![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fb57f7795fae6a5aad8188d8614c18bb6ab4487c.jpg\")
Camera IconMatt Rowell of the Suns celebrates kicking a goal. Credit: Matt Roberts\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\nFremantle will host Gold Coast in a twilight elimination final as the AFL has locked their week one finals fixtures after the Suns\u2019 record belting of the Bombers.<\/p>\n
Following their upset loss to Port Adelaide on Friday, the Suns had to win on their home turf to ensure they would not cough up the chance to make their first finals since the club\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n
That was secured early as they dominated from the outset, kicking their second-highest first-quarter score for the season, jumping to a 40-point margin at the first break.<\/p>\n
All eyes turned to percentages to see if the Suns would jump Hawthorn into seventh, but they never gave an indication they were going to \u201cmassage\u201d the score, as they claimed the biggest win in club history in a 23.15 (123) to 8.10 (58) smashing.<\/p>\n
It means the Dockers will now host Gold Coast on Saturday, September 6, in the second elimination final, at 5.35pm<\/p>\n
Their crushing win also officially ended Western Bulldogs\u2019 season, who needed the Bombers to cause an almighty upset to scrape through while Hawthorn will face Greater Western Sydney in the first elimination final.<\/p>\n
Gold Coast have never beaten the Dockers at Optus Stadium in three attempts, including a 20-point defeat against Justin Longmuir\u2019s side in their most recent match-up in the west last year.<\/p>\n
However, former captain Touk Miller said they would not be overawed by the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable, it\u2019s been 11 years for me and longer for others to get ourselves into a position to play finals,\u201d he said post-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no ceiling for where we can go; we travel all the time, so it\u2019s nothing new, it doesn\u2019t matter how far we\u2019ve got to go, we just have to get the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a hostile crowd, it\u2019s going to be fun and I know the boys will be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Suns are an \u2018easier\u2019 match-up than Hawthorn on paper, Longmuir was confident they would get the job done regardless of their opponent.<\/p>\n
Camera IconMatt Rowell of the Suns celebrates kicking a goal. Credit: Matt Roberts\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not barracking for anyone,\u201d he said earlier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve been able to do is build a style of footy that is able to be adaptive to the opposition we play against (and) game situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost clearances at times this year, but we\u2019ve been able to rely on our ball movement. We\u2019ve won clearance and been able to lock the ball in and play a front-half game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building a style of footy that is flexible and adaptable to different weeks, different games, different quarters, in some sense. The maturity of the group and a bit more flexibility in the team has added to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
FINALS WEEK 1 FIXTURES<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE V COLLINGWOOD<\/p>\n
Thursday, Adelaide Oval, 4.30pm<\/p>\n
GEELONG V BRISBANE<\/p>\n
Friday, MCG, 4.30pm<\/p>\n
GWS GIANTS V HAWTHORN<\/p>\n
Saturday, ENGIE STADIUM, 1.15pm<\/p>\n
FREMANTLE V GOLD COAST<\/p>\n
Saturday, Optus Stadium, 5.35pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle will host Gold Coast in a twilight elimination final as the AFL has locked their week one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,10124,43,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-100915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-fremantle-dockers","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}