Opinion AFL 2025 Finals Week 3 - Weekend Wrap & Liked, Learnt, Hated PRELIMINARY FINALS EDITION

[Zevon]

Is there a more pure weekend of footy on the calendar than Prelim Finals weekend?? The four best teams in the comp going at it, with genuinely passionate fans in the stands instead of the corporate event-goers that show up on Grand Final Day. Love it. Anyway let’s wrap…

Cats v Hawks, Friday night: The Hawks brought their usual shock and awe strategy to start the game but they ran out of petrol all too quickly. The Cats sat back, weathered the storm, then absolutely bulldozed them! Powerful stuff from the best pressure team in the history of the universe (sorry, you had to be there). Patty Dangerfield, little more than a role player these days, played his selfless little role expertly… if that role was to be an unstoppable Superman that single handedly sends his side into another Grand Final! I will humbly admit I had no idea he still had that kind of performance in him - more fool me for thinking it was safe to write off a 56 year old. Too good again the Cats. Tom Stewart’s a big loss but they’re still worthy favourites going into next week.



Magpies v Lions, Saturday twilight: Every year we seem to get a wild momentum-swinging prelim, and this was the 2025 version. The Lions rampaged their way through the first term, only to watch on helplessly as the Magpies returned serve in the second. The third quarter had some gems… Will Ashcroft and Cam Rayner with a few brilliant goals, and Jamie Elliot with mark of the year finals series (surely this needs to be looked at, it’s not the first time the mark of the year has come in the post season). But it was the Lions with the best of it on the scoreboard, and the Magpies - with no Pendlebury who was gone in the opening minutes - had too much to do in the last term. What a footy team the Lions are. Three Grand Finals in a row! They’ll go into next week as underdogs but their best is good enough to beat anybody if they can find enough of it on the big day.



Don’t forget to post your Liked, Learnt, Hated below… along with any other thoughts you had about the Preliminary Finals!

 

[lethalselbow]

Mighty try for a flag by Collingwood. Old list and worth the gamble. Wonder what the off season holds? Who gets cut.

 

[Bunnings]

Is there a more pure weekend of footy on the calendar than Prelim Finals weekend?? The four best teams in the comp going at it, with genuinely passionate fans in the stands instead of the corporate event-goers that show up on Grand Final Day. Love it. Anyway let’s wrap…

Cats v Hawks, Friday night: The Hawks brought their usual shock and awe strategy to start the game but they ran out of petrol all too quickly. The Cats sat back, weathered the storm, then absolutely bulldozed them! Powerful stuff from the best pressure team in the history of the universe (sorry, you had to be there). Patty Dangerfield, little more than a role player these days, played his selfless little role expertly… if that role was to be an unstoppable Superman that single handedly sends his side into another Grand Final! I will humbly admit I had no idea he still had that kind of performance in him - more fool me for thinking it was safe to write off a 56 year old. Too good again the Cats. Tom Stewart’s a big loss but they’re still worthy favourites going into next week.

View attachment 2431902

Magpies v Lions, Saturday twilight: Every year we seem to get a wild momentum-swinging prelim, and this was the 2025 version. The Lions rampaged their way through the first term, only to watch on helplessly as the Magpies returned serve in the second. The third quarter had some gems… Will Ashcroft and Cam Rayner with a few brilliant goals, and Jamie Elliot with goal of the year finals series (surely this needs to be looked at, it’s not the first time the mark of the year has come in the post season). But it was the Lions with the best of it on the scoreboard, and the Magpies - with no Pendlebury who was gone in the opening minutes - had too much to do in the last term. What a footy team the Lions are. Three Grand Finals in a row! They’ll go into next week as slight underdogs but their best is good enough to beat anybody if they can find enough of it on the big day.

View attachment 2431903

Don’t forget to post your Liked, Learnt, Hated below… along with any other thoughts you had about the Preliminary Finals!

Slight?

Bet responsibly Zev, good luck

 

[Xtreme]

Liked:

Hawthorn put up a fight but couldn't do it over the entire four quarters. Still incredible effort in such a tightly contested season.

Learnt: Umpires are idiots
1 more game and the wait for footy to resume in 2026 begins.

Hated: Another grand final where I'd rather both teams lost

 

[Zevon]

Slight?

Bet responsibly Zev, good luck

Wowee, wasn’t expecting it to be quite so pronounced. I had to take the betting odds out of your post (we try to keep those isolated to the punting board instead of the main board) but yeah point definitely taken. Have edited the OP

 

[Randomizor]

Learnt: Contested ball winners are game changers in finals. If you can’t take a contested mark, you’re simply never going to be among the upper echelon

 

[Ian Dunross]

Liked, the two best teams meeting in the GF

Learnt, Nick Daicos is overrated

Hated, injuries costing blokes a chance at a flag

 

[Bunnings]

Wowee, wasn’t expecting it to be quite so pronounced. I had to take the betting odds out of your post (we try to keep those isolated to the punting board instead of the main board) but yeah point definitely taken. Have edited the OP

Nah definitely not picking on what you said!
I feel it’s much closer than the margin, perhaps come in through the week.

