Sydney Swans v Fremantle Dockers: AFL preliminary final - live

Key events

Q2: 17 mins remaining: Sydney 4.6.30 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans transition with ease – as I’ve been saying on repeat. Alex Pearce tries to clear the defensive 50 but is wrapped up in a James Rowbottom special. The midfielder slices his kick for a behind.

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Q2: 18 mins remaining: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

Caleb Serong wins the ball on the wing and bombs it forward. Jye Amiss gets his hands on the ball for the first time tonight as he slides across the arc to take a mark. Amiss mistimes the kick and Grundy stands tall in the pack to mark in the goalsquare.

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Q2: 19 mins remaining: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers win the centre clearance but the Swans pick up where they left off in cutting off the attack across half-back.

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The Dockers had their share of the ball with 90-81 disposals while the Swans edged the inside 50s 17-16. But the hosts piled on the pressure and were much more composed in their attacking half as they hit targets and booted four straight goals.

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QT: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans take a strong lead into the first change after four consecutive goals that might have been more if not for a couple of posters. The Dockers got off to a flying start but hardly fired a shot from there.

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Q1: 1 min remaining: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers have slowed things down with the first break now in sight. But the kicks around the 50m arc fail to find a free player.

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Updated at 06.18 EDT

Q1: 2 mins remaining: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers cut off a Swans attack at half-back. But a long kick down the line is too easy to defend. Perhaps an early sign of Longmuir’s side falling back into old habits.

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Q1: 3 mins remaining: Sydney 4.5.29 – Fremantle 2.1.13

Another opportunity for the Swans in what has really become a dominant quarter of football. Campbell scrambles a kick off the deck right on the goalline but gets his boot too far around it as the ball dribbles around the post.

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Q1: 4 mins remaining: Sydney 4.4.28 – Fremantle 2.1.13

Luke Jackson wins the centre clearance before Shai Bolton takes a grab just outside the centre square. The Dockers livewire slices his kick and just as they have done all night, the Swans go end-to-end with ease. Jesse Dattoli earns a free kick 30m and on a tricky angle. But the Swans have a second poster of the night.

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Q1: 5 mins remaining: Sydney 4.3.27 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers finally get the ball into their forward 50 but a miskick allows the Swans to force a stoppage and soon clear. A quick transition around the boundary opens up the Dockers defence. Tom Hanily is first to react as the ball bounces off a pack at the top of the square and a quick off the ground dribbles through.

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Q1: 6 mins remaining: Sydney 3.3.21 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers defence has had to dig in as the Swans keep peppering away just inside the arc. But the visitors have hardly been past the wing in the past 10 minutes as all the pressure is going one way.

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Q1: 8 mins remaining: Sydney 3.3.21 – Fremantle 2.1.13

McLean very nearly takes another pack mark but drops the ball as the umpire goes to blow the whistle. The Swans launch a second attack but the kick goes over the leading Curnow’s head and out for a throw in. The Swans are giving the Dockers a lesson on forward 50 entries.

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Q1: 10 mins remaining: Sydney 3.3.21 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers win the ball out of the middle but the hurried kick is cut off at half-back. The Swans slice through the corridor and Hayden McLean takes a strong pack mark. His shot crashes into the goalpost in a let off for the Dockers. But alarm bells are ringing.

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Updated at 06.00 EDT

Q1: 11 mins remaining: Sydney 3.2.20 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans go end-to-end around the wing to the arc where Campbell keeps the ball alive inside the boundary when others had given up on it. A smother off Curnow’s boot almost sends the ball the other way, but it ends up in the Swans spearhead’s hands to pick out Logan McDonald on the lead. McDonald goals and the Swans have three in a row.

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Q1: 12 mins remaining: Sydney 2.2.14 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers ease the ball forward from the goalsquare but are unable to find a target inside 50. Jye Amiss gives away a needless free for a push in the back in the goalsquare.

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Q1: 13 mins remaining: Sydney 2.2.14 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans find Papley inside 50 again as Judd McVee keeps giving him more room than would be advisable. The firebrand slices his shot through for a behind.

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Q1: 14 mins remaining: Sydney 2.1.13 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans are level after a fast start from the Dockers and that was all Tom Papley. The livewire wins the ball off the ruck’s hands from a throw-in and scrambles a kick forward. Both sides are unable to find a clean possession before a handball comes out from the bottom of the pack to find Papley standing 15m away to snap a goal. He sets off on a trademark run with arms swinging and fiery emotion written all over his face.

