Opinion AFL 2025 Finals Week 1 - Weekend Wrap & Liked, Learnt, Hated… FINALS EDITION

[BomberManU]

Learnt - or, want to learn: what's the deal with GWS? Stacked with talent, home final, show that they can play like the opposition aren't even on the ground, at times...but just cannot find consistency. Is Kingsley escaping scrutiny, or have there been mitigating circumstances?

 

[dean33]

Liked - suns win, just when it looked like freo had them they lifted again, showed real spirit and grit togoalongwith their undoubted talent.

Learnt - cars are the best team in it, made the next best in the lions look 2nd rate, their tackling and pressure was elite and unless something extraordinary happens it's another flag that will be hoisted upat the cattery.

Hated - Crows not handling the occasion, not just the players but nicks had a terrible game in the coaches box. Started when he spoke about how there will be lots of emotion in the game all week prior. The best coaches try and calm their players and be methodical, nicks just totally fluffed his lines.
Also the booing of Quaynor set a new low but wasn't unexpected, terrible night all round for the Crows.

 

[joe444]

Not copping that one.

Looks like I should look closer to home when contemplating who or who not has made wrong assumptions.

(albeit with a note that dean33's take about tackling/pressure is closer to the mark ... and that you do seem to be out on your own with the 'tepid' remark)

 

[VinnieB]

Liked: The umpiring on Thursday evening may have been the best umpiring exhibition for the season.

Learnt: Coaches have never been so important. Mitchell taking off Dear for more run, Hardwick bringing in Swallow, Scott and the tagging out of McCluggage.

Hated: Can’t say the same for the Friday game. Umpires should only pay frees they see, not guess what happened. No doubt the free paid to Raynor was a total guess, and could have changed the whole game.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Liked: Hawks showing their mental strength in the last.
Rayner’s settle down to the Cats fans.
Suns winning a big final on the road.

Loved: Newcombe announcing himself again in a final. Hardwicks last quarter. Impey’s run and gun.
Mac Andrew asking the question of his opponent.

Hated: Crows pathetic effort at home. Lions losing players to injury again.
Darcy Jones ACL

The long winded, rambling WTC in the Hawks Giants elimination final… I’m all for WTC, but man that went on… and on, and I was starting to worry that we’d see soft tissue injuries in the first after players had to stand there for so long after a warm up.

 

[joe444]

Tackles per opponent contested possession - FINALS WK 1 (wheelo ratings)​	​	​
GEELONG​	67%​	​
FREMANTLE​	54%​	​
GWS​	52%​	​
COLLINGWOOD​	48%​	​
BRISBANE​	47%​	​
HAWTHORN​	47%​	​
GOLD COAST​	43%​	​
ADELAIDE​	40%​	​

 

[Grumpyshades]

Enjoyed freo choking in a home final. Apparently, it was supposed to be an 'easy win'

For the thousands of Docker supporters who jeered, booed and celebrated an injured Harley coming off the ground...This is for you !!!

 

[dropbear101]

Enjoyed freo choking in a home final. Apparently, it was supposed to be an 'easy win'

For the thousands of Docker supporters who jeered, booed and celebrated an injured Harley coming off the ground...This is for you !!!

that was a poor moment by us, shouldn't boo someone whos injured.

But, don't take the moral high ground. you guys cheered gaff after he king hit brayshaw.



Also every freo fan is so traumatized. we assume that every game is a danger game. I think the media thought it was an easy win.

 

[Grumpyshades]

that was a poor moment by us, shouldn't boo someone whos injured.

But, don't take the moral high ground. you guys cheered gaff after he king hit brayshaw.

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Also every freo fan is so traumatized. we assume that every game is a danger game. I think the media thought it was an easy win.

whatever lie you guys need to cling to

 

[PerthBoy86]

Enjoyed freo choking in a home final. Apparently, it was supposed to be an 'easy win'

For the thousands of Docker supporters who jeered, booed and celebrated an injured Harley coming off the ground...This is for you !!!

