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Essendon being stripped of points presents a massive opportunity to the teams circling just outside of the eight, but it also creates a bit of a conundrum for Richmond and Collingwood.
The two were neck-in-neck in a race to fifth to secure a home final against Port Adelaide. Now, with the Power shunted up to seventh spot, it’s highly likely the team finishing fifth will be playing a Melbourne derby, while sixth place will be the ones enjoying a home final.
What would Collingwood and Richmond prefer? Port with its dismal Melbourne record, or a local arch-rival revitalised by a last-minute stay of execution?
Carlton would be a scary prospect for Richmond, who have struggled to beat the Navy Blues in recent years. They’d be an equally unwelcome sight in Collingwood’s eyes, who certainly wouldn’t want all the hype, emotion and distraction brought about by the Mick Malthouse factor.
North Melbourne too would be a perilous task – with a top four-esque percentage of 120, they are clearly no easy beats.
Of course it would be a different story if Adelaide or Brisbane scraped into the eight (or the highly unlikely prospect of West Coast). But the two Victorian contenders are most likely to make the cut, and such a scenario would give the Pies and Tigers food for thought.
Of course, setting out to deliberately lose is fraught with peril – flirting with form is generally not a good idea.
More likely, though, is that considering both are up against competitive opponents (Richmond faces Essendon while Collingwood are up against North), they won’t need to go out of their way to drop any points.
Resting any players not quite at 100%, and keeping a bit in the tank for finals should be enough to secure the strategic losses required.
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