and coaching battles to the players who will be under the most pressure. They discuss whether Collingwood’s finals experience can overcome the Bulldogs, whether Carlton’s momentum can continue against Melbourne, and which wildcard hopeful is best placed to become a genuine September threat if they survive the weekend.
To wrap things up, the boys lock in their wildcard tips and reveal which teams they believe are most likely to take advantage of the new format. If you’re after all the biggest AFL talking points, finals analysis, wildcard predictions and plenty of strong opinions, In The Pocket has everything you need heading into a historic weekend of footy.