Geelong used to be notorious for being asleep at the wheel after a bye, and for about 45 minutes last night it looked like it might cost them an AFL elimination final. They were dragging their heels, badly beaten up around the ball and missing shots they would normally gobble up. When Carlton jumped out to a 21-point lead, they had the 10 leading possession winners on the ground.
But the Cats finally got some cohesion and fluidity in their game, with their fleet of small-to-medium hybrid players – Gryan Miers and Brad Close in particular – finding space and using the ball well. As the rain teemed down and the legs got heavier, Geelong began to look like the superior side. And Patrick Dangerfield began to bend the elimination final to his will.
Dangerfield had been a crucial player when Carlton dominated early. His snap around his body in the first term – in the same part of the ground where he terrorised Hawthorn in the preliminary final last year – helped keep the Cats in the contest. But he was magnificent in the second half.
Geelong is a team that relies on craft and guile . Dangerfield brings raw horsepower. He impacted contests he had no right to get to. He would see an opening, put his head down and steamroll any Carlton player in his path. He blew the game to bits in the final term, finishing with five goals. He could easily have kicked two or three more. With five minutes remaining, he sat on the bench like a man waiting for a bus, his job done, his opponents bowed, his reputation burnished.
The longer this game went, the more Carlton began to resemble a team that had finished 10th in the home and away season . Off a six-day break and off a six-month rollercoaster, it was no surprise and no disgrace that they went down to the Cats. Earlier in the year, they would seize up in the latter stages of games . On this occasion, it was simply a case of a team that had fired all its bullets, and finally met their match.
Their winter resurgence is something that will be remembered for years to come. “We don’t want to be a club that’s satisfied with mediocrity and finishing eighth,” coach Josh Fraser said the defeat at the MCG. But the fact that nearly 97,000 people turned up to watch them is testament to how many supporters they brought along for the ride . Many of those same people were criticised for being part of the problem when former coach Michael Voss was sacked .
Geelong now travel to Perth, and will fancy their chances after what Fremantle dished up in a humbling loss to Hawthorn on Thursday night. The Dockers had earned the right to host two home finals . They’d answered every challenge. But they hadn’t experienced pressure like this. And they bottled it. They were blinded by the lights. There’s no other polite way of putting it. They were fumbly, nervy, rudderless.
Some of it was because of the occasion, the expectation, the hype. Some of it was because of the slippery ball. But much credit should go to the opposition, who bore down on them, squeezed them, harassed them, spooked them. It wasn’t madcap, headless pressure. It was standing on the right spots, closing down at the right speed, zeroing in on Fremantle’s strengths and weaknesses. We knew these Hawks would handle the occasion. The entire club lives for nights like that. But the team itself was so disciplined, so skilful, so assured in the way they moved and controlled the ball.
Related: Hawthorn stun Fremantle and record Perth crowd with qualifying final win
Hawthorn set up a security detail in the middle of Optus Stadium to deny Fremantle their preferred path to goal. But their tall defenders in particular deserve enormous credit. The Fremantle trio of Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Patrick Voss have been so good all year (and they were excellent at this in 2025 too) at creating separation, at offering three distinct threats for opposition defenders. But Hawthorn’s backmen sucked them in and picked them off. They prevailed in every one-on-one contest that mattered. They made the Dockers lead in clumps of three. By the third term, they were slamming into and tripping over one another. The aggression and the swagger were gone.
Three-quarter time at Fremantle home games have been cause for great optimism this year. No matter what the scoreboard says, they always back themselves to mow teams down. It’s like Collingwood at the back end of 2022 and into 2023. But the Fremantle crowd, which has been such a major factor this year, to the point where the AFL trademarked their signature activation, descended into a kind of sullen silence. Now they face a Cats team that can smell blood and that has worked its way into some ominous form.
But the Cats finally got some cohesion and fluidity in their game, with their fleet of small-to-medium hybrid players – Gryan Miers and Brad Close in particular – finding space and using the ball well. As the rain teemed down and the legs got heavier, Geelong began to look like the superior side. And Patrick Dangerfield began to bend the elimination final to his will.
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Jonathan Horn at the MCG. Published 4 Sept 2026, 12:48 pm.
