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Opinion
A courageous tipster would say that the final eight is sorted after the Saturday matches of Round 8.
The eight teams on top of the ladder were one game clear of the one wannabe who could match them, and Fremantle, even if they won, would have a percentage differential that would be hard to bridge.
It makes sense. In accordance with custom, two teams from last year’s finals would not make it this year and would be replaced by two up-and-coming sides who would make their presence felt in the finals.
Melbourne, regardless of the result of this week’s game, will be there in September, having already won eight games, which is only one game fewer than last year’s total haul, and are yet to play Collingwood or Hawthorn (for a second time), two of this year’s easybeats.
The other newbie is Sydney, who have already surpassed last year’s haul of five games courtesy of a bunch of new ready-made league footballers and a revitalised older group of players.
Clearly one of the finalists from last year missing will be Collingwood, who have had a miserable year due to form and injury and off-field distractions.
The other club likely to be missing from the 2020 finalists is St Kilda, although with a 4-5 win ratio and some good form many optimists would still see them as a chance to displace Sydney in the mix.
This may still come to pass, but the Saints will need to regain some consistency and win a number of their seven remaining games against current top eight teams.
From a statistical point of view, Saturday’s five games did not add much excitement.
The three AFL top 100 goalscorers on display did not fire and none scored more than two goals, with only Lance Franklin playing in a winning team.
Franklin’s total AFL goals is now 957, and to make the 1000 mark he would need to play all the remaining games this year and average more than two goals per game. It’s not impossible, but it’s a difficult task.
He should, however, score the 13 goals he needs to join former Richmond legend Jack ‘Skinny’ Titus in sixth place on the AFL all-time top 100 goalscorers list.
Titus scored 100 goals in 1940 and on three other occasions scored 80 goals during his 294 game career at the Tigers between 1926 and 1943. He played in two premierships and another four grand finals.
A clubmate of Titus, Jack Riewoldt, scored only one goal on Saturday and still needs 14 more to join Fremantle icon Matthew Pavlich on 700 goals.
Luke Breust (Hawthorn) scored two goals, which was enough to take him past Jason Akermanis on the AFL’s top 100 list.
Among the top 100 AFL game players, Hawthorn clubhouse leader Shaun Burgoyne, currently on 395 games and the fifth greatest game player of all time, missed, but both Scott Pendlebury and Lance Franklin played.
Pendlebury joined a group of players including Heath Shaw (Collingwood and Greater Western Sydney), Jarrod McVeigh (Sydney), Ian Nankervis (Geelong), Jude Bolton (Sydney) and Jason Akermanis (Brisbane and Western Bulldogs) in the all-time top 40 game players, while Franklin drew level with Jimmy Bartel (Geelong) and Shane Crawford (Hawthorn) in 73rd position.
Jack Riewoldt’s game took him to equal 99th on the AFL top 100 game players list with Matthew Boyd (Western Bulldogs), Anthony Stevens (North Melbourne) and Darren Milburn (Geelong).
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