I am conflicted as I like a premier to look the part.
Having been at the Geelong v Hawthorn final I was already getting concerned because they hardly looked to be playing at a higher standard than we did in our last month this year. I wanted Geelong to win because I thought they looked the part but when you see them live they have holes everywhere including players like Bartel and Enright (who get done for pace, badly regardless of whether they are champions and all Australians). Ruggles and Bews are hardly AFL standard defenders. Cowan is a horrible player - it's like watching Kommer, the similarities are unnerving.
GWS is the only team without a deficiency but I have no interest in seeing them win flags playing with a different set of rules to everyone else. Sheedy's heart is in the right place but he seems to genuinely believe that subjecting the AFL to GWS flags will grow the game and make GWS sustainable so I don't really care what he thinks.
The Dogs struggle to score and have and have basically no spine.
Sydney's bottom 6 is really young, even if it looks like they are quality players, but they're the team I want to win the flag. I get that COLA annoys people but it's not the reason that they have been such a successful club in the last 10 years.
Their recruiting and development has been outstanding. Kennedy, Jack, Parker and Hannebery were not handouts. Naismith, Alir, Papley, Rampe, Jones, Lloyd, Smith, and Hewett were not exactly cherry picked first round selections. It annoys me that they could get guaranteed access to Mills and Heeney but I can live with that, given the alternative, as I can live with Tippett and Franklin because we should not be pretending that Sydney did not become a destination club and that they would not have been able to recruit quality players without COLA.