Top eight takes predictable shape
With St Kilda storming over North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium and the Sydney Swans notching an emotional and popular win against Geelong at Skilled Stadium on Saturday, the top eight is settled.

It has been an uncertain month for the Saints, Swans and Essendon - who will fill the final three spots - and North Melbourne and Fremantle, who won't play finals.

But according to Age columnist Rohan Connolly, seven of this year's top eight spots could virtually have been inked in after eight rounds this season.

Connolly refers to the "seven game cut-off" - suggesting if a team is not in the top eight after seven games, it is not likely to be there at the end of the season.

After eight rounds this year, when 14 of the 17 teams had played seven games, the top eight read: Geelong, Collingwood, Essendon, Carlton, Hawthorn, Sydney Swans, West Coast and Fremantle.

The only change has been St Kilda in for Fremantle, making it nine out of the past 10 seasons, Connolly writes, that the top eight has changed by just one team after seven games.

Had Fremantle, which lost to St Kilda twice this season, not been so decimated by injury, there may not have been a single change.

The anomaly of the last decade is 2005, when Fremantle and Richmond, both occupying spots in the top eight after seven games, were replaced by Port Adelaide and the Sydney Swans by the completion of round 22.  

The one change last season after the seven game cut-off was Hawthorn in for Port Adelaide, with the Power's impressive 5-2 start to last season a distant memory.

The trend, which could not be bucked by fancied finalists Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs this year, highlights the importance of making a bright start to a season. 

"It's all more fodder for what is becoming the one incontrovertible rule of an AFL season," Connolly writes. "Get off to a good start, or you may as well begin your next pre-season campaign instead."

Shuey an Eagle forever
West Coast midfielder Luke Shuey has declared he wants to stay with West Coast for life after the support the club has provided him in his first three AFL seasons.

The classy 21-year-old enhanced his chances of winning this year's NAB AFL Rising Star Award on Saturday night with 20 disposals, eight clearances and a goal in his team's win over the Brisbane Lions.

But individual awards aside, the Victorian told The West Australian that he has plans to achieve team success in the west.  

"West Coast is my home now, it's my life and I'm planning on spending the rest of my career here," he said.

"I love the club and what they've been able to do for me shows not only do they want to be successful in football, but they want to be successful off-field and support us as much as they can.

"They've won me over and hopefully we can stick together and get some success in the next few years."   

Shuey's form and commitment is one of a number of short and long-term jigsaw puzzle pieces that keep dropping into place for the Eagles, according to The West Australian's chief football writer Mark Duffield.

Midfielder Chris Masten, who played his best game for the club against the Lions, is another.

"Masten's 31 possessions and three goals against the Lions was both a revelation for Eagles fans and a vindication for the club, which has stuck by the 22-year-old despite plenty of early evidence that the No.3 draft pick in 2007 might have been better spent on someone else," Duffield writes. 

"Now he joins Luke Shuey and Scott Selwood in the engine room of young Eagles who have stepped up this season, with 26-year-old Matt Priddis and Daniel Kerr, 28, likely to be in place for a year or two yet."

Clearance cracks showing at Geelong
There may be nothing to be gained against Collingwood in terms of ladder position in Friday night's final rehearsal, but Geelong should be desperate to rediscover its midfield dominance before it is too late.

According to the Herald Sun's Mark Stevens, something has been amiss at the Cattery ever since Chris Scott's men feasted on Melbourne and Gold Coast, winning those matches by a combined 336 points.

After defeating the Suns in round 20, Geelong travelled to Adelaide and lost the clearance count by 19. A bye followed, before Saturday's loss to the Swans, which saw the Cats lose the clearances 34-56.

Ryan O'Keefe, Ben McGlynn and Shane Mumford alone combined to have 30 clearances for the Swans, with the differential of 22 the biggest recorded against the Cats by Champion Data. 

"Too much of a good thing can get you in the end," Stevens writes, in reference to the Cats' big wins over Melbourne and Gold Coast. "It is as if the Cats loaded up at a cheap Chinese smorgasbord and are still paying for it.

"The Cats have been smashed at the clearances - and that stat is a reliable gauge of how hard a team is working in the blue-collar area of the game."

Stevens is quick to point out that nobody is writing off Geelong's premiership chances, but if Friday night is a rehearsal for a likely Grand Final match-up it would be a good time for the Cats to rediscover their midfield edge.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs