The AFL ladder tells lies. Particularly at this time of year, and especially in a season where head office has performed some incredible logistical and linguistic gymnastics to have us three weeks in, but with only two rounds officially played, making it tough to figure out how good or bad teams really are.

Nevertheless, the ladder alleges that the AFL’s two best sides are from Sydney. And on the evidence so far, even accounting for the mismatched sample sizes caused by “Opening Round”, it’s hard to argue.

The Swans are flying. The Giants are flying. Both teams are 3-0 and, according to bookmakers, they are the second-favourites and favourites respectively to win the premiership. The possibility of an all-Sydney grand final is real.

Not that it’s a shock – most sensible observers had them as top-four challengers or better. The surprise is they’ve lived up to the hype.

The Swans scraped into the finals last year. Looking back, it was the form recession they had to have. Their impressive wins over Melbourne and Collingwood were followed on the weekend by a trouble-free smacking of Essendon. Isaac Heeney was again the star, and he’s blossoming into the player everyone thought he could be with his full-time shift into the midfield – where, soon, coach John Longmire will have to squeeze in three All-Australians in the form of captain Callum Mills, Luke Parker and recruit Taylor Adams when they return from injury.

Forward of the ball, there are options everywhere – if not tall trio Logan McDonald, Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean, then one or both of Tom Papley or Will Hayward can bob up and kick a bag of goals.

Tom Green’s Giants and Isaac Heeney’s Swans are on fire.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

There is, perhaps, no better measure of Sydney’s confidence than Papley’s puff-chested appraisal of Essendon’s “facade” of physicality, which he called out in three post-match interviews.

The Giants have not faced the same level of opposition – Collingwood aside, obviously – but they can only beat the teams in front of them, and have doled out beatings to North Melbourne and West Coast accordingly. They have won their first three games of the season for the first time in their short history, and it is hard to find a fault in their system, from the irrepressible Tom Green in midfield, to the security of the Sam Taylor-led defence, to their embarrassment of riches in attack, so multi-functional that Toby Greene can have a quiet afternoon and they can still win by 10 goals without looking like getting out of first gear.