AFL preliminary finals: Brisbane v Geelong teams and all the latest news
There’s been a surprise at selection for Saturday night’s preliminary final with Brisbane recalling a big-bodied midfielder to help combat Geelong’s engine room. See the full teams plus the final word from both coaches and the Cats’ plan for Neale.
Geelong
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Geelong coach Chris Scott is under no illusions about the importance of his sixth preliminary final after declaring “you would have to be a fool” to not expect fallout should his side be bounced out.
Ahead of what looms as a career-defining match for the coach against the side he played for in Brisbane, Scott admitted he was aware of the heat that could come for the Cats following a loss on Saturday night.
He and his team have lost their last four preliminary finals, including three in the past four years.
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Scott will take the same 22 that belted Collingwood last weekend into Saturday night’s preliminary final as it shoots for its first grand final appearance in nine years.
Ruckman Rhys Stanley jarred his knee in the closing stages in the semi final win, but the big man has been cleared to face Brisbane at the Gabba.
Meanwhile, Brisbane has added extra midfield grunt by bringing powerful onballer Cam Ellis-Yolmen into its 22.
Ellis-Yolmen, who has played just eight games this season, comes in for youngster Keidean Coleman in the Lions’ only change to the side that toppled Richmond in the qualifying final.
The Cats have lived a mantra of embracing the challenges of this season but Scott said he understood what could be ahead.
“Our view collectively is that you have no choice but to embrace (the pressure),” he said.
“You would have to be a fool not to be aware of the stakes and the repercussions and the disappointment that we would all face if we don’t get the job done.
“But that comes with the territory when you get to this stage of the year.
“We are honoured to have that right (to play off for a Grand Final spot) but it comes with a bit of pressure and I think the best way to face up to that is head on.”
For Lions coach Chris Fagan, it’s all about focusing on Saturday night.
“The last thing you can think about is the grand final. You’ve got to think about the game that you play,” Fagan said on Friday.
“If you start thinking about other things, you play with a bit more fear. We want to be fearless (on Saturday), so we’ll just focus on the process.”
As part of the club’s most successful era, Scott was on the Brisbane list but didn’t play in the last preliminary final played at the Gabba in 2002.
He said the irony of coaching against his old side at a venue where he played 114 matches wasn’t lost on him but there was a bigger job at hand.
“I never could have predicted that I would be coaching Geelong against Brisbane in a prelim final with the potential for a Grand Final at the Gabba the next week,” he said.
“Maybe one day in my life I will leave a bit of room for nostalgia but I am with the Cats and I am in the moment right now.”
The Cats will also be faced with a fierce and vocal Brisbane home crowd, which Scott expects to get loud.
“There is nothing wrong with the atmosphere there, in fact it is up there with some of the games that I have played in my career and I have played in front of big crowds in Grand Finals at the MCG.”
THE TEAMS
BRISBANE LIONS v GEELONG CATS
Saturday October 17, 7:40pm (edt) at the Gabba
LIONS
B: D.Rich, D.Gardiner, H.Andrews
HB: Z.Bailey, R.Lester, G.Birchall
C: H.McCluggage, M.Robinson, C.Ah Chee
HF: D.Zorko, D.McStay, C.Rayner
F: O.McInerney, E.Hipwood, C.Cameron
FOLL: S.Martin, J.Lyons, L.Neale
I/C: J.Berry, L.McCarthy, C.Ellis-Yolmen, B.Starcevich
EMG: K.Coleman, M.Hinge, J.Payne, T.Fullarton
IN: C.Ellis-Yolmen
OUT: K.Coleman (omitted)
CATS
B: J.Henry, H.Taylor, J.Kolodjashnij
HB: L.Henderson, M.Blicavs, T.Stewart
C: M.Duncan, J.Selwood, S.Menegola
HF: L.Dahlhaus, G.Rohan, G.Miers
F: G.Ablett, T.Hawkins, S.Simpson
FOLL: R.Stanley, P.Dangerfield, C.Guthrie
I/C: J.Bews, B.Parfitt, Z.Tuohy, M.O’Connor
EMG: T.Atkins, Z.Guthrie, E.Ratugolea, B.Close
No change.
CATS PLAN FOR LION KING
The Cats are considering clamping Brownlow Medal favourite Lachie Neale with a lockdown tag to quell his influence in Saturday night’s preliminary final.
A standout performer all season, Neale is seen as the engine of Brisbane’s midfield group.
After failing to touch the ball in the first quarter of the qualifying final against Richmond, he was influential in gathering 19 possessions and kicking a goal to lead his side to victory.
The Cats don’t traditionally employ a tag on opposition stars, but Cam Guthrie and Brandan Parfitt have played defensive roles at times this season.
Geelong midfield coach Matthew Knights said even if there wasn’t a hard tag to begin the match, should the All-Australian get on a roll the Cats could send a man to stand Neale.
“I think we will discuss (a tag) but we traditionally don’t play a heap of tag, even though Guthrie has done some really nice jobs for us this year on different players,” Knights said.
“Parfitt at times has played on opposition (midfielders) and gone to work.
“We tend to back ourselves in there and we will know our plan later in the week if we do go with (a tag).
“There are some teams that still favour the hard tag, we are a team that changes a bit. Sometimes we do go after the hard tag and sometimes there is that awareness of who their players are and who gets hot.
“Sometimes we do change it up when an opposition midfielder gets rolling.”
Neale was among Brisbane’s best when the two sides met in Round 6 as he gathered 26 touches and kicked a goal.
