Wayne Bennett, the South Sydney Rabbitohs coach and NRL Hall of Famer, has expressed strong opposition to the idea of introducing a wildcard finals round in a potential 20-team NRL competition. Speaking ahead of South Sydney’s elimination final against Newcastle on Friday, Bennett dismissed proposals to adopt a 10-team finals format similar to the AFL’s recent expansion.

NRL chairman Peter V’landys has publicly supported the AFL’s new 10-team finals system, which added two sudden-death elimination matches in the first week of the postseason. Those games garnered large crowds and high television ratings, leading to calls for the NRL to consider a similar approach. V’landys indicated the option remains under consideration to extend fan engagement and provide more opportunities for clubs to compete in the finals, especially as the league contemplates expansion to 18 or 20 teams.

However, Bennett criticized the wildcard concept as a mechanism that rewards mediocrity and benefits the competition financially at the expense of sporting merit. He pointed out that this season’s ninth and tenth place teams in the NRL, Manly and Melbourne, both finished with losing records of 11-13, illustrating his argument that lower-ranked teams rarely pose a genuine threat to win the premiership. “They are never going to win the comp,” Bennett said.

Bennett also referenced the AFL’s inaugural wildcard round, noting that both the 10th-placed Carlton and ninth-placed Bulldogs were eliminated in the following week by higher-ranked opponents. He argued that the wildcard teams face an almost impossible task, requiring them to win multiple sudden-death matches to claim the title, which diminishes the competitive integrity of the playoffs.

Instead, Bennett proposed a conference-based finals structure modeled on systems used in U.S. professional sports. With a 20-team league, he suggested splitting the competition into two conferences of 10 teams or four conferences of five teams. The top teams from each conference would then qualify for an eight-team finals series. Under his model, conference winners could be granted a double chance if they lost early in the finals, preserving some current playoff safeguards.

Bennett emphasized flexibility in the possible formats while firmly rejecting an expanded 10-team finals series. “The team that finishes 10th would have to win five sudden-death games to win the premiership and that’s never going to happen,” he said.

As the NRL considers its future finals structure amid potential expansion, the debate between maximizing fan engagement through broader playoffs and maintaining competitive balance remains central to decision-making discussions.