How wasn't it injuries? Franklin, Jack, Parker, Reid. Take out the equivalent players from any other team and they'd be in the same position.
It's for this reason that I'd like West Coast to win.
They lost their best defender in McKenzie before the season started, and Brown soon after.
Kennedy has played with an injury since the week before they played us in round 6. He has been exceptional.
They obliterated Hawthorn in the QF without Masten (who is an underrated midfielder these days) and Priddis (who remains underrated despite his Brownlow).
When they lost to Hawthorn earlier in the year, they did so without the most influential player in the competition (Natanui) and people barely pointed this out.
Under Adam Simpson, this team has just got on with it. Their backline has held up incredibly well, aided by the rest of the team, in a stellar example of what team-care and team defence actually means.
They have played breathtakingly exciting football, while maintaining superb defence.
If ever a team has gone about its business in a humble, efficient manner without using excuses and deserves a flag, it is West Coast.
The other three teams, their coaches and players, do nothing positive for me as a neutral supporter.