AFL Grand Final 2022 teams: Geelong and Sydney name line-ups for decider

Geelong has been warned it will be taking a huge risk by selecting Max Holmes for the Grand Final after his preliminary final hamstring blow.

Lauren Wood and Jay Clark

7 min read

September 23, 2022 - 3:22PM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

Sam Reid.

AFL

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Leading sports medico Dr Peter Larkins has warned Geelong is facing a huge risk in taking Max Holmes into the Grand Final.

As Geelong coach Chris Scott admitted the wingman is no certainty to play, the 20-year-old watched on as the team went through their final paces on the MCG on Friday afternoon.

Sydney is also weighing up a Grand Final gamble on forward Sam Reid who has battled an adductor issue, with Cats defender Jake Kolodjashnij saying his defensive outfit would look to “test out” Reid’s fitness.

Holmes suffered neural hamstring pain in last week’s preliminary final win and had an early morning fitness test on Friday where he hit his top running speed in a bid to prove his fitness for the premiership decider.

Larkins said the nature of Holmes’ concern was the major factor.

“Medically, history is against him, but the neural pain is the best hamstring problem to have and it’s maybe the reason he’s been named,” Larkins told the Herald Sun.

Max Holmes was named in Geelong’s team on Thursday night.

“If it was just that, that’s the best result possible, because you can actually take something to take neural pain away. You can’t inject hamstrings but you can take medication that stops nerves from being overactive.

Reid only completed light duties at the MCG on Friday.

Larkins said the nature of both players’ injuries was a significant quandary for the respective coaches.

“With a soft tissue injury ... a sore ankle, you strap it up and maybe some pain relief. Same with an AC joint,” he said.

“But the hamstring and the calf are the two standout soft tissue injuries and adductor is number three. They’ve both got the most common and the third-most common injury that players normally miss with.

“You don’t (throw out the rulebook), it’s just a bigger rulebook with slightly different chapters.

“You talk about rolling the dice and taking a chance — the dice sort of changes shape and become bigger.”

Holmes said he had been “pretty flat out” attempting to be ready to play.

“We’ll see ... how it unfolds (on Saturday),” Holmes said on Friday.

“I’ve been pretty flat out just trying to fix it up so I haven’t had too much time to think about what could happen, what might happen. I’m just taking every step at a time.”

Geelong coach Chris Scott said the young gun had ticked the physical boxes but a decision still had to be made.

“It’s absolutely not a no,” he said.

“We just need to make sure we spend the requisite time over the next little bit to work through whether he’s absolutely right and whether that it’s the best thing for us as a team.

“We haven’t made the decision just yet.”

Cats defender Kolodjashnij said the team was planning for Reid to play.

”We’ve got a really good running back six and we’re going to try and run off our opponents as best as possible and really test him out, I guess,” he said.

“Looking forward to that match-up.”

Dr Peter Larkins says Geelong is taking a big risk by naming Max Holmes.

LONGMIRE REVEALS TOUGH CONVERSATION WITH DROPPED SWAN

Marc McGowan

The man who could be a premiership captain by Saturday evening believes Logan McDonald’s cruel grand final axing could be the making of him.

With an injury cloud hovering over fellow key forward Sam Reid, the Swans made the tough call to drop McDonald in favour offorward-ruck Hayden McLean.

McLean hasn’t been in the senior side since playing the first eight games of the season.

Coach John Longmire declined to say whether Reid’s adductor issue, and the potential for him not to serve as the relief ruckman on Saturday, was a factor in McLean’s selection over the promising 20-year-old.

Whether he was playing games or not, Longmire declared Reid “ready to go”, meaning emergency McDonald’s hopes of a late reprieve appear dashed.

Logan McDonald waves to fans during the AFL Grand Final parade.

His omission was not a complete shock, given he managed a combined 10 disposals and one goal in Sydney’s two previous finals, on top of kicking only five goals across his past eight games.

But co-captain Luke Parker praised the way McDonald had taken the “heartbreaking” news.

“The boys have been pretty helpful with Logan. It’s one of the most heartbreaking positions you can be in,” Parker said.