Apparently the Crows (or insert x team you hate) are uniquely bad. Had any other side been in their situation, I guarantee they'd be booing Quaynor (not to excuse it). Fact is most supporters bases are as good and bad as any other, Freo not excepted

 

[Munich]

Apparently the Crows (or insert x team you hate) are uniquely bad. Had any other side been in their situation, I guarantee they'd be booing Quaynor (not to excuse it). Fact is most supporters bases are as good and bad as any other, Freo not excepted

What a load of rubbish.

Every other side would not boo him.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

-People crying about Crows fans booing. Geelong fans boo...is that ok with you? Wish our fans had the venom and passion of Crows fans. I know they are sooks but it's because they are so passionate. Love the Crows fans passion. What do people expect them to do after Collingwood players dob on Rankine and he gets five?? You want them to sit quietly or give around of applause for snitching? I understand we have become a boring woke country. Well done to Crows fans and well done to Quaynor, he absolutely handled it and responded the most professional way ever.

-Can I say welcome to country or will I get in trouble or fined.

I'm not really one for booing under any circumstances and didn't on Friday night. However, Rayner took a heel turn as it would be called in wrestling. He made himself the villain and then dialled it up. Good for him, well within his rights to make that choice. But in those circumstances, if a hostile opposition crowd wants to boo him, that's understandable.

Quaynor: they're booing him for being on the receiving end of a homophobic slur. That's getting into Adam Goodes territory, especially given how easily identifiable Quaynor is among the rest of Collingwood's team, so more in the crowd jump on to it, even if they don't know the reasons behind the booing ("The black guy is getting booed every time he touches it. I think I'll boo him too!"). That's not okay and no club could possibly think it is, nor would they tolerate it if the shoe were on the other foot.

And that's where it presents yet another interesting dilemma for the Crows. Because they want to create a cauldron for Friday night, they want their supporters booing Ginnivan. His antics and recent history at Adelaide Oval puts him in fair game territory. But that nuance between why booing Rayner was okay/part of the theatre, while booing Quaynor was not okay will of course be lost on the usual mouth breathers who comment on Facebook and we'll see the same brain-dead comments we saw ten years ago.

As for the Welcome to Country ceremony, coming from the position of someone who has had to organise several events where a Welcome to Country has been involved and not knowing if it will take up five minutes or fifteen minutes of the agenda I've always found it a bit rich to reach out to a traditional owner group to provide a WTC and then tell them how I expect them to welcome me. Of course the scheduling and planning by the teams requires a bit more precision, but I find it hard to believe that any issues couldn't be resolved with respectful discussions prior to the event.

 

[MCG-Unit]

Liked: Geelong, G Coast wins
Swallow
Docker v G Coast good match

Disliked: Welcome to the country
Darcy Jones injury

 

[Hawksboy72]

Liked: Pies on the road (always a good bet). Cam Rayner going full heel. Adelaide fans booing...(ads to the atmosphere every sport needs a villian team and fanbase).Hawthorn halting the GWS momentum (thought we were cooked). The Suns winning by a point how funny was that??.

Hated: Darcy Jones injury.

Learnt: id be extremely happy in my pants if Hawthorn somehow managed to get Finn Callaghan.

 

[Pistol Night]

Liked: Pies on the road (always a good bet). Cam Rayner going full heel. Adelaide fans booing...(ads to the atmosphere every sport needs a villian team and fanbase).Hawthorn halting the GWS momentum (thought we were cooked). The Suns winning by a point how funny was that??.

Hated: Darcy Jones injury.

Learnt: id be extremely happy in my pants if Hawthorn somehow managed to get Finn Callaghan.

Are you suggesting bringing happy pants back? Because this I can get behind

 

[Whiskers]

Apparently the Crows (or insert x team you hate) are uniquely bad. Had any other side been in their situation, I guarantee they'd be booing Quaynor (not to excuse it). Fact is most supporters bases are as good and bad as any other, Freo not excepted

Not really true at all.
During the height of the Goodes saga we were the only club not to boo him outrageously at Kardinia Park.

Yeah our fans aren’t as feral as most. Sure you get some but on the majority, yeah we’re better than you.

