We’re into the endgame now.
18 became eight, eight became six, and now, with just two weeks to go for the AFL season, four teams remain standing in their quest to claim one of the most remarkable premierships ever won.
There are storylines galore, both out of a dramatic weekend featuring two stone cold finals classics, and as we look ahead to the final three matches of 2024.
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Do Port Adelaide, heavy underdogs, have a puncher’s chance against minor premiers Sydney, who they’ve beaten eight times in a row dating back to 2016 and smashed by 112 points less than two months ago? Did they, or Brisbane in their epic comeback to GWS, play their grand final in a semi final?
Naturally, the weekend’s biggest talking points have been Ken Hinkley’s post siren tirade at Hawthorn on Friday night, and then 24 hours later, the Giants letting a 44-point lead slip through their fingers in the choke to end all chokes.
But there are several other key stories that have flown below the radar amid the obvious drama, too.
Here’s what we learned from the second week of finals.
Harris Andrews is the luckiest man in Australia
The Brisbane captain ought to be thanking his lucky stars his late, high hit on Stephen Coniglio in the first quarter of their epic win over GWS wasn’t even deemed worthy of a mention in dispatches from Match Review Officer Michael Christian.
Plenty of players in 2024 have been banned after doing far less wrong than Andrews did in this incident: he arrived late, took his eyes off the ball, didn’t even attempt to spoil the footy, and collected with some degree of force with his forearm to the back of Coniglio’s head.
Careless conduct? Absolutely. High contact? Without question – the Giant’s head whiplashes noticeably as it pinballs from Andrews’ arm to Aaron Cadman’s hip, the latter blow doling out the most severe injury to Coniglio’s cheekbone and rule him out of the game.
It would have made for a fascinating test of the AFL’s high contact metrics whether Andrews’ role in Coniglio’s injury was deemed worthy of an upgrade under the ‘potential to cause injury’ clause from low to medium impact, and thereby trigger a week.
What was surprising – and a touch suspicious – was the lack of media attention from the broadcast outlets on the incident; Fox Footy, who usually lap up any possible controversy, didn’t even mention the incident at half time beyond updates on Coniglio’s injury, while Seven followed suit.
At the very least, the hit warranted a fine under Christian’s own MRO guidelines; at the very, very least, it merited an explanation of why he deemed Andrews to have no case to answer.
Yes, we want to protect defenders’ right to spoil, and yes, accidents happen. But this was properly clumsy by Andrews, both in real time and in slow-motion; it seems for all the world a classic case of a defender wanting to, by legal means, make an opposition player earn it.
It’s a problematic area of the game that players executing otherwise perfect tackles that lead to head contact with the ground often cop suspensions, whereas properly reckless, dangerous acts don’t – usually because they don’t result in injury, others, like this Andrews’ case, for less clear reasons.
Had Andrews taken the case to the Tribunal, as certainly would have been the case in the event of a ban, and the Lions legal team which twice this year has got Charlie Cameron off dangerous tackle suspensions had worked their magic again and freed him, then fine.
But it needed to be put to that ultimate test; that it didn’t exposed another loophole in the AFL’s supposedly stringent concussion-preventing laws.
Harris Andrews (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
The Giants just blew the best chance they’ll get
2024 marked the seventh time nine years the Giants have made it to the second week of the finals series at least.
For a team with consistently strong line-ups, and having never failed to win at least won final in each of their previous September berths, just one grand final – and a stinker at that – and zero premierships should be a bitterly disappointing return for a club which seemed on the verge of a dynasty back in 2016.
For obvious reasons, their semi final loss to Brisbane, having held a 44-point lead midway through the third term, is either the most devastating loss in their fledgling history, or a close second behind their narrow defeat to the Western Bulldogs in the 2016 preliminary final.
I’d argue, for several reasons, that this was the worst of the duo: not just because the despair is tinged with embarrassment at a finals choke that will live long in the memory, but because of the differing states of the 2016 and 2024 Giants.
The former team was one on the rise, which made a surprise run to the top four, stormed over Sydney in their maiden final, and just couldn’t get it done to make a play for a flag that would have come ahead of time had they triumphed in 2016.
These Giants are older, wiser, more battle-scarred… and fast running out of time.
Throw in their capitulation from a 21-point three-quarter time lead in their qualifying final loss to the Swans, as well as the absence of any properly dominant team in 2024, and it’s increasingly feeling like this was the Giants’ best chance yet to claim that elusive flag… and might also prove their last.
