GEORGIE PARKER: Callum Mills will regret his mad Monday injury as Sydney struggled during AFL grand final week

1. You don’t need to spend a million bucks on a ruckman.

I’m a firm believer the ruck is one of the most important players on the field (my childhood hero was Shaun Rehn after all), but if you have the right midfield, they will make the ruckman’s job easier.

You don’t need a star in that role, you just need a player that will do their job. A serviceable ruckman that isn’t taking up huge space in the salary cap can do just fine, and time after time has proven this is the case on the big stage. Darcy Fort did his job and held down the fort for the Lions against Brodie Grundy.

2. On rucks, I’m pretty sure Oscar McInerney is the nicest guy in the AFL.

He’s missed out on a premiership medallion, but his genuine happiness and pride for his teammates, particularly his replacement Fort was heartwarming. The Lions culture is obviously a strong one.

3. This great Lions culture is best highlighted by how the youngsters were not scared to play freely.

From Kiddy Coleman last year who starred in the grand final, to Will Ashcroft this year, who came back late in the piece from an ACL to now being the youngest Norm Smith medallist in history.

Then there’s Kai Lohmann, the 21-year-old kid who booted four goals on Saturday, including two in a minute. If your young guns can play without fear of making errors, the rate at which they improve is exponential. The rise of the Hawks this season is another story of the exuberance of youth succeeding.

4. Defenders will rarely win the Norm Smith, but my goodness they’re important and how good was the Lions’ back group?

Harris Andrews was enormous as always and Brandon Starcevich, with his eight intercept possessions, was absolutely outstanding.

Given last year the Norm Smith was won by Bobby Hill, the small forward Starcevich played on, you just knew the Lions defence wasn’t going to let the Swans forward line find its groove.

5. Don’t be scared to play proper lockdown roles.

When you are facing stars the calibre of Isaac Heeney and Tom Papley, it’s not worth waiting and seeing whether your structure and processes will hold up against them.

Lock them down and starve them of the ball. Josh Dunkley did that perfectly early on against (albeit a not fully fit) Heeney, and Starcevich kept Papley very quiet with just one goal and 10 disposals to his name.

6. The Swans reached their seventh grand final in 19 years, yet have only won two of them.

The grand final week is very hard for a team to prepare during, particularly for a non-Victorian team.

There is more noise than you can imagine, extra commitments from media appearances to the parade, the captains runs not being at the usual time, and the gameday is like none other during the year. Whatever the Swans are doing behind closed doors, it isn’t working.

Two woeful performances on the big stage in the last three years and a far cry from the team we know they can be, they need to take a long, hard look at their internal processes.

All that said, Brisbane seemed to get their week right by flying down a day earlier than last year and approaching the week in a very relaxed manner. Clearly that paid off for them.

7. I’ve been thinking a lot about Callum Mills this week.

He would be absolutely filthy at himself for giving himself a very serious injury at their mad Monday celebration last year. Things like this happen, but he would be thinking a lot about how different this season would have been had that not happened.

He missed the start of the season and never found form after that. Had he been playing well, he would have absolutely played in the grand final after passing his fitness test. The lack of form and the Swans ill-fated decision to play Sam Reid in the 2022 grand final lead to the skipper missing out.

I don’t necessarily think he would have made too much of a difference given how well the Lions played, but a mature leader wouldn’t have gone astray during that second quarter when the match was lost.

8. How good was Eric Hipwood’s goal?

You knew the game was over when he pulled this one out from nowhere. He’ll miss a sitter from 20 metres out, but will side step a defender and kick one from the boundary in the grand final. I just loved it.

9. I’m so happy for Lachie Neale.

He is absolutely going to be a hall of famer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for someone who has had the individual success but was always chasing the ultimate team success. You just know from the look on his face this win means more to him than his Brownlow medals.

10. And finally, Katy Perry was pretty good.

Sure, it was no Robbie Williams and Delta, but well done to the AFL for spending big and putting on a great show. The weather gods helped out as well.