Does it matter if AFL premier isn't one of the greatest teams of all time?

And particularly so in 2024, looming as one of tightest football seasons we've ever seen.

With six games left for each club, there's just eight points, or two wins, separating 12 teams from second-placed Carlton through to Hawthorn, in 13th spot.

The fact that a team so low on the ladder can still realistically aspire not just to finals, but top four, is pretty remarkable.

But there's another figure which points to a significant trend beyond the narrow gap between so many teams now, and it's the "L" column.

Look at the ladder most years over the last decade or so, and you'll see most teams from second spot down to fourth or fifth with five or six losses from their 22 (now 23) home and away games.

Now look at this year's ladder.

With all teams having now played 17 games, there's still effectively a quarter of the season to play out, and yet already every team bar ladder leader Sydney has had at least six losses.

Indeed, Hawthorn, just two games behind Carlton, lost its first five games of the season.

The Swans are at least two games ahead of everyone else, and according to some, as good as over the line already.

And yet they, too, have looked wobbly at stages of late, losing twice in a row prior to last weekend, and having to come from five goals down in the previous couple of games.

It's all a far cry from a decade or so ago, when the very best teams seldom lost more than four games or five at worst for the entire home and away season.

In 2013, Hawthorn lost just three games all season on its way to the first of what would be a hat-trick of premierships.

Geelong, which it narrowly defeated in the preliminary final, lost only four games. And the other two members of the top four, Fremantle and Sydney, five and six respectively.

In 2011, Collingwood finished on top of the ladder with only two defeats, and Geelong second with three. Even third-placed Hawthorn lost only four games, and the Hawks' big percentage would have been enough to see them finish top of the ladder in nine subsequent seasons, including last year.

Back in 2009, St Kilda and Geelong remained undefeated right through until their Round 14 clash, the Saints losing for the first time only in Round 20.

And the year before, in 2008, Geelong famously lost only one game all season until their grand final day upset at the hands of Hawthorn.

It's all pretty convincing evidence that when we seem to say almost every year that the competition is tighter than ever, it's not just hyperbole.

But I think it's probably also pretty convincing evidence that the closeness isn't about the challenging teams getting better, but the top dogs not being quite the powerhouses that they used to be.

As impressive as was Collingwood last year, no way would I be tipping the Pies in a face-off against, say, Geelong's all-conquering 2007 premiership team.

Line them up side by side and it becomes pretty obvious.

The Pies last year had the Daicos brothers, De Goey, Moore, Mitchell, maybe one or two more as acknowledged stars. But the Cats of 2007 had nine players named in the All-Australian team.

Even Geelong's dominant 2022 premiership team can't stack up in terms of pound for pound talent alongside the 2007 side.

Ablett, Scarlett, Bartel, Enright, Johnson, Chapman, Selwood, Mackie, Kelly ... that's just the cream on top.

I'd back those Cats of 17 years ago against any team which has come since, even the hat-trick Hawks of 2013-15.

But similarly, I'd happily tip those versions of Hawthorn against their successors on the premiership dais.

So does that mean football isn't as good now as it was?

Not at all.

Trading in a little star quality for a more even distribution of talent across the competition has given us nail-biting thrillers on a regular basis.

Just on one quarter of AFL games this season have been decided by single-figure margins.

You could almost expect to see a cliffhanger if you went to watch Collingwood over the last couple of years.

In some ways, the game has never been more exciting.

But with a little less star power, less depth and more susceptibility to injury and ill fate, even the best teams now are more vulnerable. Which means, obviously, that there's still plenty of twists and turns left in this AFL season.

You feel like whichever team ends up winning the 2024 premiership might not necessarily be the most-talented overall, but the one which manages to avoid the pitfalls and play to its optimum at the most important moment of the season.

Whoever it is may not end up being viewed as one of the greatest teams of all time.

But will they or their fans care in the slightest if they're standing on the premiership dais late in the afternoon of the last Saturday in September?

I doubt it.