It was a familiar sight for Cats fans at the conclusion of the opening round of the AFL season.

The blue and white hoops perched atop the ladder, having bullied their way to a 66-point win over Essendon.

It was the 71st time since 2000 that Geelong had taken the number one mantle at the end of a round, accounting for 14 per cent of all top-spot finishes in that time, having first ascended in Round 2, 2006 on the back of Kardinia Park's lord and saviour Kent Kingsley kicking a bag of eight.

But is sitting on top of the ladder staring down smugly at the rest of the competition all it's made out to be? Or is it better to sneak into finals under the cover of darkness wearing one's snazziest camouflage? 

The Geelong case study

For all intents and purposes, the past 21 years have been kind to Geelong.

Circumventing the awkward teenage years that we all go through, where a pimply faced Cats squad fumbled their way through the first three seasons of the 2000s, Geelong has only missed two finals series since 2004, winning three premierships along the way and turning Sleepy Hollow into a slightly less sleepy indentation.

In the club's premiership years — 2007, 2009 and 2011 — it would be difficult to argue they didn't deserve to hold the cup aloft on that one day in September.

Timeline: How many rounds your team has finished on top since 2000

But discounting their breakout year in '07, where they held top spot for the final 12 rounds of the season, the Cats finished the round at the pinnacle of the league just eight times out of a possible 46 rounds in their other flag efforts.

Their 2009 grand final opponent, St Kilda, were numero uno from Round 3 all the way to finals, while their 2011 foes, Collingwood, sat upon high for 15 of a possible 24 rounds.

On the flip side, when the Cats were at their best during the season, they tended to fold in the finals.

In 2008 they were in pole position 18 times before losing to Hawthorn in the grand final. In 2019, they held top spot from Round 2 to Round 21, lost it briefly to Brisbane and their flying Lincoln McCarthy act, then regained it for the final round, before losing to eventual premiers Richmond in the preliminary final.

Geelong's balance of doing great in finals when the season has been good, and doing poorly in finals when the season has been great, sees things even out statistically in the end, with the club winning 13.6 per cent of all premierships since 2000 to almost match their 14.4 per cent of time sitting on top of the ladder.

The story isn't quite so rosy for others.

Say it Saint so

Two teams held the top spot in 2009.

The aforementioned Saints, led by superstars like Nick Riewoldt and Brendon Goddard, and the Blues, whose only two trips to the apex of the AFL for the past 21 years came in the first two rounds of that season.

It's arguable as to which supporters have had it worse.

In the very least, Blues fans have known that since an unlikely grand final appearance in 1999, things haven't been much chop. Go in with low expectations, and leave having them comfortably met.

Saints fans, however, have endured the hope and pain of going one quirky Sherrin bounce away from winning their first flag since 1966, and doing so on the back of strong seasons sitting high atop the AFL ladder.

From Round 1, 2000, to Round 4, 2010, St Kilda held the record for the most rounds in top spot, finishing upon the zenith 40 times.

The vast majority of those 40 weeks came in two chunks, with 17 weeks in 2004, and 20 weeks in 2009, but neither year led to a premiership.

And even when they did make the grand final on the back of a more subtle performance (three weeks in 2010) it didn't lead to ultimate glory.

The missed chance: How St Kilda dominated the ladder in 2009

So while the Saints went marching, they went marching anywhere but 'in'.

It's a similar story for other teams who dominated certain seasons, but came away with nothing but the friendships they made along the way.

They weren't all happy days

Geelong's 2008 and 2020 seasons, and St Kilda's 2004 and 2009 seasons don't sit alone as being great seasons with nothing to show for it.

Essendon 2001 (16 weeks), Port Adelaide 2003 (11 weeks), West Coast 2005 (18 weeks), Adelaide 2006 (nine weeks), Collingwood 2011 (15 weeks), West Coast 2012 (10 weeks), Port Adelaide 2014 (8 weeks), Fremantle 2015 (20 weeks), North Melbourne 2016 (nine weeks, yes, really), Adelaide 2017 (18 weeks), Richmond 2018 (15 weeks), and Port Adelaide 2020 (18 weeks) all had great years with no premierships.

Meaning, since 2000, 16 of the 22 premiers did not hold the lion's share of top of the ladder during the year.

Richmond, in one of the better stats of this entire mess of numbers and brackets, only ever held top spot in a year they didn't win the flag. And in the club's three premiership years, they sat in second just once out of 64 rounds.

So what's the ideal ladder position throughout the year for ultimate glory?

If you ain't first, you're not last

First of all, you want to be in the top four for a good part of the year.

Only Brisbane (2001), Sydney (2005), Western Bulldogs (2016) and Richmond (2019 and 2020) had a median end-of-round position outside of the four, although all but the Dogs finished inside the top four by the final round.

And even the Dogs, who famously won the flag from seventh, spent 11 weeks of the year in the top four.

Secondly, you probably don't want to be right up the top for most of the year, with only Essendon (2000), Brisbane (2002), Geelong (2007), Hawthorn (2013) and Melbourne (2021) winning the flag with a median of top spot.

A median of second, however, seems to be the proverbial Goldilocks zone, with nine of the past 22 premiers spending a decent amount of the time floating around about the second fiddle area.

As for where a premiership team kicked off their season — starting the year with a big win is a great launch pad, with six of the past 22 premiers sitting on top of the ladder after Round 1, while just four of the eventual winners (Brisbane '01, Geelong '07, Hawthorn '13, West Coast '18) started their year with a loss.

So what does that mean for the 2022 season?

It means whatever you want it to mean. From Geelong at the top to Essendon at the bottom, the beauty of this time of year is that everyone still retains hope that their team will be on the podium in September as the dulcet tones of Craig Willis echo around the MCG.

And with any luck, it will be the first time since 2019 that we've had that very pleasure.