Gerard Whateley's big takeaways from the first week of footy finals

Finals have a way of distilling things, refining things, confirming things.

Carlton’s season progressively fell apart as they toppled from second place in Round 19 to lucky loser qualification for the Finals.

Their end was grim, for a while it was flat out embarrassing… distinct for highly questionable choices… decisions you didn’t need hindsight to query. It clouds the Blues trajectory.

The Bulldogs are living Groundhog season – slow start, great muster, miss the top four, bow out in an Elimination Final.

They were beaten at their strength by a team that has gone straight past them And it’s the same question as ever… will the Dogs be better next season or is this their lot in life?

Port Adelaide were deplorable… their short breaking point hinting at deep rooted psychological issues come September.

Historically teams have set that performance right in a Semi. Port looked broken on Thursday night… It’s on them to prove otherwise.

Handing out the podium spots for failure among those three is a close run thing It means three of the four games were a disappointment on the high measure of Finals.

The Hawks were intoxicating. The Cats were electrifying. The Lions did the business in the shortest possible time.

The opening round of Finals was saved by what transpired in Sydney. The SCG has now hosted 10 finals dating back to 1996… six have been decided by one kick. This was the equal of any and better than most.

The Last quarter instantly part of Swans folklore alongside the exploits of Nick Davis 19 years ago.

An all-Sydney final hadn’t quite been trusted to carry prime time… but it produced the game of the season.

In a very real way it’s the code’s peak moment in the Harbour City.

Like all the great derbies across the football world, the cross town rivalry lit every corner of the clash.

There was beef throughout… it felt very personal. Little brother needled relentlessly and imposed themselves physically.

Before Sydney made their stand from 21 points down at the final change. It’s worthy of re-watching. An uncompromising commitment to the contest.

Isaac Heeney had shown the way when the chips were down… his teammates picked up on his example with a manic commitment, almost kamikaze approach.

It’s there in Nick Blakey’s mad spoil in the opening seconds. In Ollie Florent’s spin gather to enable Will Hayward’s goal. In every Tom McCartin lunge spoil and Brodie Grundy’s raw physicality.

The relentless running of Jake Lloyd and the core strength of Chad Warner.

The precision of James Jordon and the energy of Braeden Campbell.

In the tying and go-ahead goals Swans players won critical two-on-one against contests on the wing. Tom Papley thwarted Idun and Taylor to set up Heeney’s goal from the centre square.

And Nick Blakey repeated the feat against O’Halloran and Ward a minute later… it allowed Gulden to get the ball inside 50 for Joel Amarty to bounce home.

Those two contests personified what it takes and separated the match.

By the final siren when the combatants collapsed in exhaustion… there were heroes everywhere in a pulsating atmosphere.

It was a powerful demonstration of a city enraptured with its team.

The Swans and Giants hadn’t quite been trusted with prime time at the start of September… should they reprise that game at the end of the month the Grand Final would be in good hands.