“He’s got such a huge future at our club and hopefully this is just a small little step in the downward for him.

“He’ll take it hard but, at the same time, his attitude has been incredible. He’s still preparing like he’ll play – all week he’s trained like he’ll play and that’s been his attitude all year, whether he’s been playing reserves or seniors.

“He has big belief in what we can do and no doubt that will hold him in good stead in the future. It’s obviously really tough for him but the way he’s handled it has been incredible.”

Longmire conceded telling McDonald he wasn’t going to play in the grand final was “not easy” but said it was a decisionmade with the team’s best interests at heart.

“I’ve been on the other side of that as a player, so it’s not an easy thing to do,” Longmire said.

“He’s a terrific young player with a great future ahead of him, and we made the decision because we thought that was the best line-up for (Saturday) ... he’ll bounce back bigger and better.

McDonald made way for Hayden McLean.

“We just have to do the right thing by what the team needs.

“That’s where it starts and ends ... you need to give yourself the best chance in the circumstances we’ve got; to play against a team that’s finished two games clear on top of the ladder and been the dominant team all year.

“We need to get it right. We need to get it right at selection and we need to get it right in the way we play, so we know it’s going to be a huge challenge.”

TEAMS: SWANS AXE YOUNG FORWARD, REID AND HOLMES NAMED

Scott Gullan

Sydney has sensationally dropped young forward Logan McDonald while backing injured big man Sam Reid to play in Saturday’s Grand Final against Geelong.

The Swans have gone with Hayden McLean as the support act for Lance “Buddy” Franklin despite him not having made a senior appearance since Round 8.

McDonald, who has played 17 games this year, has struggled to have an impact in the finals having just four possessions against Melbourne in the qualifying final and then kicking one goal from six touches in the preliminary final victory over Collingwood.

Geelong has backed in young gun Max Holmes who is battling a hamstring injury suffered in the preliminary final win over Brisbane.

Max Holmes chats to Cameron Guthrie after Geelong’s preliminary final win.

The Cats have gone with an unchanged line-up, naming Holmes on the interchange with Irishman Mark O’Connor, who has been the medical sub throughout the finals series, named as an emergency alongside Brandon Parfitt and Sam Menegola.

McDonald, 20, is seen as the long-term replacement for Franklin who announced earlier in the week that he would be playing next season.

McLean, 21, has been out of favour ever since being an integral part of the team in the first half of the season. He played in the Swans Round 2 victory over the Cats at the SCG, kicking one goal from 11 touches.

All the focus has been on Reid this week with assistant coach Jarrad McVeigh saying the Swans were “pretty confident all week” he would recover from an abductor strain suffered in the preliminary final win.

The Swans had a closed session, which began shortly after 10am, on Thursday which was Reid’s first attempt at running since he was substituted out of the preliminary final with a right adductor scare.

Scans on Monday confirmed low-level damage to the muscle.

Sam Reid has been named to play in the Grand Final.

“(Reid’s) progressed really well throughout the week and we’ll see how he goes today at training,” McVeigh said.

“We’ve been confident all week. He was a bit sore throughout the game so we didn’t want to take any risks and we’ll just have to wait until today to see how he goes.

“He’ll do a bit of work and a bit of running and then we’ll see how he pulls up.

“He’s such a professional and he’s progressed really well through the week. He’s done his rehab protocols and his recovery work all week.

“He’s played in a few grand finals before so he understands the pressure that comes with it all. Obviously you want to be flying 100 per cent, but he’s recovered really well.

“So we’re really happy with the way he’s progressed.”

Reid is chasing his second premiership after lining up in the 2012 flag as a 20-year-old.

McVeigh said the Swans got “a bit of game state stuff wrong” in the preliminary final fadeout that saw Collingwood surge with the final three goals to almost pinch a grand final berth.

“We ball watched a little bit too much with guys floating in behind,” McVeigh said.

“So just little things like that we’ve tried to clean-up during the week. But we’ve always practiced since pre-season our gamestate and it may happen this week.

“When it’s tight you’ve just got to be calm. We back our leaders in to get the right calls made.”