Of the nine flags from 2007, Hawthorn have won four and Geelong three. Photo: Eddie Jim
Nearly halfway through the 2015-16 English Premier League season, strange things are afoot.
At the top of the table is not one of the perennial Manchester behemoths, nor Chelsea, but little Leicester City. Not far behind, in contention for a spot in the European club competitions, are Crystal Palace and Watford, hardly giants of the football world.
It's rare territory for the EPL, in which just five clubs have shared 23 titles. And for fans of AFL football, there's considerable irony in the shake-up.
We've become used to hearing how even our own competition is in the national era, the Premier League often used in disparaging comparison. But is it the case anymore?
Just like the EPL, in the last 23 seasons of the old VFL, only five clubs – Richmond, Carlton, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Essendon – managed to win premierships. Suddenly, with the addition of non-Victorian teams, things opened right up.
The first 17 seasons of AFL football post-1990 produced no fewer than 10 different premiership clubs. But since then? Seven of nine premierships have been shared by just two clubs, Geelong and Hawthorn.
Better list management and administration of clubs is a factor. But just as the introduction of the draft and salary cap has long been touted as pivotal to the evening up of the AFL competition, a de-regulation of the player market might well be re-opening that old gap between the winners and the winners-not.
It's not just about free agency itself, which delivered Hawthorn James Frawley, but of course famously also cost them Lance Franklin, while Geelong's prize pick-up of Patrick Dangerfield from Adelaide ended up occurring via the trade table.
But the club-hopping of bigger names, however achieved, has not only legitimised more the concept of multi-club stars, but in turn shifted recruiting mindsets, the "mix-n-match" approach now seemingly a more viable route to premiership success than drafting and developing a generation of future flag-winners.
Not surprisingly, it was Hawthorn and Geelong that also managed the latter approach best, paving the way for their current penchant for top-ups.
The 2004 national draft sent Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Jordan Lewis the Hawks' way, Grant Birchall the following year. The equivalent for Geelong came in 1999 with Joel Corey, Paul Chapman, Cameron Ling and Corey Enright, and 2001 with Jimmy Bartel and James Kelly.
Can you build a flag-winning team from scratch now, though? While it was widely accepted that fledgling clubs Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney were always going to battle to keep their star classes together, they're not the only ones.
In addition to those who have already left the Suns and Giants, there's another half-dozen top-12 draft picks from just three drafts (2011-13) already elsewhere - Billy Longer, Sam Docherty and James Aish (all from Brisbane), plus Jimmy Toumpas, Troy Menzel and Nathan Freeman, the last without even playing a senior game.
No club now can bank on hanging on to an early draft pick for too long, and of course players who increasingly explore their options are going to look at the stronger clubs first.
Just on one-third of Hawthorn's 2015 premiership side hailed from other clubs. Geelong's best 22 next season, post the recruitment of Dangerfield, Lachie Henderson, Scott Selwood and Zac Smith, could conceivably boast as many.
Older football fans might recall Richmond and North Melbourne's premiership sides of the early to mid-1970s. The Tigers' back-to-back flags of 1973-74 featured imports like Ian Stewart, Paul Sproule, Robbie McGhie, Gareth Andrews, David Thorpe and Stephen Rae.
The Roos loaded up, too. Whilst the 10-year-rule, the era's free agency equivalent, saw North pick up Barry Davis, Doug Wade and John Rantall, they also went rival club shopping for the likes of Brent Crosswell, Stan Alves, John Cassin, Peter Keenan and Bill Nettlefold.
Those two clubs won four of five premierships between 1973-77, and over a dozen seasons from 1967-78 collectively made 10 grand final appearances. Ring a bell, Hawks and Cats fans?
It's certainly easy to draw the correlation not only between their capacity to lure that established talent and the success reaped in the same period, but to what's increasingly going on today.
In the English Premier League, the strong clubs have always been able to get stronger, hence the novelty value of what's happening now.
And as Hawthorn shoot for four flags in a row, perhaps the AFL's administrators might also start anxiously pondering whether in a few years' time a Carlton or Melbourne on top of the ladder will produce similar startled reactions to those going on in the Old Dart.
