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After 23 rounds of the home-and-away season, the ladder is finally locked in and we know which teams will go head-to-head in week one of the 2018 AFL Finals.
Richmond and Hawthorn have been handed the Thursday night timeslot, with the elimination final between Melbourne and Geelong given Friday night.
Sydney will host the GWS Giants at the SCG on Saturday afternoon, before attention turns to the West Coast Eagles and Collingwood Magpies on Saturday night.
As per the last two years, there will be no finals played on Sunday.
First qualifying final: Richmond Tigers (1) vs Hawthorn Hawks (4)
7:20pm AEST Thursday September 6, MCG
First elimination final: Melbourne Demons (5) vs Geelong Cats (8)
7:50pm AEST Friday September 7, MCG
Second elimination final: Sydney Swans (6) vs GWS Giants (7)
4:20pm AEST Saturday September 8, SCG
Second qualifying final: West Coast Eagles (2) vs Collingwood Magpies (3)
8:10pm AEST Saturday September 8, Optus Stadium
(Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
The Richmond Tigers have finished on top of the ladder to back up winning the 2017 premiership and will enter the 2018 finals as strong favourites to go back-to-back.
They’ll open their finals campaign with a qualifying final against the Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG, and remarkably it will be the first time in VFL/AFL history that Hawthorn and Richmond have met in a finals match.
Richmond surely will be the favourites to win and set up a home preliminary final, but the Hawks have an ace up their sleeve in that tactical mastermind Alastair Clarkson will have a whole two weeks to prepare for the game.
It’s the West Coast Eagles and the Collingwood Magpies who will go head-to-head in the other qualifying final, to be played at Optus Stadium, after both sides secured their spots with wins this week.
Both teams will spend the bye week sweating on the potential return of superstar players for September – Josh J Kennedy for West Coast, Adam Treloar and Jeremy Howe for Collingwood.
A win for the Melbourne in their final game of the season has seen them rise to fifth on the ladder, and means they’ll host Geelong in an MCG blockbuster.
The promises to be an absolute thriller, given the two sides have already played out two matches decided by less than a goal this year.
Meanwhile the Dees’ win also means that the Giants will finish in seventh, and will go up against the Sydney Swans, likely at ANZ Stadium.
An all-Sydney finals showdown with elimination on the line promises to be a mouthwatering clash, and GWS will hope a two-week break allows them to bring back some stars and reverse the form slide that has seen them drop their last two matches of the year.