It was in 1994 that the final eight became the preferred system to decide the premier side at the end of the home and away season. In those eight years, just one premier has finished lower than fourth place – Adelaide finished fifth when it won the flag in 1998. However, since 1994, on only three occasions has the winning Grand Final side also been minor premiers. So what can we glean from this? Given we are only looking at the past eight seasons probably not too much. Nonetheless, Essendon will be very keen to finish inside the top four to give itself the best chance of winning the 2002 premiership.