The live ladder tells a clean story at the top: Fremantle first on 76 points with a league-best 142.5 per cent, Sydney second on 68. Barring the absurd, the double-chance top two is set.
Below them is the tightest congestion of the season. Brisbane, Hawthorn and Melbourne all sit on 60 points, Geelong and Adelaide on 56, Collingwood eighth on 52 — six clubs inside eight points, all still moving.
The games that decide it
Round 24 could not have been scripted better. Collingwood host Brisbane at the MCG on Friday in a direct eighth-versus-third collision. Melbourne, fifth, play the ninth-placed Western Bulldogs — who sit two points behind Collingwood and are very much alive.
Hawthorn travel to Perth to face West Coast, Adelaide host GWS at Adelaide Oval, and Carlton — tenth on 46 after their draw — get top-of-the-table Fremantle at Docklands.
