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The McIntyre System, or systems because there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher. The systems were developed by Ken McIntyre, a Victorian lawyer and English lecturer, for the VFL/AFL.

Contents 1 In the VFL/AFL 2 Other Competitions 3 The systems 3.1 Page-McIntyre system 3.2 McIntyre final five system 3.3 First McIntyre final six system 3.4 Second McIntyre final six system 3.5 McIntyre final eight system 4 See also 5 External links

The first McIntyre System was the Page-McIntyre system or the McIntyre Final Four System, adopted by the VFL in 1931 after years or experimentation with less successful finals systems. McIntyre also devised the McIntyre Final Five System for the VFL for 1972, the McIntyre Final Six System for 1991, which was revised for 1992, and the McIntyre Final Eight System for the 1994 season. The AFL grew dissatisfied with some of the outcomes the Final Eight system might allow and so replaced it with another final eight system in 2000.

Australia's National Rugby League has used the McIntyre Final Eight System since 1999 and this was also used in the Rugby League National League Three in Great Britain for the 2004 season. Other McIntyre Systems have been used in both Australian rules football and rugby league for many years. Under the name Page playoff system, the McIntyre Final Four is commonly used in curling events, especially in Canada. The Page-McIntyre system is also used in the A-league

Main article: Page playoff system

Round	Match	Name	Team 1		Team 2
1	A	1st Semi Final	Rank 3	v	Rank 4
	B	2nd Semi Final	Rank 1	v	Rank 2
2	C	Preliminary Final	Loser B	v	Winner A
3	D	Grand Final	Winner B	v	Winner C

In the first round of the Page-McIntyre system the highest two ranked teams play each other, with the winner going straight through to the grand final and the loser going through to the next round. The lowest two ranked teams play to avoid being eliminated and to go through to the next round. The winner of the second round match gets through to the grand final. In this system, the top two teams are able to lose a match and still qualify for the Grand Final, this is referred to as a 'double chance'.

Assuming that each team has an even chance of winning each match, the probability of the highest two ranked teams winning the competition is 37.5% compared to 12.5% for the other two teams.

Main article: Top five play-offs

Round	Match	Name	Team 1		Team 2
1	A	Elimination Final	Rank 4	v	Rank 5
	B	Qualifying Final	Rank 2	v	Rank 3
2	C	1st Semi Final	Loser B	v	Winner A
	D	2nd Semi Final	Rank 1	v	Winner B
3	E	Preliminary Final	Loser D	v	Winner C
4	F	Grand Final	Winner D	v	Winner E

From the second round the McIntyre final five system is the same as the Page-McIntyre system, however, in the first round the lowest two ranked teams play to eliminate one team and the second and third ranked teams deterine which match they will play in the second round. The highest ranked team has a bye to the second round.

In this case, if all teams have an even chance of winning each match, the highest ranked team has a 37.5% chance, ranks two and three have a 25% chance and the lowest two ranked teams have a 6.25% chance of winning the competition.

Round	Match	Name	Team 1		Team 2
1	A	1st Elimination Final	Rank 5	v	Rank 6
	B	2nd Elimination Final	Rank 3	v	Rank 4
	C	Qualifying Final	Rank 1	v	Rank 2
2	D	1st Semi Final	Loser C	v	Winner A
	E	2nd Semi Final	Winner C	v	Winner B
3	F	Preliminary Final	Loser E	v	Winner D
4	G	Grand Final	Winner E	v	Winner F

The first McIntyre final six system was also the same as the Page-McIntyre system from the second round. In this case, two of the four lowest ranked teams are eliminated in the first round, while the top two determine which match match they will play in the second round. Under this system the top two teams receive a double chance, as does the winner of match B.

Round	Match	Name	Team 1		Team 2
1	A	1st Elimination Final	Rank 4	v	Rank 5
	B	2nd Elimination Final	Rank 3	v	Rank 6
	C	Qualifying Final	Rank 1	v	Rank 2
2	D	1st Semi Final	Loser C	v	2nd highest ranked winner from A, B
	E	2nd Semi Final	Winner C	v	1st highest ranked winner from A, B
3	F	Preliminary Final	Loser E	v	Winner D
4	G	Grand Final	Winner E	v	Winner F

This adaption of the first McIntyre System corrected for the anomaly that, in the first week, the team who finished 4th would have a more difficult opponent than the team who finished 5th, and was hence more likely to be eliminated, despite finishing higher.

Main article: McIntyre Final Eight System

Round	Match	Name	Team 1		Team 2
1	A	4th Qualifying Final	Rank 4	v	Rank 5
	B	3rd Qualifying Final	Rank 3	v	Rank 6
	C	2nd Qualifying Final	Rank 2	v	Rank 7
	D	1st Qualifying Final	Rank 1	v	Rank 8
2	E	2nd Semi Final	4th highest ranked winner from A, B, C, D	v	2nd highest ranked loser from A, B, C, D
	F	1st Semi Final	3rd highest ranked winner from A, B, C, D	v	1st highest ranked loser from A, B, C, D
3	G	2nd Preliminary Final	2nd highest ranked winner from A, B, C, D	v	Winner F
	H	1st Preliminary Final	1st highest ranked winner from A, B, C, D	v	Winner E
4	I	Grand Final	Winner G	v	Winner H

• Top five play-offs
• Top six play-offs
• McIntyre Final Eight System

• Grand Finals at the MCG Contains a brief summary of the finals systems used in the VFL/AFL