 

[Hawksboy72]

Are you suggesting bringing happy pants back? Because this I can get behind

Its what the world needs...

 

[Mr Meow]

Tackles per opponent contested possession - FINALS WK 1 (wheelo ratings)​	​	​
GEELONG​	67%​	​
FREMANTLE​	54%​	​
GWS​	52%​	​
COLLINGWOOD​	48%​	​
BRISBANE​	47%​	​
HAWTHORN​	47%​	​
GOLD COAST​	43%​	​
ADELAIDE​	40%​	​

Elite by Geelong as we already knew.

But geez that was poor by Adelaide in a home final. They should have been fierce.

 

[LightTower4]

liked - suns v freo
learnt - cats looking super strong, very impressive
hated - complaints about welcome to country,.... seriosuly, pull your heads in, if you find it annoying or offensive, you need to have a good look at yourself...how can a couple of minutes affect you with such vitriol

It’s less about the actual WTC and more to do with how convoluted it was.

 

[Zevon]

Looks like I should look closer to home when contemplating who or who not has made wrong assumptions.

(albeit with a note that dean33's take about tackling/pressure is closer to the mark ... and that you do seem to be out on your own with the 'tepid' remark)

All good mate I’m definitely out on my own on that one. I’ve eaten my words a few times earlier in the thread when I had the tackle count pointed out to me. Definitely did get that one wrong.

 

[joe444]

Not really true at all.
During the height of the Goodes saga ...

I must insist here that I hate the "our fans are better" cr@p that it is so easy to fall into but I am simultaneously proud of the Geelong crowd for not booing Goodes that night. Maybe there's something about still being a town-based team or something going on there .... Geelong has the largest ATSI population in Victoria, too. Booing may have felt more personal.

And on the flipside, I was also pleased to see our (mainly Melbourne-based) fans go Collingwood-level nuts on Friday night!

 

[andrew coombs]

I must insist here that I hate the "our fans are better" cr@p that it is so easy to fall into but I am simultaneously proud of the Geelong crowd for not booing Goodes that night. Maybe there's something about still being a town-based team or something going on there .... Geelong has the largest ATSI population in Victoria, too. Booing may have felt more personal.

And on the flipside, I was also pleased to see our (mainly Melbourne-based) fans go Collingwood-level nuts on Friday

My memory is that Geelong did what the AFL were timidly trying to avoid when this pitiful public bully job was going on. They put together a mini public campaign across the media appealing to THEIR fans to show a bit of humanity and stop acting like the pack of arseholes that many supporters of other clubs had shown themselves to be. The words of Joel Selwood and other senior Cats obviously worked for that weekend as the booing and abuse towards Goodes was greatly (not completely) reduced and there was optimism that the whole shameful thing may be running out of steam.But that wasn’t to be the case as Collingwood and Eddie awaited the following week.

My experience with Geelong fans is that they do have their fair share of ferals but definitely have a greater percentage of more laid back country folk for whom the result of the game is not sending them into a spiral of completely irrational depression or jubilation as it does at my and most other AFL clubs.

 

[joe444]

Oh and just to skewer the "tepid" "neither team brought the pressure argument" ... according to Fox Footy's pressure factor (fwiw), Geelong's was 201 ... that ranking is, apparently, "elite".

 

[WilloTree]

Liked - Alex Pearce

25

Alex Pearce

Age

30

Ht

201cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

1.8

4star

MG

106.3

2star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

6.0

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

0.8

3star

MG

103.2

2star

and Murphy Reid
Learned - insufficient intent is the worst rule and worst umpired rule in any sport on the globe.
Hated - holding the ball is a joke rule now. We all just except how shit it is. Identical instances get opposite rulings. Putrid.

 

[Whats a Battle]

Liked - Alex Pearce and Murphy Reid
Learned - insufficient intent is the worst rule and worst umpired rule in any sport on the globe.
Hated - holding the ball is a joke rule now. We all just except how shit it is. Identical instances get opposite rulings. Putrid.

Literally impossible to umpire correctly.