THERE is a certain rhythm to the football cycle.

Equalisation policies such as the salary cap and the national draft are designed to create that rhythm.

Make the right decisions, be patient and your turn will come. To a certain extent, the policy has worked exactly as it's designed to: every team has played in a preliminary final since 1990. Eleven clubs have shared the 21 premierships decided since.

This achievement is given context when you realise just five clubs - Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Essendon - won flags from 1968-89.

Most clubs go up then down then up again. Some clubs - with Richmond and Fremantle the most obvious examples -spent most of the past 21 seasons closer to the foot of the ladder than the top. They have received their fair share of attention for doing so, too.

That's why we took note when new Geelong president Colin Carter, a key supporter of the equalisation policy during his years as an AFL Commissioner, began detailing last week on Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show how the Cats had defied the cycle since 1990, when the competition was re-branded as the AFL and the equalisation policies began to kick in.

The Cats have won the most games, appeared in the most Grand Finals, kicked the most points, had the best percentage - and achieved it all with the least bottom-four finishes.

Of course, in the bottom line category - premierships -the Cats sit with the pack, having achieved two flags in that period, fewer than the Brisbane Lions and West Coast with three each and equal with Essendon, Collingwood, North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Adelaide.

Carter's comments to interviewer Damian Barrett were made to highlight the challenge facing all clubs: staying at or near the top, while working within policies designed to create a yo-yo effect.

"I’m dealing here with a really successful organisation," Carter said.

"Our main mission is to try to understand why it has been successful and keep it that way."

Strong clubs point to culture and succession plans and stability in administration and decision-making as critical planks to building respect and the capacity to have sustained success.

They make innovative decisions based on the long term as much as the short term, and base their calls on evidence rather than emotion, development as much as early draft picks.

That's OK in general terms, but Carter will be focusing on the detail that leads to those outcomes.

The criteria used for appointing coach Chris Scott is one example, based as it was on recent research about what makes an effective coach, with 25 per cent of the weighting attached to cultural and leadership development.

In draft terms, the earliest draft pick the Cats have had since Stephen Hooper was the No. 1 selection in 1990, is No. 7 (three times).

That's why positive off-field changes at clubs such as Richmond are more critical to their future success than early draft picks.

With a start to the season that again suggests Geelong might be ready to defy the cycle, something many commentators consider inevitable, it only serves to reinforce the notion that intellectual property, management, continuity of administration and a team-first ethic play as big a role in quests for success as high draft picks.

THE TOP FIVE SINCE 1990 (from 460 games)
1. Geelong - won 278, lost 178, draws 4.
2. West Coast - won 257, lost 199, draws 4.
3. Essendon - won 254, lost 199, draws 7.
4. North Melbourne - won 252, lost 205, draws 3.
5. Collingwood - won 235, lost 221, draws 4.