 

[Viceregal]

Liked: winning, beating Pies, GF 3 incoming ... oh and Fages beating Leigh for number of finals coached!

Learned: momentum matters and can turn on a dime (and the game ain't over at half time)

Hated: Berry going down, Zorks in the first half

 

[hoss]

So much gratitude to Geelong and Brisbane. Respect and thanks on behalf of the rest of the AFL world.

 

[Zevon]

Nah definitely not picking on what you said!
I feel it’s much closer than the margin, perhaps come in through the week.

All good, enjoy the week! Even if we get smashed every time we make it to a grand final I’m still envious of anybody who gets to be part of it

 

[Smotie2]

Liked Brisbane
Hated Collingwood and the umpiring

Learnt a long time ago that without the umpires colingwod are an average side at best.

After half time there was a seismic shift in the umpiring and I dare say there were some words spoken to them by AFL officials to tone down the bias.

 

[joe444]

Liked: Youngsters standing up: Sam Marshall, Jhye Clark ... both probably played their best games in their young careers. The former was steady early when more experienced players were rattled, the latter was asked to come on when the team was all at sea and held his own.

Hated: Interpretational rules. Let's have some more black and white stuff, none of these decisions based on "intent", "genuine attempt" or "eyes on the ball".

Learned: For the losers - you live by the sword you die by the sword. Thankfully, I live by an Aldi.

 

[Jeremy McLovin]

Liked: I actually got what I wanted from the results this weekend

Learnt: people don't actually know the rules, which is fair enough given how they're often adjudicated.

Hated: Brisbane probably don't need Allen. Hopefully they don't realise that.

 

[Gammalite]

liked : The 3 last Premiership winning teams contesting 2 Tough Prelims this week. (and the best emerging team)

Proving Geelong , Brisbane , Collingwood were there once again Not by chance, but because are GOOD winning Teams.

Learnt : Hawthorn is the Best of the New kids on the block , and are near ready to beat these 3 teams soon. (maybe

Hated : Age and wear and tear starting to catch up to Lachie and Pendles after years of amazing achievements by them.

 

[Angus Young]

The two Grand Finalists:

Both their captains absolutely standing up in huge high pressure games.

Dangerfield and Harris Andrews

31

Harris Andrews

Age

28

Ht

200cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.6

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

151.7

2star

D

17.0

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

4star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.0

3star

D

9.8

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

MG

94.0

2star

Both superstars and incredible captains.

 

[Ian Dunross]

Also liked, this Brisbane team and Fagan showing their character and quality. Have to be a great club and team to make 3 in a row.

Also learnt, McCluggage is elite. I know he's been elite for a season or so now, but in the absence of Neale, he stepped up again.

Also hated, nothing more, great weekend of footy.

 

[JackFlash]

Liked: Dangerfield showed us all what a "footballer" is, we don't see it very often from anyone these days, but what a performance it was, he's a bulldozer out there. I hope he has one more similar game in him?

Learnt: The Pies are definitely too old now, they will have to make some hard decisions in the next few weeks.

Hated: The loss of Tom Stewart has soured the victory a little, he will probably watch the GF feeling as good as he could be, but those are the rules at the moment. It was always going to happen with the concussion rule and unfortunately Stewart is the one player Geelong didn't want it to happen too.

 

[Mr Meow]

Liked: Zevon noticing Geelong's elite pressure.

Learnt: Zevon is able to identify elite pressure.

Hated: Being reminded of games where Zevon was unable to acknowledge Geelong's elite pressure.

 

[420]

Liked: footy season is almost over
Learnt: how many beers I can drink in one sitting before passing out
Hated: geelong and brisbane

 

[raskolnikov]

Liked: Hawthorn and Collingwood losing. The ideal weekend.
Hated: Both sets of supporters blaming umpires. Oh the irony.
Learnt: Geelong probably win the GF.

 

[Zevon]

Liked: Zevon noticing Geelong's elite pressure.

 

[Zevon]

Learnt: how many beers I can drink in one sitting before passing out

Well?? Don’t leave us hanging…

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Well?? Don’t leave us hanging…

Would have been perfect if their post had trailed off halfway through a sentence.

 

[Hawksboy72]

Liked: The lions 2nd half...when Collingwood had all the momentum the lions pushed back and said "not on our watch".
My Hawks...showed plenty of guts to try and stay with Geelong in the 2nd half when a 60+ point flogging looked on the cards.

Learnt: A "B" grade midfield ain't gunna win you sh7t, a few Hawks players are guilty of going missing in big games and are repeat offenders.
Collingwood has a 1 man forward line..forget the "Free Kick Cost Us" rhetoric...they kick 6 in the 2nd quarter and 4 in the other 3.

Hated: The absolute arse kissing commentry on Friday night and Saturday...Sweet jesus it was sickening.
The big fella getting 3 weeks....staggering.