This is still a team with incredible talent across all lines; but Greene has looked significantly aged this season, Stephen Coniglio is banged up and borderline best 22 to start 2025, Josh Kelly and Lachie Whitfield are closer to the end than the beginning, and even Jesse Hogan, fresh off a career-best season and brilliant finals series, will be 30 before their first game next season.
Jesse Hogan lies distraught as Jack Payne celebrates Brisbane’s semi final win. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Two or three of those guns only need to drop by 10 or 15 per cent for Adam Kingsley to be left scrambling to replace their output.
The end comes for all team, good, great or otherwise; if 2025 does bring such a demise for the Giants, their semi final capitulation will officially have thrown away their best ever chance at the flag their array of talent has practically demanded for the better part of a decade.
Those two ‘dangerous tackle’ frees were absolutely there
Thank goodness they didn’t prove match-deciding in the end; because if Hawthorn had got up over Port Adelaide on Friday night, the two dangerous tackle free kicks the Hawks received in front of goal in the third quarter to spark them to life would still be being debated now.
First, Mabior Chol was run down from behind by Lachie Jones, who dragged him to ground and his head into the turf, instantly turning a definite holding the ball into a Hawks free as the Power fans screamed their disapproval.
Just minutes later, Dylan Moore appeared to drag Jase Burgoyne down with him to draw an identical free kick, his conduct causing Burgoyne to blow a gasket and the Power to give up a 50m penalty on top of the free and make certain of the goal.
If you want an idea of how toxic, and divisive, those two free kicks were in real time, please enjoy this ‘conversation’ on X between The Age journalist Peter Ryan and well-known umpire defender ‘Has the umpire made a bad decision?’
My take? Simple. Hate the player, not the game; the two free kicks are farcical, but absolutely there under the laws of the game.
Forget the spirit of footy, or the ‘feel for the game’ as Ryan puts it; the umpires are there to interpret the rules, and the rules have been clear all year: if you tackle, and your opponent’s head hits the ground, nine times out of ten you’ll give away a free kick, and more often than not you’ll be headed for a date with the MRO too.
Jones hasn’t been cited for his tackle – and rightfully so – and I’m far from convinced the list of alternatives the league and Tribunal have both expressed this season are fair on players. According to them, he shouldn’t have tackled if he couldn’t safely execute it – and given Chol’s speed and separation, a desperate lunge that took him off his own feet was Jones’ last option – meaning effectively, if he didn’t want to give away a free, he basically had to let Chol waltz into goal.
None of that is the umpire’s fault, though; it’s disappointing to see criticism firmly aimed at them for making a call that the AFL requires them to make.
Hopefully the league responds to the vitriol by locking in that umpire to officiate in the preliminary final, too. To not would be tantamount to saying that they stuffed up, which was absolutely not the case.
Ashcroft > Sheezel
A little over 12 months ago, a day after he suffered the knee injury that would end his 2023 season and eat into a large chunk of his 2024 as well, I declared that Will Ashcroft should still be crowned that year’s Rising Star ahead of Harry Sheezel.
My take was simple: while his stats weren’t as eye-catchingly spectacular as Sheezel’s, the No.1 draft pick had slotted so seamlessly into a core midfield role at the Lions that his remarkable consistency, brilliant skills and swathe of athletic attributes had been taken for granted quicker than any first-year player I’ve ever seen.
Being off-Broadway didn’t help – Sheezel was already the standout player in a poor North Melbourne team, while another freshman sensation, Nick Daicos, was strutting his stuff for the biggest club in the land.
So Ashcroft quietly went about amassing clearances, remained a key link in the most damaging midfield in the competition, and excelled time and again, until the footy fates conspired to rob him of a chance at a grand final the Lions might well have won with him available.
The same is true of this year: so seamlessly has the 20-year old returned from that injury, picking up right where he left off without even a single VFL match to get minutes into his legs, that it has taken something truly extraordinary for him to get noticed.
That being, of course, a Herculean performance to drag Brisbane over the line in their semi final win over Brisbane, one of the great September performances by a 29-gamer. We can’t overlook Will Ashcroft anymore.
With Lachie Neale tagged and both Hugh McCluggage and Josh Dunkley indifferent, Ashcroft kept the Lions in the game in the first half, with his desperate solo effort in the forward pocket to stave off an army of Giants and set up a Brisbane goal the most spectacular of his highlights.
Then he was front and centre in the comeback, dominating the clearances, driving the ball forward and pulling off one of the year’s more brilliant goal assists; fighting through a strong Lachie Ash tackle, he somehow managed to get boot to ball into the goalsquare, placing the footy perfectly for Charlie Cameron to volley home on the line.
