Ok, so last weeks attempt at predicting the final ladder ended in a major failure after the first game of the round, throw in a couple of upsets and all my theories went down the drain. Richmond will not make the 8 now and could end up below the Eagles this week. Anyway, reverting back to the original format where I rank the teams on feel and how they are travelling.

Rankings shaper game of the week: St Kilda V Hawthorn. Very important for both sides, a win by the Hawks will send a slight shiver up the spines of all the finalists. The Saints need a win to restore confidence after being belted. Hawthorn can play a similar brand of football that saw the Saints slump last week so they need to show something this week.

The Saints and Hawthorn clash in the match of the round.

Falling from grace: Well it’s pretty easy this week to pick Essendon as this weeks failure. In fact if you haven’t had a swipe at the bombers or their ex-coach then you can’t call yourself a fan of any of the other 17 teams. But, it was almost a tie with Carlton this week, another insipid effort by the Blue baggers has intensified scrutiny on their list and coaching staff, but hey, no one picked them to make the finals anyway so it’s time to start dumping Carlton stock for they will surely play to Ratten’s new expectations.

On the up: I’d have to say that over the past 6 weeks 3 teams have shone,  the Adelaide Crows have shown quite an improvement on the early season slump, The Richmond Tigers improvement over the same period has been outstanding and equaled by the Hawks who are almost certain to play finals after a horrendous start.

Brief observations: It seems something is worrying the Cats. I know they had a major scare prior to the game in Adelaide last Friday, but they did come out and kick 3 goals before Adelaide steadied the ship. I don’t think they can blame that, I think they are starting to unravel and the true distraction is the Ablett situation. Until this is resolved, the Cats are going to focus on the wrong things. The more questions they get at press conferences, the more it plays on their minds. The one good thing about AFL is that all that contract signing stuff happens in October, not mid season like NRL and Soccer. It seems the media is pushing this hard and won’t rest until someone has got the scoop.

Geelong have left the door more than ajar now and teams like Collingwood and Hawthorn will take advantage. If the Pies stay on top then the prospect of a Saints v Cats Qualifying final in week 1 is a game no one would have expected, and for the loser, the prospect of playing against a resurgent Hawthorn is not a pretty thought.

Essendon will do nothing about Matthew Knights until the end of the year, he’s still got 2 years on his contract which I’m sure the Bombers could easily pay out but I think he still needs time to improve the list, not even Saint James Hird could resurrect this rabble in a short amount of time, although the fan will just blame Knights for the next 5 years anyway. Remember at the end of 2006 Mark Thompson was on the chopping block and they gave him 1 more year and guess what, they won the flag. You just never know.

The Rankings:

Be Sociable, Share!

•