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2026 AFL GRAND FINAL (all times AEST)<\/p>\n
FREMANTLE DOCKERS v BRISBANE LIONS<\/p>\n
Saturday September 26, 2:30pm at the MCG<\/p>\n
Dockers\u2019 preliminary final side<\/p>\n
B: J.Clark, A.Pearce – C, O.McDonald<\/p>\n
HB: K.Worner, L.Ryan, H.Chapman<\/p>\n
C: M.Johnson, A.Brayshaw, N.Erasmus<\/p>\n
HF: M.Frederick, M.Reid, S.Switkowski<\/p>\n
F: J.Amiss, J.Treacy, P.Voss<\/p>\n
FOLL: L.Jackson, C.Serong, S.Bolton<\/p>\n
I\/C: J.McVee, C.Wagner, H.Young, I.Dudley, M.Cox<\/p>\n
EMG: B.Cox, C.Scerri, J.O\u2019Meara<\/p>\n
Team Tips: After Justin Longmuir\u2019s side went in unchanged last week, the big selection dilemma at Fremantle is a potential Brennan Cox recall. The defender was pulled from the WAFL grand final following Fremantle\u2019s preliminary final win and will now push to return after a calf injury has sidelined him for the club\u2019s finals campaign. Cox has been a stalwart in Longmuir\u2019s defence but Oscar McDonald has now essentially taken his spot in the Dockers back six and made that spot his \u2014 having played every game since Round 20 including each of the club\u2019s three finals. If they went with Cox, McDonald is probably the unlucky one to make way. If not, the positions of Judd McVee and Corey Wagner are probably the next two up for discussion. But you sense Freo\u2019s preference would be to maintain its current structure and not go any taller against Brisbane\u2019s dynamic forward line and glut of small\/medium forwards. From that perspective, Brandon Walker is sitting there as an option to come in. Jeremy Sharp (27 disposals) was named Simpson Medallist as best on ground in Peel Thunder\u2019s premiership win, but it\u2019s hard to see the midfielder getting recalled. The same goes for Sean Darcy and his chances of replacing Mason Cox, who\u2019s made that backup ruck spot his. Chris Scerri and Jaeger O\u2019Meara were Freo\u2019s other emergencies with Cox for the prelim.<\/p>\n
Freo fire back at home in finals charge | 02:58<\/p>\n
Lions\u2019 preliminary final side<\/p>\n
B: T.Gallop, H.Andrews – C, R.Lester<\/p>\n
HB: D.Wilmot, D.Gardiner, D.Zorko<\/p>\n
C: J.Berry, W.Ashcroft, Z.Bailey<\/p>\n
HF: C.Cameron, L.Morris, O.Allen<\/p>\n
F: E.Hipwood, C.Rayner, K.Lohmann<\/p>\n
FOLL: D.Fort, J.Dunkley, L.Neale<\/p>\n
I\/C: S.Draper, J.Fletcher, H.McCluggage, L.Ashcroft, C.McKenna<\/p>\n
EMG: L.McCarthy, C.Curtin, B.Reville<\/p>\n
Team Tips: A huge watch on Lachie Neale as Brisbane fights to overturn the dual Brownlow medallist\u2019s suspension<\/a> at the tribunal to free him to play in Saturday\u2019s decider. If the Lions are successful and Neale gets off, it\u2019d be hard to see Chris Fagan making any changes to his unchanged preliminary final side that narrowly outlasted Hawthorn. If not, there\u2019s a few directions Brisbane could go. Perhaps the most obvious is recalling Noah Answerth if the defender has overcome an ankle injury that sidelined him for the prelim. It would require a structural reshuffle but Fagan might want the extra lockdown defender against Fremantle\u2019s high-powered forward line, plus Brisbane has plenty of midfield coverage. By the same token, Bruce Reville could come in and play any role required. If they wanted more firepower, Lincoln McCarthy, named an emergency in the prelim, is sitting there and might for a more seamless restructure, given how much flexibility Brisbane has with its forwards\/midfielders. The reality is that Neale isn\u2019t a player you can simply replace and there\u2019s no like-for-like. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a huge watch on Lachie Neale as Brisbane fights to overturn the star\u2019s ban. Plus the selection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-899745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899745","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=899745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}