Mainly to get my mind off today, I'm looking ahead to next week two weeks away.

If the Hawks roll Collingwood and GWS topple North, as you may expect, it would set week one up for something like this:

Qualifying Finals

Sydney v West Sydney

Geelong v Hawthorn

Elimination Finals

Adelaide v North

West Coast v Footscray

 

Two cracking qualifying finals and, potentially, two ugly eliminations. Whatever happens, I think the semis could be toss of the coin and same for the prelims. Should (hopefully) be an entertaining finals series.

(Of course, this still relies on a few results to go the right way and - knowing my tipping- that may in fact be unlikely!)

Will possibly get shouted down for this -  but thrilled for Fitzpatrick. Good on him.

So the first week of finals will be as above.

Cats have the best record against other top 8 sides, Sydney look the best, Hawthorn are Hawthorn, I'd say Eagle and Giants come in with good form.

Crows, Dogs and North looking in trouble - though a 100 point win could help get Adelaide's confidence up.

I'm just so glad to see Hawthorn, Geelong and Swans up there again.

Just a bit more tweaking to the free agency rules and we can all look forward to the next ten years of these three teams finishing top four. Gee it's great. Well done AFL.

My suggestions would be because every player wants to go and play there maybe we should think about letting the big three have a couple of extra players on their lists, the players association is all for it, that Marsh bloke is positively wetting himself he's that excited.

And for all you Dees fans I know this year was a bit of an abberation but don't worry with some hard work and dedication I'm pretty sure we can get back into the bottom four, well maybe not next year but deffo 2018.

Go Dees, Go AFL. Or is that the SGHFL.

Nah.  Sure, we haven't had it easy, but most of it has been by our own design.  We are creating something, and when we start to see the benefits of the list we are putting together (over the next two years, I would expect) we may become a destination club, and have sustained top of the ladder time.

Geelong - massive father son advantages now paying off, plus 'go home' factor for a few exceptional players.  And Mitch Clark.

Hawthorn - Destination club, but are starting to look old and fragile.  They have been up for a while, and keep getting free agency players etc, but have managed their circumstances well.  Umpires still enthralled (Cyril) so always get the rub of the green.

Swans - AFL simply have to keep them successful.  When they are not, TV numbers are way down in Syd, a major market.

Fremantle - Free-fall Fremantle?  If they were up the top this year, would we be saying the same thing about them?

GWS (and Suns) - had to be made a success, and fast.  Fat PHIL was the answer.

Our future is in our own hands.  We have to be able to compete with, and beat, these clubs in season and in finals, when we do that consistently, we become one of these 'destination clubs' with all the good TV slots, admiring umpires, positive press and players wanting to win a flag with us.  I believe PJ and Roos have set us up for this, now we just need our kids to grow into men.

It is no use whining about the system.  We just have to become formidable and beat it.