AFL Wildcard Final

The Wildcard Round is new for 2026 and it is the biggest change to the AFL finals since 2000. Ten teams now make the cut instead of eight. The sides that finish seventh to tenth play off across one sudden death weekend: seventh hosts tenth, eighth hosts ninth, and the two winners take the seventh and eighth seeds into the finals proper. Lose and your season is over. The top six sit the weekend out, which makes a top six finish the most valuable thing on the table in the run home. We tip every wildcard game, with the reasoning and the play we like on each.