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Q1: 15 mins remaining: Sydney 1.1.7 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Swans surge the ball forward and with a couple of release handballs inside 50 Braeden Campbell finds enough space to snap the home side’s opening goal.

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Q1: 16 mins remaining: Sydney 0.1.1 – Fremantle 2.1.13

The Dockers go end to end and a long bomb into the forward 50 picks out Luke Jackson at the back of the pack. Brodie Grundy was all at sea in that marking contest in what might just be a taste of what’s to come.

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Q1: 17 mins remaining: Sydney 0.1.1 – Fremantle 1.1.7

The Swans finally show signs of settling as they look to get the ball in Errol Gulden’s hands. But the tireless midfielder is off target with his shot.

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Q1: 18 mins remaining: Sydney 0.0.0 – Fremantle 1.1.7

Josh Treacy sets the tone with a determined chase along the goalline to force Errol Gulden into a mis-kick. Neil Erasmus seals the deal to give the Dockers just the start they would have talked about.

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Q1: 19 mins remaining: Sydney 0.0.0 – Fremantle 0.1.1

Shai Bolton bursts clear from the middle in a repeat of how the Dockers started last week against the Cats. But the visitors can’t make the Swans pay in the same way as Jordan Clark kicks a behind.

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First ball-up

Brodie Grundy and Luke Jackson into each other in the centre circle as the AFL semi-final gets under way at the SCG. The Dockers knocks the ball back and the visitors win the first clearance.

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The Welcome to Country and Advance Australia Fair are sung and done. The captain’s Alex Pearce and Dane Rampe are taking their time to deliver one last reminder of their side’s key messages. We’re just a few seconds away …

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Here are the two lineups as named:

Sydney

FB: 29 Joel Hamling, 30 Tom McCartin, 24 Dane Rampe

HB: 15 Sam Wicks, 32 Harry Kyle, 27 Justin McInerney

C: 34 Matt Roberts, 21 Errol Gulden, 13 Jai Serong

HF: 44 Jake Lloyd, 6 Logan McDonald, 2 Hayden McLean

FF: 11 Tom Papley, 35 Charlie Curnow, 25 Billy Cootee

FOLL: 4 Brodie Grundy, 8 James Rowbottom, 16 Braeden Campbell

INT: 43 Lewis Melican, 12 Angus Sheldrick, 33 Caiden Cleary, 40 Tom Hanily, 9 Jesse Dattoli

Fremantle

FB: 6 Jordan Clark, 25 Alex Pearce, 21 Oscar McDonald

HB: 23 Karl Worner, 13 Luke Ryan, 5 Heath Chapman

C: 44 Matthew Johnson, 8 Andrew Brayshaw, 28 Neil Erasmus

HF: 32 Michael Frederick, 16 Murphy Reid, 39 Sam Switkowski

FF: 24 Jye Amiss, 35 Josh Treacy, 20 Patrick Voss

FOLL: 9 Luke Jackson, 3 Caleb Serong, 10 Shai Bolton

INT: 18 Mason Cox, 34 Corey Wagner, 26 Hayden Young, 17 Judd McVee, 43 Isaiah Dudley

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It would take a brave pundit to tip against Sydney tonight after their shock qualifying final victory against Brisbane. If the Swans can bring that same manic intensity and commitment to moving the ball forward at speed and at all costs, the Dockers will be up against. But they finished minor premiers for a reason.

With Errol Gulden and Shai Bolton among the players sure to light up the SCG, here is where I see the preliminary final being won – and lost.

double quotation markSydney have become renowned for their run-and-gun gameplan. But they have quietly been building a brand for the added intensity of finals as the top side for scores from clearance with a 14-0 record when they outscore the opposition from the source. Cox’s side dominated scoring from stoppage in their qualifying final as they restricted the Lions to their equal season-low of one goal from the source, while exploding out of the middle themselves for 39 points from centre clearances. Fremantle showed they can be just as damaging at scoring from centre clearance as they booted 45 points from the source in their semi-final against Geelong.

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Fremantle midfielder Caleb Serong is playing his 150th AFL match since being selected with pick 8 in the 2019 draft. The Dockers’ co-vice-captain won the AFL rising star award in his first season and has since claimed the club best and fairest in the past three seasons. But Serong will face a different sort of challenge tonight with his brother Jai playing for the Swans.

