With Zak Butters at the Whitten Oval, I believe the Western Bulldogs are going to win the premiership next year.

Butters last week turned down the Cats – who always seem to be around the mark for big free agents and trade targets – and instead chose the Bulldogs. He’s about to sign the biggest deal in footy.

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The move will make the Bulldogs a near-flawless side.

I think Butters, at his best, is the best midfielder in the competition, alongside Collingwood’s Nick Daicos.

He’ll slot into a Bulldogs line-up alongside Sam Darcy, who’ll be a welcome return from injury. I think Darcy is the best key forward in the competition.

It means the Dogs get two ‘No.1s’ into the side.

They’ve certainly got enough star power in the midfield now. It feels like Marcus Bontempelli has been pulling the strings in the background – and so he should. He deserves to have all resources at his disposal for what he’s done for this football club and the way he’s led and played over the journey. I think there’s nobody more deserving of a crack at a premiership.

Adding Crows defender Jordon Butts to the fold, to address a key area of weakness, will also go a long way in contending for the flag. Butts won’t change everything behind the ball for Luke Beveridge’s team, but he shores up an area of the ground where they’ve been lacking.

Ralphy breaks down Butters $19.8M deal | 01:33

Hanging onto Tim English is important, too. There’s been a lot of chat around him and his future, but even though he didn’t have the year he would have liked, he’s an important cog in that midfield.

Put Darcy with what Aaron Naughton has developed into — a more consistent player — and that’s a superstar team.

The Bulldogs have made a habit of scrapping through seasons to end up finishing between 5th and 10th on the ladder.

At the start of the season, I’m sure they believed they were good enough to have a real crack. But it didn’t go to plan for them with injuries, losing several key players at the start of the season.

Yet Butters’ arrival means it just feels different. They now have everything there that they should need to genuinely challenge.

I really give them a big chance to go all the way next year, mostly off the back of one signing – which is pretty incredible.

CROWS BACK NICKS… BUT THE MESSAGE BEHIND THE CALL IS CLEAR

Adelaide and the future of coach Matthew Nicks has been one of the more contentious topics this finals series.

Amid speculation over Nicks’ future, the Crows got their elusive finals win against the Dogs in an elimination final. A week later, they were smashed by the Lions.

It means Nicks is going to coach into the final year of his contract in an era where coaches crave medium-term security,

It’s a polar opposite approach to that of North Melbourne, which instead sacked Alastair Clarkson with one year to go on his deal.

I think it’s ultimately the right decision by Adelaide. But my sense was Crows chief Tim Silvers’ letter to members on Sunday didn’t inspire a lot of belief in Nicks. It was a ‘Yeah, we believe in you, but you need to do better than this year’ – which I think is a good position to be in.

Gaz brushes ‘rubbish’ Nicks concern | 01:39

The Crows overachieved by finishing as minor premiers last year, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still a top-four-calibre side next year. If they’re not, Nicks won’t be the coach anymore.

It’s totally different to the Kangaroos’ scenario. They were on a steady rise under Clarkson but didn’t look like making finals, whereas Nicks and the Crows were minor premiers last year and they won a final this season.

The Crows can afford to take the attitude of: ‘Let’s see how you go by the end of your contract, and then we’ll make a call from that.’ North, conversely, went aggressive by cutting the cord earlier.

Yes, the Roos are coming from a lower base, but Adelaide was in a similar situation when Nicks took over. Plus Nicks has shown he can turn the football club around.

Adelaide isn’t panicking. They’re looking at Nicks and asking him to take them further, which I think is the right call.

NO MORE FREO NO-SHOWS AS PERFECT CHANCE LOOMS

We won’t see another Freo no-show for the rest of this finals series.

After what they dished up in their qualifying final, if they get beaten from here on out, I think it will be because they’re simply not good enough on the day.

I just don’t think we’re going to see a Fremantle side where their stars don’t perform again.

And I think Fremantle is in about as good a position as you could possibly be in for an away preliminary final. Sydney has six massive outs – and the biggest of them, for me, is Callum Mills, because of what he means to them as a leader.

So if you’re Fremantle, I don’t think you could ask for a more vulnerable opponent in an away preliminary final.

I wrote last week about Fremantle’s big five match-winners: Luke Jackson, Josh Treacy, Shai Bolton, Murphy Reid and Hayden Young. They all probably had their worst games against Hawthorn, but all lifted to varying degrees against the Cats.

Freo fire back at home in finals charge | 02:58

The end of the Dockers’ home and away season was almost the perfect storm for them to be mentally off against Hawthorn. They were basically guaranteed top spot for five weeks, then had the bye. You’re not going to be at your absolute peak every week.

But now there are only two games left and those five guys simply have to perform.

Young is the one I have the biggest question mark over. Can he back up two big games in a row? We haven’t really seen him do that this year, but he’s proven how important he is. And with two games left, you’ve got to rip the Band-Aid off in protecting him. He just has to have another massive game.

Then there’s the Jackson-Brodie Grundy conversation. Jackson showed against Geelong that he can basically take over a game for five minutes. There aren’t many players in the competition who can do that, outside of Daicos and a few others. It’s what makes Jackson so dangerous.

But I think sometimes we focus too much on Jackson’s athleticism. We look at how big he is, how quickly he moves and how he can stretch a ruckman forward of the ball. But I actually think his biggest strength is around the contest. It’s his follow-up work, which reminds me of Nic Naitanui. Once the ball hits the ground, Jackson’s ability to get involved, win contested possessions and keep the ball moving forward is incredibly difficult to stop for someone of his size.

Grundy, however, is very good in that area, too, and the Swans will come with their own strategy around negating Jackson.

But you can’t stop Jackson. All you can do is try and limit the damage.

That’s why the Jackson-Grundy match-up is such an important one, because Jackson can take the game away from you in five minutes.

Rampe named Swans stand-in skipper | 02:16

LIONS’ ‘WORST’ A HUGE HAWKS OPPORTUNITY: WHY BRISBANE CAN BE STOPPED

Brisbane is a really dangerous match-up for the Hawks, given how this Saturday 5.15pm prelim timeslot will feel like routine for the Lions.

The Lions have gone the hard way two years in a row and won Grand Finals off the back of it. So they’ll know what they need to do.

For the Hawks, it’s a completely different game to the one they played against the Dockers. Hawthorn was able to match Fremantle aerially. Yes, the Hawks brought elite pressure, but the Dockers were shut down because of the aerial prowess of Tom Barrass, Josh Battle and James Sicily. And they were able to limit Jackson’s dominance.

Brisbane’s biggest strengths are different.

Their small forwards and their ability to create chaos around the forward 50 were their biggest weapons against Adelaide: Cam Rayner, Kai Lohmann, Zac Bailey and Charlie Cameron. That’s an incredibly dangerous group.

Lions keep premiership defence alive | 04:57

As a backline, can Hawthorn shut the Dockers down? And can they put enough pressure on to limit that part of the game? That’s the equation.

I think Hawthorn will beat Brisbane, setting up what I believe will be a Hawks-Dockers Grand Final.

I think that although it’s a different game, Hawthorn has been able to do that this year, and it will just be about whether they can ride Brisbane’s momentum that they’re certain to have at stages.

The Lions’ best is the cream of the competition. But I also think their worst is the most concerning of the top four. Even against Adelaide, I thought Brisbane looked really vulnerable during that brief patch in the second quarter. Adelaide kind of did what they wanted there for a little while.

Yes, the Lions found a way to quickly wrestle momentum back, but I just think if the Hawks can extend those periods of time – which they did against Fremantle – I think Sam Mitchell’s men will win.