…and then there were four.
They say the Preliminary final weekend is the best footy weekend of the year, but what did we get from Week 2 of the 2022 AFL Finals?
Plenty of thrills, spills, upsets, comebacks and farewells.
We’ve put it all together in our five-leg multi of hindsight that we like to call AFL 5 Lessons Learned.
(1) Why not Brisbane?
Chris Fagan has obviously hired the witch doctor to end a few hoodoos for the Brisbane Lions.
The Lions finals record of 3-5 under Fagan isn’t looking too bad now as Brisbane ended a long MCG drought – and what a way to do it, beating the reigning premiers.
When the Demons led by 28-points at the main break, most pundits thought that a Cats v Demons prelim was inevitable but the Lions efforts in the second half was some of the best finals football pressure any team could muster.
Missing key players like Joe Daniher and the Big O in Oscar McInerery, it was the effort of fill-in ruckman Darcy Fort who managed to keep big Max Gawn at bay, including a ripping goal in the third quarter.
Now Brisbane faces a selection delima heading into a Prelim – one of the best problems any team can have at this time of the year.
Brisbane will meet Geelong in a preliminary final for the second time in three years and both sides have played in some cracking contests in recent times.
How the Lions will be able to tame the likes of Tom Hawkins and big Jezza Cameron up forward, but it seemed the Brisbane back line found their mojo again in the second half on Friday night.
Much attention will be on Jarrod Berry’s appeal of his one-week suspension at the tribunal this week, but he’s cleared you would assume he’d be the man to handle Patrick Dangerfield.
But how will the Cats handle Lachie Neale?
These two sides met last in Round 4 last season when the Cats won a thriller by 10-points over the Lions at GMHBA Stadium with Tom Hawkins booting five.
If this year’s finals are anything to go by, we should be in for another beauty.
Geelong are the $1.30 favourites with the Lions underdogs at $3.50
” text=”Cats v Lions”](2) The Dees failed.
If we had written in one of these five lessons learned in the middle of the year that Melbourne would exit the finals in straight sets, our comments section would have blown up and many would have questioned any credibility that this blog has.
Well, Melbourne did just that.
In the second half of the season, the Demons won six – lost eight and saw their season end in straight sets.
Pressure dropped, form dropped and the rest of the competition didn’t fear them.
Melbourne went from grinding out games before going bang…but it seemed to be a case of half-time fadeouts with just about every Demons loss following the same script.
It’s not a Dee-naysty, just yet anyway.
Winning one premiership is hard. Let alone back to back.
The Demons still have plenty of talent and the footy department will have plenty to work with in their post season reviews.
Other dynasty teams such as Geelong, Hawthorn and Richmond didn’t go back-to-back after drought breaking premierships so it would be foolish to think that Melbourne is one and done.
However, season 2022 will go down as a missed opportunity.
(3) Why not Collingwood?
What can you say about Collingwood that hasn’t yet been said already?
The Pies have all the makings of a Richmond-like team, and I don’t mean the Tigers, I mean AFC Richmond with their real-life Ted Lasso – Craig McRae.
Everyone knows that Fly would be the kind of coach that would have a “BELIEVE” sign hanging on the wall at the Lexus Centre (or whatever it’s called these days)
This Magpie fairytale just keeps on delivering, the Pies took care of Freo in front of an adoring Collingwood army of 90,000 at the MCG.
Jordan De Goey proved his worth and dominated, everyones favourite Jack Ginnivan along with Brody Miocheck got the job done up forward and a touch of Diacos magic made the game never in doubt for the Pies.
They head up to Sydney on Saturday who, when they last met, the Swans pipped the Pies 11 straight wins, with a De Goey-less Mapgies.
Sydney opens the betting as the $1.44 favourites with the Pies a solid $2.85 underdog.
(4) Flagmantle isn’t happening.
Perhaps Flagmantle was the friends we made along the way?
When Collingwood piled on the quick goals before half-time not to mention the incredibly one-sided Magpie crowd at the MCG, the Dockers never stood a chance.
There’s still plenty of talent with Caleb Serong, Lachie Shults and Andrew Brayshaw in the Freo ranks and perhaps Flagmantle might be a chance in 2022.
However, this particular lesson is more a tribute to Freo fan favourite and just about everyone elses (minus Richmond fans) – David Mundy.
His 376-game career came to an end on Saturday night it was truly a marvelous stint for one of Freo’s favourite sons.
It’s just a real shame that Collingwood matchday MC spent most of his time interviewing a player rather than acknowledging Mundy as he walked off the ground for the last time – a real clanger that.
(5) Flight Hacks
With many Collingwood fans planning on making the trip to Sydney for the Preliminary final the inevitable jacking up of the flight prices has come into play with some Melbourne to Sydney return flights coming in at around the $1300 mark.
However, if you’re savvy enough, some Magpie fans might want to fly to Canberra and then take the 3-hour bus trip to Sydney.
For instance, if you took the Qantas 7 am flight to Canberra QF1512 which lands just after 8 am – the airfare is $286 one way, took the 10 am Murrays Bus to Sydney which would get you there at approx 1:15 pm for a $50 fare, giving you plenty of time before the 4:35 pm bounce.
How you get back or where you stay is up to you, but otherwise you’re welcome.