The Western Bulldogs will play Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night and Melbourne will host Carlton at the same ground on Saturday, in the first wildcard round the AFL has played.
The AFL confirmed the fixture on Monday, after round 24 finished on Sunday and settled the final ten. Wildcard Final Two, the Bulldogs against Collingwood, starts at 7.40pm AEST on Friday 28 August, and Wildcard Final One, Melbourne against Carlton, follows at 7.35pm AEST on Saturday.
The wildcard round is the front end of a five week finals series played by the top ten clubs. The side that finishes seventh hosts the side that finishes tenth, and eighth hosts ninth. The two winners go through to elimination finals against the clubs that finished fifth and sixth. The two losers are out. The top four sit the week out and start in the qualifying finals.
Melbourne finished seventh and Carlton tenth. The Western Bulldogs finished eighth and Collingwood ninth. Fremantle finished the home and away season as minor premiers.
All four wildcard clubs are Melbourne based and both matches are at the MCG, so hosting rights here decide the gate and the fixture slot rather than who travels. Collingwood, Melbourne and Carlton all play home games at the ground in the ordinary run of the season.
AFL head of strategy and scheduling Josh Bowler said the new round "adds another exciting chapter to the race for the premiership", and that the league was looking forward to "an electric atmosphere and two high-quality matches at the MCG to open the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series".
Under the old top eight system, the clubs that finished ninth and tenth would have finished their seasons on Sunday. Collingwood and Carlton get a game instead. The trade is at the other end of the bracket: Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, who would have gone straight into elimination finals as seventh and eighth, now have to win one more match to get there.
Tickets are staged through Ticketek. For the Bulldogs and Collingwood, competing club members can buy from 10am AEST on Tuesday 25 August, AFL members from 12pm and the general public from 3pm. The Melbourne and Carlton sale runs on the same schedule from 10am AEST on Wednesday 26 August. Members of the four competing clubs get a five hour start on the general public at a ground all four of them play at regularly.
The AFL has not yet released the week two fixture. The two winners will meet the clubs that finished fifth and sixth in elimination finals, and the top four begin their qualifying finals the following weekend.
