I do agree that the bottom teams in each group would get thrashed as when you look at the 16 teams that have confimed participation 12 of them look like they should be competitive and the other are very new to the game and in the perfect world probably would not be competiting and would be doing what Germany decided to do and focus on the domestic competition.
If the AFL does go with the 2 divisions then I think that it would be a great idea to have the bottom 2 teams from Div 1 then play off against the top 2 teams from Div 2. By doing this you could have promotion and relegation or just use it to propaly determine classifications. If the top 2 teams from Div 2 win then they could then qualify for Div 1 next time and if they loose they could stay in Div 2.

I have thought about the relagation myself, but have come to the conclusion that a teams position in 2012 should be decided in 2008 is too big a gap. Four years is lot of time to improve (or weaken) and so, just because 1 team lost a game in 2008, they might play against far weaker oppositiion four years later is not the way to go.

I think the AFL will have little choice but to go for a roughly 8 and 8 split. I don't think most of the lower/newer teams even want to compete against the top sides. Even with the shortened games that are played, certainly 150+ point thrashings would be on the cards.

If there was a real push from the best of the lower 8 teams, saying they were very keen to still be in the mix with the top 8, then maybe it would be worth pursuing, but last we heard, there were plenty of takers for the development division, so not likely to be an issue. Probably the biggest issue remains locking in exactly which countries will attend.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Apparently even 4 groups of 4 hasn't been ruled out either. All up in the air until all the countries actually lock in as attending. I guess the AFL wants to give them as long as possible to make a final decision, but presumably a hard deadline must be fast approaching, but even then it's no guarantee a team simply won't make it anyway. Such are the tribulations of amateur sport.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN