Q1: 9 mins remaining: Fremantle 4.1.25 – Geelong 1.1.7

Fremantle have learned the lessons from their qualifying final defeat to Hawthorn as they look to move the ball with speed rather than falling back into the slow and sideways movement of last week.

Q1: 11 mins remaining: Fremantle 4.1.25 – Geelong 1.1.7

Shannon Neale has perhaps the most pleasant kicking action in the game. But Cats’ fans won’t have enjoyed watching that one as the key forward hooks a shot from within range.

Q1: 12 mins remaining: Fremantle 4.1.25 – Geelong 1.0.6

Hayden Young takes a mark inside 50 but slices the set shot from just inside the arc. Young Geelong ruck Mitch Edwards would like his time again after failing to impact the contest as the only big man in the vicinity.

Q1: 13 mins remaining: Fremantle 4.0.24 – Geelong 1.0.6

Fremantle open up Geelong on transition with Murphy Reid scrambling the ball forward and Shai Bolton launching another long bomb to get over the last line of defence. Zach Guthrie does well running back with the flight of the ball to prevent a Isaiah Dudley mark inside 50, but Michael Frederick picks up the crumbs and goals.

Q1: 14 mins remaining: Fremantle 3.0.18 – Geelong 1.0.6

The finals heat is dialled up with intense pressure making the footy hot and kicks now missing targets. The Cats have the ball in their forward half but can’t get a sight on goal.

Q1: 15 mins remaining: Fremantle 3.0.18 – Geelong 1.0.6

Danger signs early for Geelong. And just the moment for their skipper to step up. The Cats scramble the ball to their 50m arc just inside the boundary where Patrick Dangerfield receives a handpass from Shannon Neale, scoots a few steps away from the boundary and launches a bomb to continue the blistering start.

Q1: 17 mins remaining: Fremantle 3.0.18 – Geelong 0.0.0

The Dockers win the ball out of the middle again but the Cats defence pick off Bolton’s kick inside 50. A quick transition from the Cats is turned around by their former defender Jordan Clark who sliced through the centre square and kicks over the last line of defenders to Patrick Voss. The firebrand forward barely had a touch last week. But he has an early goal and the Dockers are rocking.

Q1: 18 mins remaining: Fremantle 2.0.12 – Geelong 0.0.0

Shai Bolton has two and the Dockers are flying. Luke Jackson wins the centre clearance again, this time with Bolton’s help in the middle. He gets on the end of the chain and slams home the Dockers’ second from outside the 50m arc. The Cats are two goals down and yet to have a possession.

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Q1: 19 mins remaining: Fremantle 1.0.6 – Geelong 0.0.0

Shai Bolton gets the Dockers on the board. And he is pumped! Caleb Serong is all class after the Dockers get the first inside 50 and their midfielder picks out the goalsneak for the opener. Just the start the Dockers needed.

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First ball-up

Luke Jackson and Mitch Edwards fly into each other in the centre circle as the AFL semi-final gets under way at Optus Stadium. And the Dockers ruck hacks the ball forward.

The national anthem and Welcome to Country are sung and done. Dockers captain Alex Pearce and Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield have tossed the coin. Hells Bells is ringing out for the top of the grandstand at Optus Stadium. And it’s time to buckle up to see if Fremantle can rise to the occasion against Geelong …

As though Fremantle and their fans need a reminder of how their grand plans fell apart last Thursday at Optus Stadium – but with the first ball-up just a few minutes away, quickly catch up on how we ended up back at the same venue this evening …

Nick Watson produced his usual bag of wizardry tricks and James Sicily led a rock-solid defence as Hawthorn ended Fremantle’s perfect home record in brutal fashion with a stunning 32-point qualifying final win in Perth. The Hawks kicked six goals to one in a dominant first half in Thursday night’s clash to set up the 10.12 (72) to 5.10 (40) win and secure a home preliminary final.

Related: Hawthorn stun Fremantle and record Perth crowd with qualifying final win

Jonathan Horn will be reporting on this Fremantle and Geelong semi-final after being at the MCG this time last week as the Cats knocked out the Blues.

When Carlton jumped out to a 21-point lead, they had the 10 leading possession winners on the ground. But the Cats finally got some cohesion and fluidity in their game, with their fleet of small-to-medium hybrid players – Gryan Miers and Brad Close in particular – finding space and using the ball well. As the rain teemed down and the legs got heavier, Geelong began to look like the superior side. And Patrick Dangerfield began to bend the elimination final to his will.

Dangerfield had been a crucial player when Carlton dominated early. His snap around his body in the first term – in the same part of the ground where he terrorised Hawthorn in the preliminary final last year – helped keep the Cats in the contest. But he was magnificent in the second half.

Related: Dangerfield bends AFL elimination final to his will as Geelong end Carlton’s fairytale run

Here are the two lineups as named:

FREMANTLE

FB: 6 Jordan Clark, 25 Alex Pearce, 21 Oscar McDonald
HB: 23 Karl Worner, 13 Luke Ryan, 5 Heath Chapman
C: 44 Matthew Johnson, 8 Andrew Brayshaw, 32 Michael Frederick
HF: 43 Isaiah Dudley, 16 Murphy Reid, 39 Sam Switkowski
FF: 24 Jye Amiss, 35 Josh Treacy, 20 Patrick Voss
FOLL: 9 Luke Jackson, 3 Caleb Serong, 10 Shai Bolton
INT: 18 Mason Cox, 34 Corey Wagner, 28 Neil Erasmus, 26 Hayden Young, 17 Judd McVee

GEELONG

FB: 38 Jack Henry, 14 Connor O’Sullivan, 39 Zach Guthrie
HB: 17 Lawson Humphries, 4 Tanner Bruhn, 44 Tom Stewart
C: 46 Mark Blicavs, 3 Bailey Smith, 28 Oliver Dempsey
HF: 45 Brad Close, 5 Jeremy Cameron, 32 Gryan Miers
FF: 2 Jay Polkinghorne, 33 Shannon Neale, 35 Patrick Dangerfield
FOLL: 11 Mitchell Edwards, 30 Tom Atkins, 34 Oisin Mullin
INT: 42 Mark O’Connor, 9 Max Holmes, 7 Shaun Mannagh, 21 Oliver Wiltshire, 36 Oliver Henry

Fremantle are staring at a straight-sets exit as they host the experienced Geelong with a preliminary final against Sydney up for grabs. Here is where the game will be won – and lost …

The slow ball movement that held the Dockers back in recent years returned against the Hawks and made it difficult to capitalise on their 57 inside 50s as they finished with only five goals. After scoring only 17 points from turnover against the Hawks, Longmuir’s side will have to punish the Cats’ mistakes more to progress to the preliminary final.

The Cats have got the balance between defence and attack right across their unbeaten run home and into the elimination final win against the Blues, with six scores of 100 points or more in the seven victories while conceding triple figures only once.

Related: AFL finals 2026: where the Fremantle v Geelong semi-final will be won and lost | Martin Pegan

Fremantle and Geelong fans are flocking to Optus Stadium with the first ball-up a bit over half an hour away.

Geelong midfielder Bailey Smith is playing his 150th AFL match. He played 103 of those for Western Bulldogs before moving to Geelong in the 2024 trade period. But he has lived up to the hype at his second club while averaging 31.9 disposals across 46 games and finishing third in last year’s Brownlow medal in his first campaign since recovering from a torn ACL.

The nerves will be jangling for Fremantle fans at Optus Stadium and far beyond with their dreams of claiming the club’s first men’s premiership back on shaky ground. Brendan Foster is in Perth and has seen the hype grow across this AFL season as well as the Dockers’ previous, all ultimately failed, finals campaigns.

Whenever the Dockers make a finals appearance, the ramshackle, salty seaside port city of Fremantle becomes awash in a sea of relentless optimism. The city’s famed Cappuccino Strip and nearby streets are painted purple; Dockers-themed sausages that eerily resemble the entrails of Frankenstein are on the menu at cafes and restaurants, and landmarks like the World Heritage-listed Fremantle prison light up with a peculiar, pale plum colour.

The only thing missing is Prince & The Revolution’s 1984 banger Purple Rain bellowing out of loudspeakers in the heart of the CBD.

Related: Fremantle frenzy turns to fear as AFL finals straight-sets exit draws near

Final teams are in with no late changes.

Fremantle made one change from the side that was humbled by Hawthorn in the qualifying final with winger Nathan O’Driscoll dropped and defender Brandon Walker forced out with an ankle injury. The versatile Corey Wagner comes in to face Geelong with former Melbourne defender Judd McVee also recalled for the semi-final.

Geelong are unchanged from the team that overwhelmed Carlton last week after electing not to recall tall defender Sam De Koning even with Fremantle naming three key forwards in Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Patrick Voss.

Preamble

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the AFL’s semi-final between Fremantle and Geelong. There is a strong sense that we have reached the pointy end of the season when the minor premiers and perennial finalists cross paths. But this meeting between the Dockers and the Cats might have come a week or two earlier than most would have predicted after a wild weekend of finals, or at least among the top-four sides of the home-and-away season.

The Dockers gave up much of the ground they gained when breaking a club record for their longest winning streak (now 14 matches) and most victories in a regular season campaign (now 19) with a disastrous qualifying final against the Hawks. Justin Longmuir’s side were already lined up to host two finals but the second now comes a week earlier than they would have hoped with a knockout game against Chris Scott’s finals-hardened side. The prize of a preliminary final berth is still there for the taking, though the ignominy of a straight-sets finals exit even after finishing on top of the ladder will only add to the pressure on the home side.

The Cats took time to get going against the in-form Blues in their elimination final. But once they clicked, the result soon felt like a formality and they pulled away to a comfortable 33-point victory that might have been much more if not for booting 23 behinds from 37 scoring shots. In a reminder of the finals experience that the Cats will bring, they have won 13 finals since 2015 while the Dockers have won only one.

Last year’s runners-up still have room for improvement with Max Holmes on the comeback trail from a serious ankle injury and Jeremy Cameron still looking underdone. The gun forward only gathered nine disposals as he played a combination of wing and defence last week, while he manages shoulder/AC joint problems as well as lingering nerve issues with the right arm he broke in last year’s grand final defeat to the Lions. But the Cats will hope both of the pivotal players are better for the run.

The winner of this semi-final will like their chances against the undermanned Sydney in a preliminary final at the SCG. But for now – first ball-up at Optus Stadium in Perth is 6.10pm local/8.10pm AEST. I’ll drop in team news shortly. Meanwhile, shoot me an email with your thoughts and predictions. Let’s get into it!