From reading the article it seems like they want a "play off" to fill the next 4 spots, so if every team plays each other once, that is 17 games leaving 5 regular season games for "play offs" this coincidently is the number of games required for a group of 6 teams to play each other again, top 6 play for home final advantage, middle 6 play for remaining 4 finals berths, bottom 6 play for draft picks.
IF and a big if, they alternate home and away for the first 17 games over a two year period then this could be a lot more equitable, situations like the dogs playing their first 8 games at etihad would never happen and the big Melbourne teams would have to travel interstate 4 times in the first 17 games every year (plus those home games they sell)
Expect the fixture for the final 5 games to be very tough for the interstate teams though.