I’m not going to lie: I feel vindicated that I felt this young superstar was the game’s best youngster 12 months ago, and am prepared to reiterate that, right now, I would pick him over Sheezel if I had the choice between them.
That’s not a knock on Sheezel, who is as brilliant as any 19-year old has any right to be: it’s more a mark on how highly Ashcroft ought to be rated.
If the Cats think they can put all their attention at stoppages into clamping Neale and restricting McCluggage, then they’re in for a rude shock.
Will Ashcroft. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
The jury is still out on Chris Fagan
It was fascinating to see the outpouring of delight and acclaim for Chris Fagan as he celebrated the Lions’ win with travelling fans after the final siren in Sydney; because it’s almost indisputable that, had they not overturned a 44-point deficit for one of the great finals wins, he would have received the lion’s share of the blame.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Lions won in spite of Fagan’s coaching; but in everything from his refusal to send Harris Andrews to a rampant Jesse Hogan despite Jack Payne being completely out of his depth and the Giants’ other talls successfully denying the captain the chance to get over and help him out, to the Lions’ continued struggles at defending in transition, to their poor pressure and at times baffling tactics at stoppages (Oscar McInerney’s indiscriminate hacks forward after taking it out of the ruck chief among them), he was getting a proper bath in the coaches box from Adam Kingsley, until he wasn’t.
Brisbane, really, have the best list in the game.
They lack for nothing – they have the best intercept-marking key defender in the game, an All-Australian half-back in Dayne Zorko, and a fine tall and small lockdown pair in Payne and Brandon Starcevich.
The midfield is chock full of superstars – Neale, Dunkley, McCluggage and Ashcroft would all walk into any team in the land, while Jarrod Berry is the ultimate Mr Fix-It equally capable of a run-with job as he is as a running wingman. Feeding them is one of the game’s more effective tap ruckmen in Oscar McInerney, who can go forward and take a good grab as well.
Then, up forward, you’ve got Joe Daniher and Charlie Cameron, two undisputed stars; the flashes of brilliance from Cam Rayner and Zac Bailey; and a bright future in the form of the electric Kai Lohmann and the impressive Logan Morris.
It’s the sort of team that makes you think maybe the Lions shouldn’t be needing to throw caution to the wind and mount a 44-point comeback in a semi final to begin with.
Finals wins of this magnitude are seldom criticised, and fair enough – but in the end, it was really more talent than tactics which got the Lions out of jail in the end.
The only real coaching move of note Fagan made that made a key difference was switching Zorko forward, where he bobbed up with two goals and was far more impactful than in defence with James Peatling breathing down his neck.
Like the Giants, Brisbane have had a fabulous run of success over more than half a decade now, and thanks to their comeback, are into a fourth preliminary final in the last five years.
That reflects superbly on Fagan, as does the Lions’ transformation from a team haemorrhaging talent in the Justin Leppitsch eras to a proper destination club attracting a superstar every two years (think Neale in 2018, Daniher in 2020 and Dunkley in 2022).
But with all that said, this is both a side good enough to have beaten the Giants without the need of the second-greatest comeback in finals history, and one that should comfortably take down Geelong in Saturday evening’s preliminary final.
Can they do it? Only time will tell.
The karma bus is coming for Ken Hinkley
I wrote on Friday night that Hawthorn, by virtue of the abrasive, arrogant manner they’ve embraced both on-field and off in 2024, had the sort of spray Ken Hinkley dished out to Jack Ginnivan coming.
It’s time to move on from the furore – the dust has settled, Hinkley has copped an outrageously hefty fine for a bit of banter, and both Port and Hawthorn seem keen to let bygones be bygones.
But it’s worth noting this: Hinkley, in doing what he did, has created exactly the rod for his own back that Jack Ginnivan did with his Instagram comment.
The Power coach sacrificed the moral high ground, as well as a substantial chunk of dignity; and he now heads into both a preliminary and, should they beat Sydney, grand final with a target hanging over his head.
He must know that anything short of a premiership, or at the very most a highly honourable grand final loss, will leave his team and himself a laughing stock. His grand final-less career record is only going to exacerbate the scorn that comes his way.
Ken Hinkley exchanges words with Hawthorn players. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Friday night was Hinkley’s turn to dish it out. But the footy gods remember, and karma has a way of biting you on the backside.
There’s every chance the Swans could force him to eat crow in their prelim. And he’d 100 per cent deserve it.