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The day has come and the teams facing off against each other are the same as in 2012 with the Hawks having won it last year. I usually don't care much for grand finals when my team's not involved but for what it's worth, I'm leaning towards Sydney and the Buddy factor. The weather's fine and that should suit the Swans' tall forward brigade who will be served by a midfield which I rate just ahead of the Hawks and wouldn't it be justice if that line, boosted by Kennedy and McGlynn, wins out on the day? Now, as much as I like Chris Fagan who always came across as a good bloke at Melbourne, I positively dislike the concept, promoted by the First Lady of football, of the entire Demon connection over there (soon to be augmented by a certain defender?) and my preference is in favour of Sydney and the emerging Roos connection at Melbourne so I'm tipping that the premiership cup will return to the Harbour City. Swans by 31 points. Although there's a sameness in terms of teams at the very top, there's a pattern emerging of some of the traditionally strong clubs (most of them Victorian) joining the Demons in the bottom half of the competition. We might have taken some meagre steps forward under Roos in 2014 which hopefully will turn into strides in 2015 but it's good to see Carlton and Collingwood heading southward in our direction under coaches who (rumour has it) aren't particularly popular with their playing groups. Add to that list the Crows who have already sacked their coach and let's not forget the Bullies out west where there have been rumblings as well. Richmond finished one place ahead of their rightful spot - thanks to a breeze of a draw, they did a Bradbury to fall into the eight - but there's not much improvement in sight from them. There's not as much development happening at the franchise clubs as the AFL would have hoped and Bluey McKenna's job is tenuous to say the least. The Saints are also in a bit of strife having won the wooden spoon and about to lose a lot more of their top end talent to retirement. That brings me to Melbourne which might appear to still be in the basket case category but, much like the Port Adelaide of two years ago, has a good coach at the helm. A lot of the club's deadwood from what's been described as its poor culture of recent years is on the way out and the transformation will continue in 2015. The word is out that we're going to be extremely active in the month to come and, let's face it, we have nothing to lose because the players due to exit (including Frawley) gave us next to nothing in recent years so we can only go onwards and upwards.