Mike Sheahan believes that the teams currently sitting inside the top eight will be the sides that will face off against each other in September, with only one wildcard side able to change that: St Kilda.
The current teams sitting inside the finals places include the undefeated Adelaide, fellow premiership contenders GWS Giants, Western Bulldogs and Geelong and surprise packets Port Adelaide and Richmond, with West Coast and Melbourne rounding out the top eight.
The Saints currently sit in ninth position after thrashing Hawthorn in Launceston by 75 points on Saturday; a performance that the storied football journalist believes keeps them in the frame of playing finals football.
“I’ve got some chilling news for supporters of 10 clubs. I’m going to state the fact that at this time last year, at the end of round six, the eight was settled,” Sheahan said on SEN Breakfast.
“Not necessarily in the positions that they occupied at finals time, but no team outside the eight was able to force their way in during the next 16 rounds.
“There’s only one team that can come in and that’s St. Kilda…the eight has settled now except for St Kilda being the wildcard.”
Tim Watson believes that Richmond and Melbourne are the only two sides that can make way for the Saints, particularly doubting the finals credentials of the Demons.
“I’m still unconvinced about Richmond and I’m still unconvinced about Melbourne as well as being a genuine top eight side,” he said.
“St Kilda’s performance against Hawthorn was fantastic, but you just wonder whether there was enough pressure coming the other way. We saw Melbourne dismantle them earlier in the season.
“Overall I think (the Saints) have the capacity to be a better balanced side, attack and defence, than what Melbourne is over the course of the season.”
Sheahan also considers that of the nine teams he believes are still contention for the 2017 premiership, only three of them – Adelaide, GWS and the Bulldogs - can actually go all the way, with the high-flying Crows the clear pick of the trio at this stage of the season.
“There’s only three teams that can win the flag: Adelaide, the Bulldogs and GWS with Port Adelaide the wildcard,” he said.
“I can’t remember a team being as convincing after eight rounds as Adelaide. If the Grand Final were played between teams who finished highest on the ladder, Adelaide would win by 10 goals.”