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FRIDAY night at the MCG shapes up as a promoter's dream whichever way you look at it.

Paul Chapman and Mark Thompson taking on Geelong and perhaps closing the door on that club's era of brilliance once and for all would have been spectacular.

But the Scott brothers shaping up in a final for the first time will make for a great Friday night all the same. Not since Norm Smith (Melbourne) and Len Smith (Fitzroy) shaped up in the 1960 semi-final have brothers coached against each other in a final.

A great deal of fuss was made back in 2011 when the twin brothers coaching against each other was a novelty. But regular twice-yearly fixtures, NAB Challenge matches and even a few days of joint training sessions before the 2013 season means there will be no mystery whatsoever between these two clubs as they sit down to plan their week.

Arguably, the only club the Cats know better than North would be Hawthorn, and that counted for nought after half-time on Friday night.

Two meetings between the clubs this year have resulted in comfortable wins for the Cats. Brad Scott believes the Kangaroos will need to do better around the ball on Friday night.

But there will be significantly different factors this time around. The weight of expectation that has hovered over North Melbourne the last few years disappeared when Drew Petrie jagged those two goals in those magical 60 seconds late on Friday night.

"Hopefully it's a weight off our shoulders and we'll go into next week full of confidence," said ruckman Todd Goldstein.

WATCH: Where the Roos won it
This will be the first time in the Scott era that the clubs have met on the MCG. It is a venue that should suit the Cats, who are the more regular visitors, but North played the ground with aplomb on Saturday night once it threw caution to the wind and went on the attack.

And the Cats face significant issues of their own. Chris Scott appeared to all but rule Steve Johnson when he spoke on Friday night, although the player himself was more bullish the following day.

Steve Motlop also played hurt, Allen Christensen didn't play against Hawthorn (and was sadly missed) while Tom Hawkins will await the Match Review Panel's findings on Monday. He collected Ben Stratton flush on the jaw, but the Hawk defender barely flinched, so the convenient-for-all 'insufficient force' judgment might come into play here.

WATCH: Is Hawkins in hot water?
But Johnson is the one. So much of Geelong's magnificence over the last seven years is because the players have driven so much of it, led by some wonderful captains in Tom Harley and Cameron Ling.

I will touch on Joel Selwood a bit further down the column, but his job as captain of the football club this week is to demand a bit of honesty from the players when it comes to declaring themselves fit to cross the line. The Cats' cause won't be helped this week by unfit players and it may require a tough conversation with Johnson, who was obviously cooked by quarter-time on Friday night.

Farewell, Bomber. It's been fun

And so it's goodbye to Mark Thompson.

There was standing room only in the MCG media room on Saturday night as Thompson spoke for the last time this year as the stand-in coach of the Bombers.

Essendon was a grim place 12 months ago, banished from the finals by the AFL because of the supplements scandal and Thompson was just the person to step in for the suspended James Hird, bringing levity, perspective and some much-needed experience and wisdom to the playing group and the football operations.

He called Essendon's year a success, and the improvement of Dyson Heppell, Michael Hurley, Joe Daniher, Cale Hooker, Jake Carlisle, Mark Baguley, Courtenay Dempsey and Travis Colyer, to name just a few, has been a boon. He has left the returning Hird with a better list than 12 months ago.

But the Bombers still cannot hold a big lead or protect a late lead. Thompson reflected on this late on Saturday night as his biggest disappointment of the season.

Whether the players are unable – or unwilling – to read the play and to change things up without direction from the coaching staff has become a critical failing of the side and explains why Essendon people weren’t comfortable at any stage against North Melbourne, not even when 33 points in front, and why the Kangaroos, as soon as they kicked two in a row in the third term, knew they were back in the game.

That's now 10 losses from 14 elimination finals for the Bombers. Students of Essendon's history would have a better reading on this, but with the exception of Fitzroy's Micky Conlan's last-minute goal in 1986 in the pouring rain at Waverley, I cannot imagine any have been more heartbreaking than on Saturday night.

Boomer can look to Lake

Brent Harvey owes North Melbourne a big game on Friday night. His three-match suspension on the eve of the finals caused the Kangaroos any amount of grief and he'll want to play well against Geelong.

But if he's looking for some inspiration, then he need look only at the effort of Brian Lake for Hawthorn the night before.

After a year riddled first with injury and then the brain-fade that cost him a four-match suspension, the acid was on last year's Norm Smith medalist and after a scratchy return game against Fremantle in round 21, Lake has been terrific for the Hawks since, culminating in Friday night, where he completely eclipsed Tom Hawkins.

Now, Hawkins dropped a couple of early marks that may have changed the equation, but Lake's positioning and at times, perceived pressure helped rattle the big Cat. And after quarter-time Lake got well on top and, critically, he kept his cool in the third term when Hawkins and Stratton had their scuffle.

"He's been fantastic," said teammate Grant Birchall. "He wanted to come back and play well for the side and he's done that. He had that slip-up after the Kangaroos game but his attitude since then has been fantastic."

Lake has created the template for Harvey to follow. The Cats will go after him at every opportunity – they like to do that – but as plain as it sounds, this is the week Harvey really has keep his head down and let his footy do the talking.

QUESTION TIME

Did Port play us all for suckers?
Maybe, just maybe, Darren Burgess is the smartest man in the room. When Port won just two matches from eight after its flying 10-1 start to the season, the nay-sayers and second-guessers were questioning whether the highly-rated Port fitness boss had been too smart by half.

