“It looks a classic”: Gerard Healy’s snapshot of the 2024 AFL Grand Final

The Brisbane Lions hit town on Wednesday, and it was the first real sign in Melbourne that the festivities of the Brownlow are over and the main game is on.

In Sydney, an even more important event took place on Wednesday, and that was the final serious training session. 

Serious as part of a preparation for most, but for John Longmire and Callum Mills, it was potentially life changing whether he plays or not, and as we now know, he's been ruled out. 

There was probably never going to be any other result, which is devastating for Mills and the Swans, who now don't have their captain available, but they weren't going to make the same mistakes as they did a couple of years ago.

The previews, well, they're coming thick and fast.

Daniel Hoyne’s insights were number one last night, and he trumps them all, as you know, because he's got the data that matters and he's got it at his command.

He's gone for the Brisbane Lions by eight points, but expect to hear the terms turnover, corridors, stoppage, and differential ad nauseam this week as we build up to the bounce.

But ultimately, given these two teams are so close, for me, accuracy looms as potentially the great decider and the great divider. Which Joe Daniher and Eric Hipwood will we see, the accurate or the inaccurate? It could cost them the game, it could make them the hero.

The same for the Swans, who have been accurate all year. Will that desert them on Saturday?

It might also be simply the performance of one individual, one umpiring decision, one bounce of the ball, la la the Saints and Stephen Milne.

It looks that tight.

I can't see a blowout Kane. It looks a classic. Who will separate these two teams, and how will they do it?

Well, that's the question for people to ponder.