The West Coast Eagles deserve to start the 2006 finals series as favourites for the flag with John Worsfold’s team having the draw, depth and desire to go one better than they did last year.
The Eagles, who were left heartbroken last year when they went down to Sydney by four points in the most exciting grand final since 1977, will begin this year's campaign in perfect shape to make amends.
Not only have the Eagles finished on top of the ladder - ensuring not only the double chance but two home finals and the benefit of a full week's rest ahead of their opening final next weekend, but they are set to regain a host of key players from injury just as the business end of the season gets underway.
While superstar skipper Chris Judd sent a scare through the Eagles' camp on Saturday when he limped off late in the game with groin soreness, the 2004 Brownlow Medalist was soon given the all-clear to be available for next week's qualifying final against Sydney.
And the Eagles are also optimistic at regaining key injured stars Daniel Kerr (calf), David Wirrpanda (hamstring), Ashley Hansen (knee) and Andrew Embley (AC joint) next week, which will give Worsfold a pleasing dilemma at the selection table.
The Eagles will start the finals campaign with more depth than any of their rivals given the big impact that players such as Steven Armstrong and Mark LeCras, who are far from regulars, had during Saturday's 88 point demolition of Richmond.
That pair kicked nine goals between them yet such is the Eagles' depth these two players will not even be sure of a place in the side next week.
And remember it is the team which has the most number of quality players to choose from that usually prevails in September.
The Eagles' forward structure in general is also far better going into the 2006 finals than last year when concerns over the team's malfunctioning attack led to Worsfold going into the grand final without his two leading goalkickers in Phil Matera and Quinten Lynch.
While Matera has retired, Lynch has taken his improved enormously this year and has finally given the Eagles the spearhead they have been craving since Peter Sumich retired.
Lynch has kicked 32 goals in the past eight matches and could well be the man that makes the difference in the Eagles' bid to go one better this year.
And there is no doubt the pain of that grand final loss last year will be a massive spur for the Eagles during this year's finals campaign with Worsfold's team seemingly having more motivation as well as more talent at their disposal than any of their seven rivals heading into September.
2. Swans peaking at just the right time again
Once again it is Sydney that is looming as the Eagles' biggest threat in winning the premiership this season with the Swans again peaking at exactly the right time.
The Swans' 92-point demolition of Carlton on Sunday will again ensure Paul Roos' team will have the double chance in the finals.
And while Sydney will again start its finals campaign on interstate soil that will hardly worry Roos' team, which is arguably the mentally toughest team of any of this year's eight finalists.
While the Eagles deserve to start both premiership favourites and favourites in next week's qualifying final as they continue their epic rivalry with the Swans, it is worth remembering that Roos' team won the flag last year after losing the qualifying final to the Eagles in Perth.
The Eagles won by just four points that night, the same margin Sydney would beat them by in the grand final three weeks later, while their only meeting this year saw the Eagles win by just two points at Subiaco.
That suggests there is nothing between the two teams and the winner of next week's qualifying final at Subiaco will become a clear premiership favourite, with all due respect to the other top four teams in Adelaide and Fremantle.
And with Adam Goodes well on target to win a second Brownlow Medal, Barry Hall and Ryan O'Keefe both in goalkicking form, Tadhg Kennelly right back to his best having committed himself to the Swans and Brett Kirk continuing to lead by example in midfield, the Swans are more than capable of winning the flag from fourth place over the next month.
3. Déjà vu for Demons fans
While Eagles' and Swans fans look excitedly now towards September, long-suffering Demons' fans are entitled to be more nervous than any of their seven rivals about the start of the finals action next week.
For the third successive season the Demons have blown a golden opportunity to claim the double chance and instead find themselves in a cut-throat elimination final.
And Melbourne fans will need little reminding that in the past two years that resulted in an immediate exit from the September action.
Everyone involved with the Demons is entitled to be feeling a case of déjà vu right now as the 2006 season begins to mirror those of 2004 and 2005.
In 2004 the Demons were on top of the ladder with four rounds remaining and looking top four certainties.
They promptly lost the last four home and away games to finish in fifth place and then went out in the first week of the finals when eighth-placed Essendon beat them by five points at the MCG.
Last year the Demons were 9-3 after 12 rounds and when they met West Coast in round 13 it was billed as a grand final preview between the league's top two teams.
That match resulted in the first of seven successive losses for Melbourne, which recovered to win its last three to limp into the finals in seventh place.
But the result was a humiliating 55-point loss in the elimination final to Geelong at the MCG.
And this year the Demons have gone from the healthy position of being 11-4 after 15 rounds to winning just two of their last seven games to again drop to seventh place on the ladder.
Now they have to face St Kilda at the MCG in next week's elimination final as Demons' fans fear a third straight first week finals exit.
And if that happens there will be little doubt that coach Neale Daniher and his star-studded team, which has one of the best forward lines in the competition, will have under-achieved again.
Coach of the week: CHRIS CONNOLLY (Fremantle)
Connolly is not only the coach of the week but arguably he is the coach of the home and away season after his fantastic effort in transforming the Dockers from a team seemingly permanently trapped in the competition's bottom half to a premiership contender in the space of just nine weeks.
After 13 rounds the Dockers were poorly placed with just six wins from 13 matches, having just come off two terrible losses to Geelong and Sydney when they kicked a combined total of 15 goals.
At that stage there was constant speculation over Connolly's future given the Dockers faced the prospect of missing the finals for the third successive year under his leadership - since the club's breakthrough year of 2003 when he led the Dockers into the finals for the first time in their history.
But since then the Dockers have put together a club record nine successive wins to finish in third place and they are likely to start favourites against an injury-hit Adelaide in next week's qualifying final at AAMI Stadium.
With Peter Bell and Jeff Farmer in career best form and with a host of quality youngsters at their disposal, the Dockers look the biggest danger in preventing another Sydney-West Coast grand final.
Right now Connolly will be just focused on ensuring Fremantle wins its first AFL final but regardless of how they fare over the next month, the Dockers' coach deserves every bit of credit that comes his way in resurrecting the fortunes of a club that has been ridiculed for its lack of success ever since it joined the competition in 1995.
Player of the week: SCOTT WEST (Western Bulldogs)
West has been one of the players of the 2006 season and his dominance throughout another stellar year could yet culminate in the Bulldogs' prolific possession winner finally winning the Brownlow Medal that has eluded him for so long.
Despite winning a club record seven best and fairests, the AFL's highest individual award has always eluded West.
But he did not harm his chances of finally winning the Brownlow this year with another dominant display against Essendon on Friday night when he helped himself to 36 touches.
That gave West a total of 643 touches for the year - at an average of 29 per game - which is 12 more than he managed in 2000 during the home and away season, the year he finished runner-up in the Brownlow Medal to Melbourne's Shane Woewodin.
But West's immediate thoughts will be on his club's first finals appearance for six years next week and if the Doggies can win their elimination final against Collingwood then both West and Rohan Smith will chalk up their 300th AFL games the following week.
And ever any two players deserved to play such a milestone game in a final it is West and Smith.
Villain of the week: JOEL COREY (Geelong)
Geelong's dismal 2006 season ended in appropriate fashion on Sunday when it was humiliated by Hawthorn by 10 goals.
That meant the team that was the favourite to win the premiership this year after winning the pre-season NAB Cup ended the year in tenth spot - easily the most disappointing team of the season.
And while Corey has not been the club's worst player this year it was his dreadful error at the start of the final term which perhaps summed up the Cats' season.
Kicking the ball long out of defence, Corey's kick simply went into no-man's land and the resultant turnover resulted in the final goal in the career of Hawthorn's popular veteran John Barker as he was chaired from the field post-game while the Cats deservedly walked from the field with their heads bowed.
