• Who starred for your club on the eve of the finals in the state leagues?

PHIL Walsh had a plan for Adelaide when he joined the club as coach at the end of last season.

He wouldn't come out and declare what sort of football the Crows would play, only that we would know it when we saw it.

We saw a glimpse of it in round one: aggressive and hard-running with the ball, and committed team defence without it, when Adelaide demolished North Melbourne by 77 points in the season opener.

And we witnessed it again on Sunday, with a clinical 57-point win over flag fancy West Coast at Adelaide Oval, a win that was established with a breathtaking eight-goal first quarter.

It feels a bit tawdry to talk about Walsh, who died tragically in June, but even he, the hard man that he was, would have loved everything about Sunday, from the midfield domination of Patrick Dangerfield and Scott Thompson, through to the rampaging career-best six-goal haul by Josh Jenkins.

Adelaide has been building and building and you can't praise enough the work Scott Camporeale has put in as the stand-in coach since Walsh's passing. He might not get the main job next year, but his calming influence on the playing group has been profound and the phone should be ringing off the hook at Crows HQ on Monday with potential coaches demanding to be interviewed for the job.

You would think that if John Worsfold wants the job, then he will get it, and the sooner it happens then the more compelling it becomes for someone like Dangerfield, who is at the top of his game, to want to continue with the club.

Adelaide's form on Sunday would have sent a nervous shudder through Richmond. The Tigers need to take care of business against North Melbourne on Friday night because if they don't, and the Crows then beat Geelong at Simonds Stadium the following afternoon, the Tigers will be heading to Adelaide Oval for a must-win final for the second year on the trot.

And we all remember how dismal they were there last year. 

• Finals crystal ball: Your side's week one match-up, plus our draft predictions

Time for the hard calls at the Cattery

All eyes are on Geelong this week with the expectation that a series of announcements will be made about the playing future of some of that club's greatest and most popular players.

The changing of the guard is on, and we wait with bated breath for the playing futures of Steve Johnson, Jimmy Bartel, Andrew Mackie, Corey Enright, Mathew Stokes and James Kelly to be decided.

As much as he would have liked the singular focus to be on the successful comebacks of Daniel Menzel and Nathan Vardy, Cats coach Chris Scott knows that this is the week in which his thinking about the shape of the playing list going forward has to be formulated and explained.

A season-ending home game against Adelaide at Simonds Stadium would allows the appropriate farewells to take place amid great fanfare, which adds to the intrigue over the next 48 hours at Geelong.

• Nine things we learned: Menzel a big part of Geelong's future

You can mount strong cases for each of those players to continue into next season. Former Cats premiership coach Mark Thompson has been stridently making the case this week that they should keep them all, citing a critical shortage of players aged 25-30 if they were to depart. But that would then make it tough to bring free agent targets Patrick Dangerfield, Scott Selwood and Lachie Henderson to the club because of salary cap constraints.

Mackie should be good to go again, while Kelly and Stokes should be concerned. Enright, deservedly, will be left to make his own call. 

But Bartel and Johnson will be the interesting calls. Bartel's numbers look good since his return from a medial strain in round 14, but he has spent time across half-back and playing behind the ball, rather than impacting games in the midfield and up forward where he has in the past. Whether he can turn the clock back a few years is what the Geelong coaching staff must be contemplating.

Johnson would love to play on, preferably with Geelong and his campaign to do so began in earnest when he was a guest on ABC radio on Saturday. His former skipper Cameron Ling also took up the cudgels on his behalf on the weekend saying that if he doesn't play with the Cats, then he might play elsewhere next year.

"Good Stevie" can still be mercurial. "Bad Stevie" can turn a coach's hair grey in an instant.

His situation is a bit like that of Paul Chapman two years ago where he still felt he had something to offer and an Essendon team on the fringes of the eight thought he still had some value.

