Cricket
Racing
Rugby
League
Motorsport
Football
Golf
Combat Sports
Basketball
Tennis
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Buckley names his seven locks for finals football
Jaiden Sciberras • May 5th, 2025 1:44 pm
Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley has named the seven teams he believes to be locks for finals footy in 2025.
Through eight rounds, the top sides have begun to separate themselves from the pack, playing a strong and consistent brand while building percentage gaps from the lower sides.
With the top seven all winning five games thus far and all but two claiming wins in Round 8, Buckley believes the current crop residing in the upper echelon of the AFL ladder will feature in September.
“I’m looking at the ladder and I’m thinking there is the haves and the have-nots,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“In terms of the way the game is played, and what the season, or modern-day football is asking for.
“I think it’s clear enough to say that the top seven teams in Brisbane, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Dogs, and Geelong are playing winning modern football.
“They have elements, a combination of transition and contest, a combination of offence and defence, some real run and go off the back, small forward groups that can help to defend but then hunt and pressure in their forward 50.
“I think they’re clear. The percentages would suggest that. 114 (per cent) is actually the lowest of those percentages in Brisbane at the top, up to 140 at the Gold Coast.
“GWS is sitting in eighth at the moment, I think they are a watch. Some of their football has been questionable.
“They are just exposing themselves to so much field position against.
“So, I’ve got the top seven pretty much locked. I think that the eighth spot is up for grabs. To an extent, GWS, Fremantle, I don’t mind what Sydney are doing, Melbourne are coming back a little bit.
“Essendon should be eighth on an adjusted ladder, they’ve only lost three of their seven games.
“I think there is a really clear delineation between the top seven and the rest. Not just in terms of where they sit on the ladder, but in the way that the game is being played, and the challenge that they are asking of their opposition consistently.
“I think there’s a real gap after seventh spot at the moment.”
Five teams currently sit on four wins, just four points outside of the top seven with the Giants sitting in eighth on percentage.
Fremantle, St Kilda, Essendon and Port Adelaide also remain on 16 points however boast percentages below 100, while Carlton hold the ninth highest percentage in the league despite their 3-5 record.
Round 9 sees just two of the top seven facing off, as the Gold Coast Suns and the Western Bulldogs go head-to-head in Darwin on Saturday night.