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Dane Rampe will play his 289th AFL game and 25th final for Sydney as he steps in for injured captain Callum Mills to lead the team. Two more wins for the Swans and their former co-captain will claim a place in history when lifting the premiership cup.

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Jonathan Horn is with me at the SCG tonight to report on this preliminary final, and has taken a deeper dive into how the Swans got here – all while their suspended players remained central to their story on and off the field.

double quotation markOur judgments, conclusions and outrages were clouded, though not necessarily tempered, by the fact that almost none of us knew what had happened in that hotel room. The anger turned towards a few tactless tweets and comments by pundits who make a living saying objectionable things. And it blunted something that was secondary to the police investigation but still relevant – this was an extraordinary sports story. It was a story of a club shorn of several of the best players in the competition, and which had claimed to have torpedoed its own season. It was something we’d almost never seen before in the sport.

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A quick reminder of how both sides have arrived at the preliminary finals stage since the home-and-away season was complete.

Fremantle might have had home ground advantage for this contest if not for copping a huge reality check when hosting a qualifying final against Hawthorn.

But the minor premiers returned to form when edging Geelong in a classic semi-final at Optus Stadium.

Sydney were widely considered to be central to the soft side of the finals draw after their side was significantly weakened when they suspended five key players for a breach of club standards. The Lions seemed to have got that same memo as they largely failed to show up as the undermanned Swans romped to a memorable qualifying final triumph at the SCG that booked them this home preliminary final.

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Final teams are in with no late changes.

Sydney have been forced to make two changes with luckless skipper Callum Mills sustaining a serious knee injury in the first term of the otherwise rousing qualifying final victory against Brisbane. Veteran defender Harry Cunningham has also been sidelined with a calf injury picked up in training. Justin McInerney returns for his first game since round 13 to bolster the Swans’ midfield though he will surely find it difficult to immediately recapture the career-best form he was in before suffering a significant hamstring injury. Reliable key defender Lewis Melican steps into the backline to help cover the Dockers’ three-pronged tall forward attack. But Joel Amartey will be watching on as the Swans back in Hayden McLean after the forward-ruck booted three goals against the Lions and with one eye on containing Dockers big man Luke Jackson.

Fremantle are unchanged from the side that overcame Geelong in the semi-final, with key defender Brennan Cox to instead play in the Wafl grand final for Peel Thunder on the road back from a calf injury. The Dockers resisted the temptation to hurry back Brandon Walker after the pacey defender injured an ankle in the qualifying final loss to the Hawks, even with Swans firestarter Tom Papley looming large over this clash.

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Preamble

Martin Pegan

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the AFL preliminary final between Sydney and Fremantle at the SCG. The Swans are one win away from the most unlikely of grand final berths after they banned five players – including three top-liners – a month ago for a breach of club standards. The Dockers’ path towards a first spot in the AFL decider since the club’s only visit to the Big Dance in 2013 was taking a much more traditional route as they stormed their way to the minor premiership. That was at least until they were blown off course in a horror home qualifying final defeat to the Hawks.

The undermanned Sydney finished as runners-up in the home and away season and – to the surprise of many, including yours truly – took a huge leap towards a third grand final in five years with a stirring triumph over the highly fancied Lions. But doubts remain over whether their galvanised group fired their shot in that qualifying final victory against the surprisingly complacent two-time reigning premiers to earn a home preliminary final.

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Fremantle naturally hoped to have home ground advantage for this, their most high-stakes game since a 2015 preliminary final, after winning a club record 19 matches during the home and away campaign. But the occasion got to the minor premiers as an inspired Hawthorn came out swinging from the opening ball-up at the same time as the Dockers players’ and fans’ expectations appeared to weigh them down in a humbling defeat. Justin Longmuir’s side bounced back with a tense win in a high-quality semi-final contest with the Cats to claim just their second finals win since reaching this same stage in 2015, and should give them a calming shot of confidence heading into this crunch clash.

The winner tonight will face either Hawthorn or back-to-back reigning premiers Brisbane in the AFL grand final at the MCG next Saturday. But for now, first ball-up at the SCG is 7.40pm local / 5.40pm AWST. I’ll drop in team news shortly. Meanwhile, shoot me an email with your thoughts and predictions. Let’s get into it!

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