If the Cats decide to move him on, that seems the likely outcome for Johnson. He'd be little use to a club in full rebuild mode, but he might just be the icing on the cake for a club with finals or even premiership aspirations. Richmond comes to mind. Fremantle under Ross Lyon is a tantalising prospect.

This column would love to see him at Collingwood. Johnson grew up a huge Pies fan and idolised Peter Daicos. He is the closest player we have had to the Macedonian Marvel in the AFL since Daicos retired, and Johnson so nearly joined the Magpies back in 2007. It is not too late for a boyhood dream to come true. 

• Fantasy form watch: Round 22's Pig and Presti

Other observations

1. Kudos to the conditioning staff of the Western Bulldogs. The Dogs ran all over the top of North Melbourne in the final quarter, kicking 7.2 to 5.2 for a meritorious win. The Dogs played West Coast in the twilight game last Sunday but remained overnight and did their recovery in Perth the following day before returning home.

From a sports science point of view, it was a no-brainer. We are told sleep and recovery are critical, particularly in the first 24 hours after a game, and the extra night in Perth, for players and necessary staff is not a cheap exercise for a club like the Bulldogs, whose pockets aren’t as deep as some clubs.

But the players would have loved it. Luke Beveridge has pulled all the right levers so far in his first year at the Whitten Oval and this is just another example.

2. Another little morsel about the Western Bulldogs that was intriguing over the weekend is they have used 40 players. Somehow Beveridge has pulled off the dual feat of lifting the Dogs from 14th to a home final in his first year and have a look at pretty much every player on his senior list. Remarkable.

3. Adam Treloar will likely follow his head not his heart at the end of the year and take the big offer from either Richmond or Collingwood. But with 28 touches and seven tackles in the Giants' monstering of Carlton, he showed that despite the huge decision looming from the end of next week, he's far from mailing it in. Chris Yarran should have a good look at Treloar and feel a bit dirty on himself, but somehow, I don't think he will.

4. Three goals for James Frawley on Saturday for Hawthorn. No surprises there. Alastair Clarkson hinted as much when he brought him across from Melbourne. Frawley spent some time as a forward in his final season and the Hawks demand flexibility from all their players.

5. Brutal honesty there from John Barker when he predicted things could get "ugly" for the Blues when they close out their season against the Hawks next Saturday. Good luck to one of the genuinely good people in footy in his final game in charge, getting the Blues up for that one.

6. Charlie Dixon was in the midst of the silly, and rather pointless half-time melee at Metricon on Saturday night. He's now a Sun but might well be a Port player in a few weeks time. How awkward will that make the first training session at his new club?

7. Why not use the last two games to change things up if you're Nathan Buckley? Scott Pendlebury playing as a permanent half-back will add another weapon to Buckley's armoury next season. The Magpie skipper had 32 disposals and was best afield, and if the Pies can add Treloar to their midfield mix, then Pendlebury spending more time in defence can only be a good thing, in much the same manner as it has worked for Sam Mitchell at Hawthorn.

Scott Pendlebury carves up the Cats on Friday night. Source: AFL Live Official App

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QUESTION TIME



Ashley Browne: The prospect of Richmond supporters working themselves into a lather all week at the prospect of returning to Adelaide for another final is hilarious. Except for one thing: they won't have to. Richmond is a tougher outfit in 2015, able to adapt its game as needed to the venue and the opponent and the Tigers will comfortably beat North on Friday night to ensure an MCG final in week one. And their supporters will be just as anxious about that one.



AB: Mark Ricciuto would have been entitled to sit back and bask in the Crows' win on Sunday but like the rest of us, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I thought his commentary was neutral in every respect, praiseworthy of Adelaide and fair to West Coast, which is all you could wish for given the result. The bigger issue is the obvious conflict of interest when club officials commentate on games. It would not be tolerated in the NFL or the EPL and shouldn't be here, but as long as football clubs feel the need for high-profile people to join their boards, then it is a conflict we are stuck with. This genie is long out of the bottle.

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