1. Richmond are going to be bloody hard to stop this month. They cruised past Hawthorn and won’t need to leave the MCG until next year. Currently on a remarkable 22 game streak at the ground.

2. The Hawks’ 2018 looks like the final hurrah of the old guard. They’re going to struggle without Roughead, Burgoyne, Stratton and co. in the coming years. They do have some quality youngsters but they’re not coming through thick or fast enough.

3. Melbourne will need to make more of their scoring opportunities if they want to go all the way this year. They kept a lacklustre Geelong side in the game for far too long with their wayward kicking and lapses in composure.

4. Geelong played like a team that scraped into finals. It has been a massively disappointing year for a club in possession of the amount of talent that they are.

5. GWS might still be alive but if Kelly has done his meniscus like it is rumoured then it’s one step forward and two steps back. He is so crucial to their success.

6. Is it time to make an assessment on what the Swans have done since getting Buddy? Clearly he has been fantastic at the club but for what they spent on him and the players his massive contract has pushed out they needed a premiership to show for it and it’s looking less like that will happen.

7. West Coast’s forwardline is perfectly balanced to do more finals damage. Kennedy,  Darling and Vardy as marking targets with Ryan, Rioli and LeCras at their feet is a winning formula and was the difference against the Pies whose forward set up looked atomised in comparison.

8. The football gods were watching tonight. The Pies’ first major score was this excellent goal from Travis who bravely played through the grief of losing his sister last week.