Only four teams remain in the race to win this year’s AFL premiership and this weekend has thrown up what can only be described as a promoter’s dream preliminary final line-up.
Patrick Dangerfield and Brett Deledio will have the unenviable tasks of denying their former clubs a berth in next Saturday’s grand final, with the latter to play his 250th AFL game in what will be his first meeting against Richmond since leaving the club at the end of the 2016 season.
The Adelaide Crows and Richmond will enter their respective preliminary finals as the heavy favourites, both clubs having enjoyed a week off after wins over the GWS Giants and Geelong Cats in their respective qualifying finals.
However, their former favourite sons in Dangerfield and Deledio will look to prove their old clubs wrong by inspiring their present clubs to victory and a berth in next week’s decider.
Here is your ultimate preview to this weekend’s two preliminary finals.
[1] Adelaide Crows versus [2] Geelong Cats
Friday, September 22
7:20pm ACST
Adelaide Oval
Last meeting in a final: Adelaide Crows 11.10 (76) defeated Geelong Cats 9.14 (68), second semi-final, 1997, AAMI Stadium.
This season: Geelong Cats 13.18 (96) defeated Adelaide Crows 10.14 (74) at Simonds Stadium, Round 11; Adelaide Crows 13.13 (91) defeated Geelong Cats 10.10 (70) at Adelaide Oval, Round 18.
For the second consecutive year, the competition’s two best performed teams will face off in the penultimate weekend of the season in the first of the two preliminary finals.
While the Crows will enter Friday night’s match well and truly relaxed after defeating the GWS Giants by 36 points at home to earn the week off, things have not gone their way as far as injuries are concerned.
Defender Brodie Smith will almost certainly miss the majority of next season after suffering a knee injury in the first quarter of the match against the Giants, while forward Mitch McGovern is no certainty to face the Cats after suffering a hamstring injury during training.
However, star midfielder Rory Sloane is set to return after having his appendix removed on the eve of the finals, and his match-up with former teammate Patrick Dangerfield will be one to watch out for.
Dangerfield, last year’s Brownlow Medallist, proved instrumental as the Cats thrashed the Sydney Swans by 59 points in their semi-final last Friday night, the result putting to bed a week of criticism that came following their dismal qualifying final loss to Richmond at the MCG nearly two weeks ago.
Patrick Dangerfield of the Cats (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Defender Tom Stewart has become somewhat of a cult hero at the club, his second quarter heroics also proving pivotal to the result.
Now, the Cats will need to draw on all their finals experience if they are to reach their first grand final since 2011, but they will need to break a couple of hoodoos to do so.
Chris Scott’s men have never won an interstate final, coming closest when they lost to the Sydney Swans in the infamous 2005 semi-final where Nick Davis kicked the match winning goal with less than ten seconds remaining.
They also lost their only previous final against the Crows, when an eight-point loss at AAMI Stadium in 1997 saw the side (which also finished second that year) crash out of September in straight sets.
However, in their favour is a recent good record against the Crows, having won five of their last six matches against them dating back to the start of 2014, with the only loss coming in their most recent meeting back in Round 18.
Prior to that defeat, the Cats took the points when they met at Simonds Stadium in Round 11, winning by 22 points and extending the Crows’ winning drought at Kardinia Park to 14 years.
But will it be enough to see the Cats through to their fifth grand final since 2007, or will the Crows live up to the hype and book a berth in their first decider since 1998?
For the winner: for the Cats, a first grand final berth since 2011, or the Crows their first since 1998.
For the loser: Season over.
Prediction: Adelaide Crows by 20 points.
[3] Richmond versus [4] GWS Giants
Saturday, September 23
4:45pm
Melbourne Cricket Ground
Last meeting in a final: N/A
This season: GWS Giants 11.12 (78) defeated Richmond 10.15 (75) at Spotless Stadium, round 9; Richmond 9.10 (64) defeated GWS Giants 6.9 (45) at the MCG, Round 18.
The other preliminary final is set to be the biggest match the GWS Giants have ever played in their six-year history.
After four previous finals matches in either Sydney (three) or Adelaide (one), this will be their first ever final in Melbourne, where a crowd of over 90,000 Richmond fans are set to await.
Not only will the Giants be expected to play in front of what is almost certain to be the biggest ever crowd to watch them at an AFL-sanctioned ground, the match will also mark the first time Brett Deledio plays against his old club after being traded out of Punt Road Oval at the end of last season.
He had missed the two regular season meetings between the two clubs due to a calf injury which delayed his GWS debut until Round 20; he has since played six matches in a row, including his first finals win last week.
As if that wasn’t enough, the preliminary final will also mark his 250th AFL game, coming against the club whom he represented 243 times after being taken as a priority pick in 2004.
Ironically, he played his 200th AFL game for Richmond against GWS back in 2014, in the match where Jack Riewoldt kicked 11 goals, six more than what the entire Giants side managed on that horrid May afternoon three years ago.
Brett Deledio (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
For 11 years he proved to be a hero at Punt Road, but come Saturday night he will become public enemy number one as he looks to extend the misery of his former fans who haven’t tasted the ultimate success since 1980.
Another player expected to cop a barrage of boos is Toby Greene, who received a two-match suspension for striking Alex Rance in the clubs’ most recent meeting, won by the Tigers by 19 points at the MCG in Round 18.
The earlier match saw the Giants escape with a three-point win after Tiger Shai Bolton was denied what would have been the match winning goal after a review revealed it was touched off the fingertip of Harry Perryman.
The atmosphere set to await the Giants on Saturday night will be a significant departure from last week, when just under 15,000 fans saw them thrash the West Coast Eagles by 67 points in their semi-final.
It was a case of no Jeremy Cameron, no Shane Mumford, no worries, as the Giants hit back hard following their disappointing loss to the Adelaide Crows in their qualifying final at the Oval.
It also marked the fourth time this year alone that they had got the better of the Eagles, following a 33-point win in the pre-season, an eight-point win in Perth in Round 10 and a 21-point win at Spotless Stadium just last month.
It was the lowest-attended final in over a century, which could be attributed to several factors: an NRL semi-final being played next door at ANZ Stadium, as well as the opponent not being from Victoria, and the late starting time.
As for Richmond, this will be their first preliminary final since 2001, when they lost to an emerging Brisbane Lions side by 68 points at the Gabba, and first at the MCG since 1973.
For most of the last four decades, the vast majority of their fans have endured more disappointment than excitement, especially with only two finals appearances between 1983 and 2012 inclusive, a hat-trick of elimination final exits between 2013 and 2015, and several ninth-place finishes to boot.
However, after comprehensively thrashing the Geelong Cats in their qualifying final on September 8, Damien Hardwick’s men will start hot favourites to progress through to their first grand final since 1982.
Should this eventuate, it will break the AFL’s longest active running grand final drought, and if it is the Adelaide Crows the Tigers face in the decider, then all of Victoria will be right behind them as they were for the Western Bulldogs last year against the Sydney Swans.
For the winner: for the Tigers, a first grand final berth since 1982 (thus ending the V/AFL’s longest active grand final drought of any non-expansion club), or for the Giants their first ever grand final berth.
For the loser: Season over.
Prediction: Richmond by 13 points.
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