And yeah, a Swans supporter but whilst we won the minor premiership (basically finished top) it’s gonna be hard to win the whole thing as teams have worked us out and we’re probably 7th out of 8 in terms of form going into it. We do have home ground advantage at least.

Robb

Interesting that it seems to be all about momentum. I guess, as with US sports, the league is set up to be competitive, so you wouldn't see the kind of financial dominance / sporting dominance feedback loop of our game. How often does the side finishing top of the ladder go on to win the whole thing?

I’m not sure how often they win but they do have advantages as how it works is this ..

Final top 8 this season

Sydney Swans
Port Adelaide Power
Geelong
GWS Giants
Brisbane Lions
Bulldogs
Hawthorn
Carlton


So 1st plays 4th at home
2nd plays 3rd at home
5th plays 8th at home
6th plays 7th at home

In the first two matches if any of the sides lose they get one more chance against the winners of the other two games. So conceivably Sydney could win the first match, get a bye in the second and then in the third play that at home too. Which means (and this is the unfair bit) they only have to play the final at the MCG. It would be more fair if the final could be played in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth etc but it always has to be the MCG due to the size of the place and is the home ground for a lot of the Melbourne sides to interstate teams always tend to struggle there.

And yeah, the league is very much set up to be competitive. Very rarely do sides win it a couple of times in a row and any side can beat any side. You’re right about momentum and even in games that’s a thing. No matter how good or bad the side is, I’ve seen a goal change a game many times. You could see a side be 30 points down in a game and if the opposition get a goal they suddenly get 3 or 4 and it’s like a tsunami of pressure. The more AFL I watch the harder it is to go back to watching football as it’s getting oh so predictable 😂

comment by Robb Raygun (U22716)
posted 31 minutes ago
And yeah, the league is very much set up to be competitive. Very rarely do sides win it a couple of times in a row and any side can beat any side. You’re right about momentum and even in games that’s a thing. No matter how good or bad the side is, I’ve seen a goal change a game many times. You could see a side be 30 points down in a game and if the opposition get a goal they suddenly get 3 or 4 and it’s like a tsunami of pressure. The more AFL I watch the harder it is to go back to watching football as it’s getting oh so predictable 😂
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I've still only watched a handful of games but have already observed those fluctuations of momentum in the course of a match. Yesterday even when the Dogs were up about 20 points in the 4th quarter I felt pretty nervous.

Try and watch as many finals matches as you can as that’s when the real fun starts. I’m just happy I’ve converted someone 🥲