But Knights said he isn’t the only threat in the Lions’ midfield.
Geelong ruckmen Rhys Stanley and Mark Blicavs are set to be outsized by Oscar McInerney and Stefan Martin at stoppages.
“Their two ruckmen are underrated and (the Lions) play two ruckmen nearly every week, which gives guys like Neale and (Dayne) Zorko a really good look at the footy,” Knights said.
“They have quick feet around the contest and those guys are really damaging when they get out and moving.
“We saw against Richmond when they got out moving and got ahead of the ball at times they looked unbelievable.”
The Cats tuned up for the crunch final with a physical session under lights on Wednesday and with no fresh injuries this week, Knights said it was likely the team would be unchanged.
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TOMAHAWK HUNGRY TO WIN ANDREWS BATTLE
The hunger within Tom Hawkins is “as strong as ever” to lead Geelong to its first Grand Final since 2011.
The spearhead was brought into Geelong in 2007 as the club embarked on its greatest ever era and the forward played in premierships in 2009 and 2011 as a younger man.
Since those heady days, the Cats have come close to returning to the big dance in four preliminary finals but haven’t taken that final step.
Hawkins admitted he was “spoilt” in that golden run and has gained a greater appreciation as to how hard it is to win finals.
“That has evolved over the last six or eight years in terms of how lucky I was then and how lucky I am now to still be playing in a preliminary final,” he said.
“I get the opportunity to almost get there again, my hunger is as strong as ever and that is because I am 32 (years old) now and I know my career is at the later stages and who knows, nothing is given in football.
“You have got to make the most of the opportunities because they don’t come around very often.”
The Coleman Medal winner wasn’t able to take the opportunity in last year’s preliminary final A suspension forced him to watch on from the stands as his side lost to Richmond but he denied missing out in 2019 has added any fuel to his desire.
Hawkins was under fire last week after kicking 0.5 in Geelong’s qualifying final loss but answered back with a 4.1 performance Saturday night’s semi-final.
The hard work he put in on the track set him up to deliver again in the preliminary final against Brisbane.
“I got the work in, like anything if you are down in any part of your game you work on it, that is the environment that has been created around (the Cats group),” Hawkins said.
“We did some work (on Tuesday) out on the oval and that doesn’t necessarily mean I am going to kick well but I am really confident that given the opportunity, I am going to make the most of it.”
A healthy quirk for Hawkins this year has been his goalkicking at the Gabba, where the preliminary final will be played.
The forward has booted 16.4 in four matches there this year, almost matching his career record of 41.16 at the venue, yet he couldn’t nail why he is so accurate there.
“Maybe the posts are wider, I don’t know what it is,” he said.
GUTHRIE: CATS DRIVEN TO GIVE DANGER SUCCESS
— Nick Wade
Geelong midfielder Cam Guthrie has declared he is driven to help superstar Patrick Dangerfield win the elusive premiership that would fulfil his career.
Guthrie described Dangerfield as the AFL’s best player and “a real animal” in attack after his four goals led Saturday night’s mauling of Collingwood.
The Cats will sit down with the 30-year-old early this week to thrash out how much time he will spend forward in their preliminary final showdown against Brisbane.
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Dangerfield has often said he would not feel satisfied as a footballer if he retired without a flag despite a Brownlow Medal, eight All-Australian selections and four club best-and-fairests.
“He’s played really well in finals and as teammates, at least for me personally, I really want to deliver for him because he’s been a great player for us over the past five years,” the All-Australian Guthrie said.
“I would love to see him taste some success. It’s probably the only thing he hasn’t done in the game, so I would love to see him recognised with the ultimate reward.”
In Round 6, when the Cats overpowered the Lions with a third-quarter onslaught to win by 27 points, Dangerfield was a bedrock of the midfield, spending only 8 per cent of the game forward.
This year he has played 67 per cent in the midfield – on par with his past three seasons – and is largely deployed inside 50 to exploit opposition defences.
Utopia for Geelong is to have Dangerfield playing forward. Not only does he offer a ballistic target in attack, it means the Cats feel they are in control in the midfield without him.
Geelong has not lost any of the four matches this season where Dangerfield has spent more than half the game in the forward line, according to Champion Data.
“We look at how we can maximise Pat. I think he’s the best player in the AFL, so wherever he ends up going he is going to have an impact,” Guthrie said.
“Our midfield was on top in the clearances (on Saturday night) when Pat was forward, so that was working for us and we didn’t need to bring him back into the midfield, which was a bit of a luxury.
“I guess as a midfield group, without Pat, we want to have the flexibility where he doesn’t need to come back into the midfield. But if he wants to and the coaches see fit, he can come back, but we don’t want it to be out of necessity.”
Geelong’s semi-final team had an average age of 28.3 years and the clock is ticking for the seven players aged 30 or older.
The Cats have lost their past four preliminary finals – three of which Dangerfield played in – and this Saturday night confront Brisbane at a Gabba fortress that Geelong is adamant holds no fears.
Guthrie has been a mainstay of Geelong’s midfield over the past two years, evolving from a dashing halfback to engine-room specialist with his fast feet around the contest.
He said Dangerfield was such a dynamic player to have up forward.
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“I just love the way he goes about it up forward,” Guthrie said.
“I think there was a contest early in the second quarter where he just really took no prisoners and attacked the footy.
“He took two or three Collingwood players with him in the process and we ended up kicking the goal.
“Even if he’s not directly kicking the goal, he’s impacting the scoreboard and creating opportunities by just willing himself at the contest and being a real animal down there.”