Richmond Tigers vs Geelong Cats: AFL Finals live scores, blog

Premiership favourites the Richmond Tigers host fighting minor premiers the Geelong Cats in a Friday night blockbuster preliminary final at the MCG. Join The Roar for all the action, with live scores and a blog of the match from 7:50pm AEST.

Preliminary finals are arguably some of the best games of footy, and let’s hope this weekend’s action is no different. Sudden death here; the winner to play in the final game of the year, while for the loser the dream is over.

A fortnight ago, Richmond travelled out of Melbourne for the first time since Round 16, up to Brisbane for another battle with the young Lions.

The inaccurate Lions were beaten comfortably by the clinical Richmond Tigers, who looked like finals veterans out there. A 47-point victory and a week off, another brilliantly executed plan by Richmond.

Geelong, the minor premiers, have taken the longer road to this preliminary final.

After a week one loss to Collingwood, the Cats had to return to the MCG last Friday evening to host the West Coast Eagles.

The Cats were able to pull off an ‘upset’ of sorts with huge first and final terms, running out 20-point winners in the end.

There was one forced change at Geelong this week. Lachie Henderson is in for the suspended forward Tom Hawkins.

Hawkins made an off-the-ball strike on West Coast defender Will Schofield in the third term of last Friday night’s clash considered high contact, intentional conduct and low impact.

His one-match suspension was upheld at the AFL tribunal on Monday evening; the Cats’ party attempted to downgrade the conduct from intentional to careless, but were unsuccessful.

There were no changes in the Tigers’ camp, everyone who played against the Lions a fortnight ago is fit to tackle to Geelong.

Dylan Grimes plays his 150th AFL game this Friday evening; the premiership defender was drafted at pick 2 in the 2010 NAB AFL pre-season draft and was named in the All-Australian backline this year.

Grimes was also recognised by his peers as the AFL’s Most Courageous player, taking home the Robert Rose Award at the AFL Players’ Association’s MVP Awards in late August.

The last time these two teams met was back in Round 12 and it was the Cats who demolished a somewhat depleted Richmond line-up by 67 points.

The brutal performance by Geelong came when they were arguably at their strongest just before the bye, prior to their sea-saw second half of the season.

Richmond have had a vastly different run, the club has not dropped a match since a Round 13 loss to Adelaide, the weekend before their mid-season bye.

Prediction
After a week off, Richmond will return to the MCG ready to put behind them a shock preliminary final loss last year.

In their third consecutive Friday night final, this is by far the biggest test for the Cats. Can they halt their horrible win-loss-win-loss record post-mid-season bye?

It’s hard to see Geelong getting up here, particularly without Hawkins leading the attack.

Richmond by 23 points.

Venue: MCG, Melbourne
Time: 7:50pm AEST
TV: Channel 7, Fox Footy
Online: AFL App, Foxtel App, Foxtel Now, Kayo Sports
Betting: Richmond $1.35, Geelong $3.12

Richmond Tigers
FB: David Astbury, Nathan Broad, Dylan Grimes
HB: Bachar Houli, Nick Vlaustuin, Jayden Short
C: Brandon Ellis, Dion Prestia, Josh Caddy
HF: Daniel Rioli, Trent Cotchin, Kane Lambert
FF: Jason Castagna, Tom J. Lynch, Jack Riewoldt
Foll: Toby Nankervis, Shane Edwards, Dustin Martin
I/C: Ivan Soldo, Liam Baker, Jack Graham, Shai Bolton

Geelong Cats
FB: Lachie Henderson, Harry Taylor, Jake Kolodjashnij
HB: Mark Blicavs, Tom Stewart, Mark O’Connor
C: Sam Menegola, Joel Selwood, Tim Kelly
HF: Tom Atkins, Gary Ablett, Luke Dahlhaus
FF: Gryan Miers, Esava Ratugolea, Brandan Parfitt
Foll: Rhys Stanley, Patrick Dangerfield, Cameron Guthrie
I/C: Zach Tuohy, Jack Henry, Quinton Narkle, Jed Bews