It might sound counter-intuitive to talk of a player who has yet to play a good final as being the player to watch out for in the finals, but it is the very fact that he has yet to do it that makes him so dangerous. Call it the glass-half-full approach.

Curnow’s attitude to the elimination final has to be akin to Carlton’s more broadly. After the late reprieve to get into the eight – the Fremantle repechage, as Jake Niall put it – the Blues head to this year’s Brisbane final almost sheepishly, as opposed to the “we’re back, baby” swagger of last year. Anyone with a free throw at the stumps is a chance to hit them.

Selectors go rogue

The Brownlow Medal carries its gravitas not only from history but because the men and women on the field judging the medal have a unique and quirky perspective.

It’s why the players who dominate the awards judged by media, coaches or other players might never win a Brownlow. It’s not uncommon for players to be judged the best player in the competition by the umpires but not be considered the best player at their club by their coaches. For example, Lachie Neale last year won the Brownlow Medal but was only runner-up in the Lions best and fairest award.

In a similar vein, the All-Australian selectors this year continued with their own version of “they like it when we go rogue”.

Their dilemma is partly the inevitable consequence of trying to fit a squad of 44 players into a final team of 22, and partly a consequence of the fact that their task is to pick the best team the possibly can to play no one.

So, while pretty much every team plays two ruckmen on match day, the All-Australian selectors thought, “stuff that, we’ll pick one”. Of course, it was Max Gawn. His was the easiest selection of the night after Marcus Bontempelli.

But given this team did not include a key forward who also spends time in the ruck, the selectors should have chosen a second ruckman, either Tristan Xerri or Darcy Cameron from the shortlist they’d created.

Jake Waterman was chosen as a versatile third tall forward. Sure, he had a better season than most thought him capable of while playing for the third-worst team in the league, but you can’t convince me any coach in the AFL would seriously choose him over Charlie Curnow. Then, there’s the selection of Jeremy McGovern over James Sicily or Harris Andrews. Spare me.

The selectors also took the oft-used option of considering the wings tantamount to the bench, and shoving whoever they damn well pleased there. Nick Daicos on a wing? Please. Even Errol Gulden had the good humour to mention that Daicos only dropped in for a visit on a wing in the last game of the year. Massimo D’Ambrosio was one of the finds of the year and should have been chosen.

The question is not whether D’Ambrosio should have been there ahead of Daicos, it is how was Caleb Serong picked as a first-choice onballer ahead of Daicos? No coach in the league, not even Serong’s coach, would do that.

And then there was the bigger annual nonsense award; the Rising Star. This is an award that doesn’t know what it is. Is it there to acknowledge the best young player, the best season by a young player or the best season by a young player while also casting an eye towards how good that player will one day be? (The latter of those three options was how it started out).

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But what possible relevance is there in considering whether a player had been suspended or not? The award is supposed to be partly about crystal-balling the rest of each contender’s career, careers for which a minor suspension in their first two seasons will be utterly inconsequential.

Ollie Dempsey at least had the good humour to thank the tribunal for suspending Harley Reid and Sam Darcy.

Dempsey – and certainly Jeremy Cameron who told him to use the line thanking the tribunal – knows where he sits in the pecking order behind Harley Reid and Sam Darcy.

He should have thanked the AFL for the absurd rules as well.

Early call was right call by Hawks

Hawthorn made the disappointing early call on Will Day. The call was disappointing, the fact that it was early was not.

Declaring Day unfit a week before their elimination final against the Western Bulldogs removed the cloud of uncertainty, and the circus of hyperbaric chambers and unnecessary speculation.

Even with the pre-finals week of rest, the Hawks knew Day was not going to play pretty much from the moment he did his shoulder in round 23, so the Hawks rightly chose not to try to carry on charade.

The transparency reflects a mature, modern approach of coaches recognising that the ducks-and-drakes games at selection that supposedly toy with the opposition don’t really work.

The Bulldogs would have known Day wasn’t playing, so if the Hawks had kept on pretending he was a chance there was a greater they would have ended up toying with their own players’ emotions. So, well done to them.

The Hawks are playing with a system as much as personnel at the moment. They are not playing a game reliant on individual brilliance, even though they have some brilliant players. Theoretically, this will help them cover for missing a player, such as Day. Theoretically.

Cats need SDK and a tagger

Sam De Koning did what he had to in the VFL and is a certainty to play for the Cats against Port Adelaide.

He played against Werribee at the weekend and was among the Cats’ better players. He had 18 touches and 23 hitouts in his game first back from injury, and should find himself rucking in the qualifying final.

De Koning’s flexibility to play as a key defender, means he should come into the team. But it isn’t really a question of where he plays. He should ruck in place of Rhys Stanley.

Stanley played the last four games of the season, but remember it was against Port Adelaide in Geelong when Stanley was subbed out before half-time after being soundly beaten in the ruck as his team lost to the Power at home for the first time in 17 years.

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Now the Cats have to find a way to beat Port in a qualifying final in Adelaide.

In that same game earlier this year, it was Oisin Mullin who was brought on to replace Stanley. He tagged Jason Horne-Francis and shut him down after half-time. Will Scott send Mullin straight to Horne-Francis or Zak Butters on Thursday night? He should.