The Swans' emphatic victory on Friday night has come at significant cost to the Cats, with super star Joel Selwood expected to miss at least 5 weeks of football with a syndesmosis injury.
Selwood will undergo surgery this week and the club expects that he'll be available for the first week of finals, but quite where they end up in the top 8, depends entirely on their next 3 games.
He's an undoubted champion of the game and his influence on the contest is telling, with the Cats struggling to maintain fluency or midfield control as soon as he left the ground.
Jamie Elliot suffered a similar injury earlier this year, while Coniglio missed almost three months of football with the same injury.
So quite where he fits in and returns is completely up in the air, but the Cats will be gambling on his return for the first week of the finals, or their finals hops may well be up in the air.
Meanwhile, the Tigers booked their spot in the finals with a convincing win against the Hawks on Sunday.
It's certainly made it harder for the Swans to finish top 4, after slipping up on their brown and goal (pun intended) banana skin last week, and it'll take a whisper of a prayer, and a membership-melting breakdown from the Tigers for the Swans to slip past.
The best the Swans can do is win their remaining games and hope the Tigers stumble and fall, or they do the Swans a big one next weekend at Simonds.
It's certainly an interesting situation, with the Cats fighting for their lives in their remaining three games, three very difficult games, while the Swans and Tigers have easier draws.
The Swans play two home games against Fremantle and Carlton, while they play Adelaide away in between.
The Cats play the Tigers next weekend in a top-4 showdown, followed by Collingwood at the MCG and GWS home in the final round.
The Tigers play the Cats and then have winnable games against Carlton and St Kilda, but nothing is certain this year.
The Swans best, is the best in the league by a fair margin, while the Crows have proven time and time again, they're a fierce and difficult team at home, but very gettable away.
The Swans top 4 chances rely on the Richmond faithful throwing their memberships in the microwave, or the Cats stumbling big time.
Either way, the Swans have to win all their remaining three games, while keeping an eye over their shoulder, with the Bulldogs playing three winnable home games.
Anything less and they'll be fighting with the peloton, climbing over each other for the best finals position, leaving themselves open to missing out altogether.
How's this for an interesting top 8 come round 23?
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