That will give those sides in the box seats plenty of time to start preparing for their September assaults. And there's one team that will benefit more than the others, namely the newest kid on the finals block.

If you're still having trouble getting your head around the prospect of Greater Western Sydney being a major player in this year's premiership race, as one-hit wonder Roger Voudouris put it, you'd better get used to it.

GWS have one of the more comfortable draws of the top-eight aspirants. Of their remaining nine games, just two – West Coast and North Melbourne – pit them against top-eight rivals. The Roos, in contrast, had six of nine before Thursday night's game. Meaning GWS are not only a finals lock, but a very real top four chance.

Dizzy stuff. And to that end, the Giants better get used to it. Because while their flag rivals all have potential weaknesses and issues to address before the finals start, GWS' might be more how they deal with their own inexperience at the caper than any structural or game style issues. As a club as well as a team.

If finals are a step up from the home and away rounds, and grand final day another step again, the Giants are soon to be plunged into very unfamiliar territory on and off the field.

Take crowds, for example. In 101 games in AFL company, GWS have yet to play before a crowd of more than 50,000. Only three times have they played in front of more than 40,000. The 46,737 who turned out to Adelaide Oval for their game against the Crows in round 10 is their biggest audience to-date.

They've played at the MCG just 10 times and won once, against Melbourne two years ago.

And on the field, the comparisons are stark. Premiership line-ups have been more seasoned than ever in recent times. In fact, Hawthorn's flag-winning 22 last year was the oldest premiership team the game had seen, with an average age of close to 28 and average games experience of 166.8 games per player.

That's more than double what the Giants bat at in 2016, even with 200-game players such as Steve Johnson, Ryan Griffen, Heath Shaw and Joel Patfull. Without Johnson and Shane Mumford in the side last weekend, GWS had an average games tally of just 78.2.

In the modern era, Collingwood of 2010 and Hawthorn of 2008 have been popularly viewed as exceptionally young premiership teams. Yet even they were considerably more experienced than the Giants.

The Hawks of '08 had an average games tally of 106.4. Even Collingwood in 2010, a younger side than the Hawks, had notched up more than 100 games each, their overall tally 100.2.

You have to journey back to 1998 to find a team whose games average was lower than 100, Adelaide at 85.5 when the Crows took their second flag in a row. The previous year, when they upset St Kilda, Adelaide's grand final team was even rawer, with a games average of 72.

That made the Crows the least-experienced premier of the AFL era. And it's their example, and an even earlier version of Adelaide, that should at least offer the Giants some September encouragement.

The comparisons between this season and 1997, as well as Essendon's famous "Baby Bombers" premiership in 1993 have been made more than once, and are becoming more pertinent by the week.

Both those years featured no stand-out teams, the Bombers themselves able to top the ladder in '93 having been in 11th spot a third of the way through the season. Adelaide in 1997 had finished the home and away rounds in fourth, but were behind two teams in St Kilda and Geelong who had each dropped seven games.

They were good years for young sides to be having a crack at a flag. And another inexperienced team from 1993 – Adelaide again – might also provide a pointer.

Like GWS this year, that was the Crows' first appearance in a finals campaign. They were more raw even than Essendon, with a games average of barely more than 50 per player. And after bowling over Hawthorn then losing a second semi-final to Carlton, they were 42 points up on the Bombers at half-time of the preliminary final.

While the inexperience did prove costly in the finish, just a couple more goals and a fraction more steadiness would have put them on the grand final stage.

The sort of steadiness on which the Giants can now work, safe in the knowledge that as early as June, their historic first finals appearance has already as good as been sealed.