Prime Video and Drive to Survive producer Box to Box’s ambitious four-part documentary attempting to encapsulate the AFL and its 2025 season has been released.
In writing this review of it, I’ll mention first off that I have only seen the first two episodes of Final Siren: Inside the AFL, but felt that was sufficient to understand the monumental task that was attempted and how it was executed.
That task being similar to Drive to Survive’s first season. Exposing an entire sport to a global audience, likely unfamiliar with it altogether; and now trying to do so in just four, 40-odd minute episodes.
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Toby Greene and his daughter in the documentary. Â Prime Video
Because of this, the first episode is a bit clunky. It starts with the overview of the sport itself and introduces the key figures it will be following, before zeroing in on GWS captain Toby Greene and Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli.
Before we get back to some of the issues with the first episode – you just need to stick with it – because episode two is outstanding; we’ll touch on that in a bit.
Greene and Bontempelli are, in a vacuum, two interesting figures to follow. The former being one of the more controversial stars in the competition, and the latter the league’s top dog, pun intended, in a contract year. And both have a well-documented and likely over-dramatised animosity toward one another.
The issue is, a lot of the best bits of GWS’ story in 2025 ended up being syphoned off for a separate documentary that the club themselves produced. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and not enough content to sufficiently feed both.
The doco attempts to humanise Greene and show another side of the league’s chief on-field antagonist.
Toby Greene in the documentary. Prime Video
It delves into his family life with his wife, daughter and mother. When the Giants skipper is suspended for elbowing Isaac Heeney late in the season, we see the fallout of that on his family, particularly via social media backlash.
We get some deep insight into his upbringing, including the shocking revelation that he once punched his own father in a GWS locker-room for being drunk.
It’s unfortunate that nugget was revealed in the days leading up to the release, because that was clearly the best part of episode one.
You could tell the documentary was attempting to build up to Greene and Bontempelli facing off in a crucial late-season game … and then the former’s suspension ruled him out of the match.
The Dogs won a one-sided, flat contest in his absence and there just wasn’t a lot to pick apart from that narratively speaking.
You see bits and pieces of the Giants’ comeback win over Sydney, but you get a deeper insight into that in No Holds Barred, the other GWS doco that has released this summer. Hence what I mean when I say the best bits were split between the two, which left neither feeling like the whole tale.
The Bontempelli side of the episode was … pretty placid? Pretty laid back? Just like the man himself, seemingly. It’s a bit harder to create storylines when you’re dealing with a chill Aussie bloke as opposed to European, millionaire F1 drivers with diva attitudes.
Marcus Bontempelli in the Prime Video documentary. Prime Video
They attempt to build suspense around whether he would re-sign with the Bulldogs, but there was just no real tension to it given it always felt inevitable.
Bont seems like a wonderful guy, without a heap of drama in his life. He runs a nice café. There’s just not a lot for the cameras to hone in on.
The episode finishes with a focus on the Bulldogs’ round 24 loss to Fremantle, which knocked them out of finals contention; and GWS’ elimination final loss to Hawthorn.
The documentary didn’t seem to know how much of the on-field product to commit to showing. When you watch Drive to Survive, a lot episodes focus on one or two races, but these two enormous games were skipped through pretty quickly to get to both protagonists walking from the field disappointed.
Which lends to the difficult balance of making a documentary that both appeals to someone who knows nothing about the sport and a rusted on nuffie like me.
Just like Drive to Survive, the doco uses a bunch of relevant personalities and media figures to tell the story as it unfolds. Former AFLW player Abbey Holmes and journalist Sam McClure get the heaviest usage, while you’ll also see Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis, podcaster Dylan Buckley, Collingwood AFLW captain Ruby Schleicher and journalist Josh Gabelich.
This was also a bit clunky in episode one, but worked better in episode two. Again, this storytelling mechanism probably appeals more to the casual viewer than the rusted on fan.
Jordan Lewis, one of the expert voices in the doco. Prime Video
But enough of that, let’s talk about episode two, because that’s where the documentary shines and is why I will be watching episode three and four.
It follows Fremantle great Nathan Fyfe and his battle to get his body right for one last tilt at a premiership and Melbourne captain Max Gawn in amongst the sacking of Simon Goodwin.
Episode two opens with the Fyfe story. A two-time Brownlow winner and arguably the dominant AFL player of the second half of the 2010s.
He reveals he has had 27 operations in his career, three concussions and battles depression and anxiety after every surgery. His injury issues have been no secret, but the sheer quantity of them was a bit startling to hear.
The 34-year-old admitted he would have retired at the end of 2024, but the Dockers had a team capable of winning its first premiership, and he wanted to be a part of that more than anything.
Fyfe grits his teeth through the 2025 season, but it doesn’t go to plan. The cameras capture the moment he injured his calf while warming up as a substitute late in the season. A moment he described as “embarrassing”.
He then cops a corked quad in a training drill and the aging superstar’s frustration is clear. His body simply won’t allow him to be the player he once was.
Fyfe is sent to the WAFL to play for Peel Thunder and prove his match fitness. The ground is flooding due to rain, it’s covered in mud and he once again admits he’s feeling a bit embarrassed to be there.
Fremantle’s Nathan Fyfe in the documentary trailer. Â Amazon
Abbey Holmes then dropped one of the funnier lines of the documentary thus far, calling Fyfe’s WAFL appearance “like LeBron James playing in the G League”. The talking heads haven’t added a heap thus far, but that got a good chuckle out of me.
He gets through the WAFL game and gets his chance as the substitute to close the season.
We don’t see any of Fremantle’s round 24 win to make the eight over the Bulldogs, which is an interesting choice, though it was covered from the opposite perspective in episode one.
Fyfe comes on as the sub in the elimination final shock loss to Gold Coast and has a few good moments, which we see from the perspective of his partner and friend in the stands.
Freo loses, his career is over, and we get some really great on-field shots of captain Alex Pearce in tears feeling like he has let Fyfe down.
Hand up. I got emotional. Well done documentary, you got me. Nice work.
That whole storyline almost should have been its own episode. The Gawn-Melbourne side of the episode is also quite good, but it feels like a lot was left on the cutting room floor to fit in both stories.
Max Gawn and Tom McDonald in the documentary’s trailer. Â Amazon
We see bits and pieces of Gawn and the Dees reacting to Goodwin’s sacking and follow them through their narrow round 24 loss to Collingwood, plus the aftermath in the changerooms.
Speaking to Wide World of Sport before State of Origin, Gawn said the Prime Video cameras followed them into a bunch of high profile meetings and training sessions during that month, but we only really got a few glimpses. Would have loved more of that in the final product.
If you love your footy, this is definitely worth a binge across the weekend. Episode two was fantastic. Everything you’d want from a top-class documentary telling the game’s story.
Max Gawn speaks during the trailer for the documentary. Â Amazon
Episode three focuses on Brisbane and Gold Coast, following Dayne Zorko and Touk Miller, before episode four goes deep into the finals series and the Lions going back-to-back.
I hope they put this together again during the 2026 season and learn from a few of the clunkier aspects of episode one.
The best bits were the deep dives into Fyfe’s final push to a flag, and Greene’s family life and backstory.
The weaker bits were the ‘secondary’ parts of both episodes, which felt a bit rushed and didn’t quite get the time to be fully explored, and the lack of potency in the Bontempelli side of episode one.
And the talking heads’ attempts to explain what was going on throughout both episodes left a bit to be desired; though they were clearly there for a more casual audience.
The Fyfe storyline showed what this documentary is capable of when everything is clicking.
I will certainly be checking out the final two episodes to get a full gauge on it.