Geelong and Hawthorn will rekindle their mouth-watering rivalry on Friday night in an MCG preliminary final, each side now just one win away from a grand final berth.

And Friday’s clash started with a bang as the Hawks hit the scoreboard hard before the Cats were rocked by the exit of their vice-captain.

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In a massive blow for the Cats – and an even bigger blow should they reach the 2025 AFL Grand Final – superstar Tom Stewart was ruled out with concussion, meaning he won’t feature next Saturday should they qualify.

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Alarmingly for Hawthorn, Mabior Chol could be in hot water for the tackle that injured Stewart – putting his own grand final hopes at risk should the Hawks make it.

“Massive news for Geelong,” Fox Footy’s Jon Ralph said.

Cats star Tom Stewart was left in agony.Source: FOX SPORTS

“(Stewart) been subbed out with concussion and clearly would miss a potential grand final.

“We worried about a wrist injury. Very quickly as he left the ground it was apparent he had a wobble in his step.

“Only minutes later, he was ruled out by Geelong.

“This is exactly the kind of incident we worried about with the pre-finals bye instead of a pre-grand final bye.

“Mabior Chol will be looked at given the concussion. It is a pinned arm tackle – the AFL asks a player to release at least one of those arms.

“A huge blow for Geelong.”

Despite the loss of Stewart, it was the Cats who fought back from 21 points down to take a one-point lead into the main break.

Watch it live on Fox Footy (channel 504), and streaming on Kayo, from 6:30pm AEST.

Follow our live coverage of the Second Preliminary Final between Geelong and Hawthorn below!

Grinning Ginnivan grabs early goal! | 00:45

The Cats had earned their spot in the penultimate round of the 2025 fixture thanks to a cruising 38-point victory over reigning premiers Brisbane in their qualifying final, leaving them primed and refreshed for tonight’s do-or-die match.

14 is the eye-watering number of times Geelong has reached this stage of the finals in the last 19 years, however recently the fixture has been a daunting one for them.

Six of Chris Scott’s last eight preliminary finals have been losses dating back to 2013, with wins only in 2020 and 2022 — the latter their most recent premiership.

As for Sam Mitchell’s Hawks, they’ve reached the final four the long way around. A heart-stopping elimination final win over GWS in western Sydney set them up superbly to roll over Adelaide in a semi-final last Friday night.

It won’t feel like it to a lot of rival fans, but this is actually Hawthorn’s first preliminary final appearance in a decade — with straight sets finals exits in 2016 and 2018, before their most recent finals cameo last year where they were heartbreakingly knocked out by Port Adelaide with a three-point loss.

Both sides enter tonight’s match unchanged from their last, with Jack Ginnivan and Jack Gunston passing fitness tests on their hamstring soreness at Hawthorn.

And despite heavy speculation emergency Rhys Stanley would be a late inclusion for the Cats, the veteran ruck has not been called upon.

The winner of tonight’s match will play one of Collingwood or Brisbane in the grand final next Saturday afternoon.

The first bounce will hit the MCG turf at 7:40pm AEST in Melbourne, with Jhye Clark (Cats) and Changkuoth Jiath (Hawks) the starting substitutes.

PRELIMINARY FINAL TEAMS

CATS

B: C.O’Sullivan, S.De Koning, J.Henry

HB: M.O’Connor, T.Stewart, Z.Guthrie

C: J.Bowes, M.Holmes, O.Dempsey

HF: B.Close, S.Mannagh, T.Stengle

F: S.Neale, J.Cameron, P.Dangerfield (c)

FOLL: M.Blicavs, B.Smith, T.Atkins

I/C: L.Humphries, O.Mullin, G.Miers, J.Martin, J.Clark (sub)

EMG: R.Stanley, J.Bews, O.Henry

HAWKS

B: J.Battle, T.Barrass, B.Hardwick

HB: J.Impey, J.Sicily (c), M.D’Ambrosio

C: K.Amon, J.Ward, D.Moore

HF: J.Weddle, M.Chol, N.Watson

F: J.Gunston, M.Lewis, C.Macdonald

FOLL: L.Meek, J.Newcombe, C.Nash

I/C: J.Scrimshaw, J.Worpel, S.Butler, J.Ginnivan, C.Jiath (sub)

EMG: J.Serong, C.Mackenzie, N.Reeves