AFL rules out MCG switch for Fremantle Dockers ahead of rugby clash

FREMANTLE has been assured it will host a home final at Patersons Stadium, with the AFL ruling out Eddie McGuire's suggestion the game be shifted to the MCG.

Dockers v Saints

FREMANTLE has been assured it will host a home final at Patersons Stadium, with the AFL ruling out Eddie McGuire's provocative suggestion the game be shifted to the MCG.

The fixturing of a potential home semi-final for the Dockers in week two is a major headache for the league, with Patersons Stadium booked for a rugby international on Saturday, September 14.

As the Dockers continued to lobby the AFL for next weekend's second qualifying final against Geelong to not be played at Simonds Stadium, league spokesman Patrick Keane confirmed Fremantle would get to host any game it earned at Subiaco.

Fremantle finished the regular season in third position after a second-string outfit was belted by 71 points by St Kilda yesterday, with the Dockers narrowly avoiding a major embarrassment after the Cats beat Brisbane by just one point.

Should Fremantle lose against Geelong next week, it will host a semi-final at Patersons Stadium on Friday, September 13.

"It is our intention always that teams that have earned the right to host a final in their home state, will host it," Keane said.

If the Dockers defeat the Cats, the rugby problem will be averted because they would get a week off before hosting a preliminary final, likely on Saturday, September 21.

The AFL's stance will ensure Fremantle cannot be robbed of a home final, as happened to West Coast twice under the old MCG contract rule in the 1990s.

The Dockers' controversial decision to field a 'B-team' against the 16th-placed Saints could have cost it a coveted top-two spot and home qualifying final if the Lions had won.

Fremantle elected to rest its star players, believing the top-two was out of reach because Geelong would not lose to Brisbane.

The Cats won by a point.

McGuire, the Collingwood president, said this week the Dockers should be stripped of their home final if fixtures for other sports compromised the breaks between matches for AFL teams.

"If they've sold their ground, there's an empty place called the MCG, so it's bad luck for them," he said.

"Last year's finals were compromised. Hawthorn finished on top and got a six-day break because of mucking around for the same reasons. The AFL mucked this up and they got beaten in a grand final by five minutes."

The Magpies, who play their final regular-season fixture against North Melbourne today, want to play their elimination final next Sunday, before a potential semi-final the following Saturday.

Collingwood is likely to be forced to play its elimination final on Saturday (because of the rugby dilemma) before another six-day break, if it was required to play the Dockers in a Friday night semi-final in Perth.

WA Football Commission chairman Frank Cooper said the AFL had known for a year about the Wallabies-Argentina rugby match on September 14 and had agreed to fixture any football finals around the rugby.