This year’s finals will be something to behold and who ever wins will be a wonderful story
THE 2016 finals series will be something to behold and the beauty is, which ever team wins the flag, the narrative is a wonderful story, writes Mark Robinson.
Mark Robinson
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IT’S the perfect year for a sentimental flag favourite.
It doesn’t have to be said, but the finals ahead will be something to behold.
And the beauty is, which ever team wins the premiership, the narrative is a wonderful story.
Here’s why you’d love every one of them to win it.
ADELAIDE CROWS
Imagine if they win it ... perhaps the most powerful and wretched premiership in all of AFL history. 
A coach died, a club was heartbroken. And unquestionably, 12 months later, there’s a spirit underpinning Adelaide’s performances.
It’s not spoken about publicly by Adelaide players and staff, but privately it is a “thing”. Exactly what, who knows.
Motivation? Configuration of heartbreak into galvanisation?
Clearly Phil Walsh set the Crows on a pathway and new coach Don Pyke has embraced and enhanced the journey.
Imagine if they win it.
It would be a premiership for the ages, perhaps the most powerful and wretched premiership in all of AFL history.
Football is about deeds and numbers and effort and moments, but most of all it is about people.
This is no longer Walshy’s team, but in some fashion it still is. And if the Crows did win, you suspect the skipper Taylor Walker would deliver a magical speech, one of tears and triumph.
NORTH MELBOURNE
Imagine if they win it ... it wouldn’t so much be history in the making, more miracle in the doing.
No team can win it from eighth. No team can win it from outside the top four. Not a chance in hell for North Melbourne.
And there’s more.
Too old. Too slow. Too one dimensional in the middle. Drew Petrie’s gone. Jarrad Waite is injured again. Goldstein’s mortal. Injuries have got them. Woe them.
Won their first nine and every man and his dog said just you wait until they play the better teams.
Every man and his dog was right. Lost six of their next seven games and then got back on track against Collingwood.
They have St Kilda on Saturday night and a loss could mean they will miss the eight altogether.
Imagine if they win it.
It wouldn’t so much be history in the making, more miracle in the doing. It’s fanciful, but it’s possible and what a campaign it would be.
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Imagine if they win it ... coming from sixth or seventh with key players in the grandstands. Proud wouldn’t quite cut it.
They are ravaged by injury and, after Friday night, it only got worse.
Tom Liberatore (lower leg) and Jack Macrae (hamstring) join Matthew Suckling, Matthew Boyd, Mitch Wallis and Jack Redpath on the sidelines and that’s only from the past 10 days.
The skipper, Bob Murphy, went down early in the season - and fears were real - but the Dogs won seven matches from the next nine.
Talk about fight. When Al Pacino made his famous speech about inches in Any Given Sunday, he could well have been talking about the Bulldogs. It’s about doing what is required for that inch and every single football fan, be it a Bulldogs fan or not, would love how the Dogs go about it.
Imagine if they win it.
A side decimated by personnel losses who will perhaps have to come from sixth or seventh with key players in the grandstands.
They have won one premiership, the glorious team of ’54, and how noble would they be if they won it against the odds this year. Proud wouldn’t quite cut it.
HAWTHORN
Imagine if they win it ... they would cement themselves as the greatest team of all time.
They are mythical teams, Collingwood of 1927-30 and Melbourne of 1955-60, because TVs didn’t capture their glory.
The Magpies are in the record books and their champions, such as the Colliers and the Coventrys, adorn honour boards, most notably in the AFL Hall of Fame.
The Demons still reside in the memories and, if you’re lucky, speak to people about Norm Smith, Barrassi, Cordner, Ridley and Beckwith. They saw them. They know.
Hawthorn would follow Collingwood as the only team to win four consecutive flags.
Some folk want a change at the top, seemingly bored by their dominance, but I don’t subscribe to that theory.
Imagine if they win it.
Arguably they would cement themselves as the greatest team of all time. Four in a row in a national competition of 18 teams and we’ve all seen and savoured it.
Then swap Smith for Clarkson and Barassi for Hodge. And don’t forget Mitchell, Rioli, Gibson, Lewis and, of course, Roughy.
Would love to see history in the making.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
Imagine if they win it ... what a story it would be, not least Stevie J winning his fourth premiership medal.
Only five seasons in the competition and their best footy is as exhilarating as any team in the competition.
Possibility of finishing top two would give them a home final (you did say that, didn’t you Gillon McLachlan?) and the Giants on the MCG on the final weekend would certainly break the monopoly of Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong on the biggest day.
Imagine if they win it.
What a story it would be. And what stories to behold, not least that Stevie J was booted from Geelong only to win his fourth premiership medal.
The AFL would be rapt, but as soon as the applause stopped, the whinging would be begin. Stop the concessions, rip up the academy, a gifted premiership. The backlash would be so extreme that recognising and acknowledging the effort of Leon Cameron, Kevin Sheedy, SOS, Gubby and Dave Matthews could be glossed over - which would be wrong.
SYDNEY SWANS
Imagine if they win it ... justification for paying Lance Franklin and the superb retooling by John Longmire
Thereabouts every season and there’s a sense of a search of justification - by us more than them - for paying Lance Franklin the biggest, longest, most financially plumped contract in the history of the game.
He is the most flamboyant player since Wayne Carey and Franklin barnstorming through all of September is tantalising.
He is a different player to Carey, in that Carey took the pressure marks and kicked the pressure goals, whereas Franklin makes something happen in the pressure moments.
It is a team sport and coach John Longmire, after winning the premiership in 2012, has superbly re-tooled his team, which included the recruitment of Franklin.
Imagine if they win it.
They are the San Antonio Spurs of the AFL: efficient, professional and consistent with their performance. Still, Franklin makes it all worth watching.
GEELONG
Imagine if they win it ... Patrick Dangerfield's arrival has been profound but it would be a premiership based on planning, astute acquisition and execution.
So many variables with the Cats and the coach can’t be ignored.
Chris Scott inherited a pretty good - but waning - team and restored zest and confidence and won the flag in his first season.
It was part his premiership but not all his premiership simply because a lot of the groundwork had been done.
Not this time. This is Scott’s team. He made bold decisions with the list, recruited wisely, and has reignited a slumping team into a strong premiership contender. The turnaround from 2011 - and there’s only a handful players still at the club from the ‘11 premiership team - has been super impressive.
Imagine if they win it.
Patrick Dangerfield left the Crows, joined the Cats and has staked his claim as the best player in the competition. He would be thrilled and justifiably so and Scott would acknowledge the profound impact Dangerfield has had. But Scott has brought it all together. It would be a premiership based on planning, astute acquisition and execution.
WEST COAST EAGLES
Imagine if they win it ... what a premiership it would be. They remind you of Adelaide of 1997.
Were a popular pre-season premiership fancy but in Round 19 we still don’t know if they are a good side, and average side, or a potential premiership side.
That all said, they are equal second and on percentage in fifth spot.
Not bad a for a team which has virtually been told by every former player and coach in the commentary boxes they aren’t a contender.
Imagine if they win it.
What a premiership it would be and what a coach Adam Simpson would prove to be. They remind you of Adelaide of ‘97. The Crows were 13-9 going into September and no one gave them a chance. They won four finals and Malcolm Blight was a genius. The same would be said of Simpson.
Originally published as This year’s finals will be something to behold and who ever wins will be a wonderful story
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