Good Omen For Melbourne And Essendon

(Images: Getty)

Things are looking up for Melbourne and Essendon’s finals chances if recent history is to be used as a guide.

If season 2013 is disregarded, when the Bombers were booted out of the finals due to the supplement saga, the top 8 hasn’t changed in the last round since 2005.

That’s a good omen for the Demons (seventh) and Bombers (eighth) who both have to win their matches against Collingwood and Fremantle respectively this weekend to guarantee themselves finals action.

The flip side of that stat is that it’s a bad omen for West Coast (ninth), St Kilda (10th) and the Western Bulldogs (11th) who all need to win their respective matches against Adelaide, Richmond and Hawthorn as well as have Melbourne and/or Essendon lose their games to be any chance of qualifying for the finals.

In 2005, Port Adelaide replaced Fremantle in the top eight in the final round and went on to smash North Melbourne by 87 points in an elimination final but suffered a similar-sized loss to Adelaide the next week (83 points).

Melbourne are aiming to make their first finals series since 2006 while Essendon, who haven’t won a final since 2004, are gunning for their first September campaign since 2014.