But on the evidence presented on Sunday afternoon, Burgess might have had it right all along. Port's exhilarating opening quarter against Richmond and its hard running for the remainder of the match suggests that he has Port primed to run others teams off their legs all through September.

It takes a special side to kill a finals contest after 20 minutes, even playing at home, and that's what Port did. And now, there has to be a degree of confidence heading to Perth to play Fremantle on Saturday night. Just a week ago, Port dominated the Dockers for a considerable period and came home like a steam train.

WATCH: Game breaker - Hot Hoff
Which elimination final winner can win next week?
We always fall in love with the elimination final winners, and you can always mount convincing cases for them to go on and win the next week. Port has the legs to worry Fremantle, North appears less banged-up than the Cats.

But the cautionary tale came two years ago. West Coast looked irresistible in putting 24 goals past North Melbourne and winning their elimination final by 96 points at Patersons Stadium. The following week, the Eagles kicked just nine at the MCG in a 13-point loss to Collingwood.

Don't forget how difficult Fremantle is to beat at home. Patersons Stadium is a narrow ground and Port's forward entries, when it gets time and space will have to be close to perfect. A week out, my other choice would be North, but not with a great deal of confidence.

Was Richmond a deserving finalist?
The Tigers won 12 games. The order of wins didn't matter; they did what they had to do to make the finals. But pace issues and a lack of composure when the heat was really on came to the fore. What Sunday demonstrated was that the Tigers were playing with house money during their nine-match winning streak, and really, under very little pressure.

But when the stakes were equally desperate for both sides, as was the case on Sunday and against Carlton in last year's elimination final, that all changed. This was real pressure, nothing manufactured, and the Tigers lost their nerve. The dash and the dare was gone, their lack of sheer pace was an issue and their composure was rattled.

But if there was a positive, it is that there will be no adulation at Richmond just for making the finals, as there was this time last year. A result like this gives Damien Hardwick a licence to make some hard-headed list management decisions and to be strong and bold, just like the song says.

Hardwick needs to manage his playing list this summer the way he used to play the game – ruthless and without a sentimental bone in his body.

WATCH: Where the Power won it
Biggest injury of the weekend?
Geelong loses its X-factor without Johnson, but Nick Malceski's hamstring injury could be massive for the Sydney Swans . He has had a brilliant year, but he is the organiser of the backline and sweeper who is often the first line of attack. The Swans caught a break when Josh Kennedy's recent hamstring injury was on the minor end of the scale and he only missed one match (and was rested for a second), but if Malceksi's is a regulation strain, then he'll need 21 days to get it right, therefore ruling him out of the preliminary final and making lineball for the Grand Final if the Swans can make it. Sydney has enjoyed a good run with injuries this year. That luck needs to continue for three more weeks.

Is there a better AFL captain than Joel Selwood?
Doubtful. The Geelong skipper was immense on Friday night with 31 disposals, 16 of them contested. He also kicked three goals – a personal best in finals and at the MCG. He was so good in the first half that even though Hawk Will Langford curbed his influence to a reasonable degree in the second half, he was still the best player on the ground, which is a fair effort in a six-goal defeat. The problem for Selwood going forward is that his surrounding cast is becoming less stellar by the year. Instead of winning games for the Cats, he'll instead be keeping them in games for longer. It was a privilege to watch Selwood and Sam Mitchell (36 possessions) going about their work on the same ground on Friday night. Since Ling's retirement, the Cats have had nobody to quell the Hawk champion.

Ben Brown, come on down
OK, it wasn't Dermott Brereton kicking five goals on debut in a semi-final in 1982 (against North!) but four second-half goals in a final in just his ninth game comes pretty close. With the hair and the strut, he has cult figure stamped all over him. I'd leave him in the No.50, too. Let the boy make it his own. But he could be the answer to what North needs, a reliable second key forward. Missing Jake Carlisle and Dustin Fletcher, the Bombers didn't have the defensive options to keep both Brown and Drew Petrie in check.

WATCH: Game breaker - Brown's brilliant burst


Ashley Browne: Yep. It's over. The guttural roar that followed the clinching Jordan Lewis goal in the final quarter was the sound of 40,000 Hawthorn fans coming to the same realisation.



AB: They stopped playing scared, put their skates on and started running. And as for the celebration, it's all Frank the Tank.



AB: Nice to hear from you, Jimmy. Sorry (for you) not in happier circumstances. Richmond's collapse last year was pretty epic, but as noted earlier, Essendon fans had their hearts in their mouths even when the lead was out past five goals. This is one I'd be putting on the on-field leaders at Essendon. Jobe Watson, Brendon Goddard, Heath Hocking, Brent Stanton and Paul Chapman, these sorts of players should be making sure two goals don't become four or five. It is a big issue for Hird to address now he's back in the big chair at the club. You just cannot imagine Selwood, Luke Hodge or Jarrad McVeigh letting this sort of thing happen so regularly on their watch, at least not in a match that counts.





AB: Shouldn't have been a report, perhaps he should have received the free kick. The umpiring on Saturday night was generally sound, but this was a howler. There were two instances during the North-Essendon game where the men in green appeared to get the sliding rule wrong. In this era of instant and upfront AFL accountability, we look forward to quickfire explanations on Monday.



AB: Freo would have played on Friday night or Sunday afternoon. The same thing happened with West Coast two years ago.