According to the Age we've had a soft draw this year 
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/luck-of-the-draw-20120808-23unq.html
we have when you come from the perspective of and ask yourself how many of the eventual top 8 sides will we have played twice. at this stage only essendon and they may not even make it.
Playing devil's advocate and ignoring the fact that many clubs' form fluctuated greatly over the season this year (eg: North, Ess, Carl) so timing of when you played them was just as important as if you played them twice - an outsider would say we've had an easy draw this year. We've only played one of the eventual top 8 sides twice (Freo) with our record against the top 8 sides being 2-7 which I'd guess Dimma will use to reinforce his "F"-mark for the season. Ironically we've beaten the top 2 sides convincingly but lost to the rest.
Assuming we finish above Essendon on the ladder next week at the end of the H/A:
Record against sides above us: 3 - 9
Record against sides below us: 8 - 2
So based on that we've ended up on the ladder where we deserve to be and it shows including % that we've improved to get close to and pish all the way the top 8 sides but we ain't good and polished enough yet to beat them.
