\n Collingwood had the momentum but Brisbane had the will to wrest it back and head to the Grand Final\n <\/p>\n
Players after the Preliminary Final between Collingwood and Brisbane at the MCG, September 20, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
THEY call it the premiership quarter for a reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collingwood had Brisbane on the canvas at half-time. Six goals to zip in a second quarter onslaught gave Magpies supporters a reason to dream about next Saturday.<\/p>\n
MAGPIES V LIONS All the highlights and stats<\/a> Jarrod Berry had just been subbed out of the game after dislocating his shoulder again, impacting a midfield already without dual Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ty Gallop, Kai Lohmann and Josh Dunkley all spent extended stints in the rooms either side of the main break, but you can never count Chris Fagan\u2019s team out.<\/p>\n Collingwood will endure a long summer scrutinising what went wrong in the second half of Saturday\u2019s preliminary final, especially in the game-shifting 15 minutes after half-time.<\/p>\n The Magpies conceded seven goals to two in the third quarter, where Brisbane resuscitated its dying premiership defence that was shocked back to life with three goals in the first five minutes of the second half. \u00a0<\/p>\n In a game decided by 29 points, that was the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zac Bailey got them going again when he swept through a stoppage inside 60 seconds, before Will Ashcroft drilled a brilliant goal on the run from the pocket in front of the Shane Warne Stand. Then Ty Gallop made it three goals in five minutes. The champs were off the canvas.<\/p>\n Cam Rayner\u2019s first kick of the game arrived 12 minutes into the third quarter and resulted in a goal to extend Brisbane\u2019s margin to 11 points. When the game breakers got going, Collingwood couldn\u2019t withstand the brilliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Magpies were called too old, too slow after the Opening Round horror show at Engie Stadium. This wasn\u2019t about age on the big stage, although it didn\u2019t help that Scott Pendlebury \u2013 the oldest player in the league at 37 \u2013 was subbed out of the game after just five minutes due to a calf strain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brody Mihocek dislocated his toe against Adelaide in the qualifying final and didn\u2019t have an impact on Saturday, finishing scoreless and with just one mark to his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeremy Howe hadn\u2019t completed a game since June 28 and only just made it back in time for the penultimate weekend of the season from an adductor tear \u2013 after being subbed out of his previous four games \u2013 and it showed, particularly early. The game is too quick to miss that much footy at this time of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jamie Elliott was exceptional, again, backing up his brilliant qualifying final with four more goals, plus one of the best marks of the season to make a point to the All-Australian selectors who overlooked him in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 32-year-old cult figure almost dragged Collingwood back into the game with two third-quarter goals, in what could prove to be his final performance in the black and white as he weighs up a sea change on the Gold Coast to end his AFL career.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finals are about moments. Elliott took his, but others in the black and white stripes didn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brisbane did. That was the difference in the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gallop finished with three goals in just his fifth game. Ashcroft and Rayner both kicked two goals in the second half in a patch where the Lions kicked 11 goals to four.\u00a0<\/p>\n It all started in the five minutes after half-time, just when Collingwood looked on course for another Grand Final.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now Brisbane heads to its third Grand Final in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood had the momentum but Brisbane had the will to wrest it back and head to the Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-156915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156915","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=156915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
MATCH REPORT\u00a0Lions roar into Grand Final after proving too good for Pies<\/a>
ANALYSIS\u00a0The 15-minute period where it all went wrong for Pies<\/a>
DEFINING MOMENT The single act of desperation that sums up Brisbane’s season<\/a>
CHRIS FAGAN Neale pushing for remarkable return, wait and see on Berry<\/a>
CRAIG MCRAE Pies ‘won’t stand still’ in bid to improve, wait on veteran pair’s contract calls<\/a><\/p>\n