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Finals Week 3

2PF

Team Score SC
Richmond 85
Geelong 66SC

1PF

Team Score SC
Collingwood 52
Greater Western Sydney 56SC

Premiership Season 2019 - Finals Week 3 Review

Total Crowd 172,251 (Avg 86,126)

The 2019 AFL Grand Final was supposed to be a 'Back to the Future' affair, with two of the league's heavyweights meeting in the premiership decider for a record-equalling seventh time. Most of the money was on a Richmond-Collingwood match-up, but there were the odd pundits who thought the Cats could prevail over the Tigers to set up a seventh Geelong v Collingwood Grand Final.

Geelong did indeed press their claims, leading by 21 points at half time of their Preliminary Final, but in the end Richmond prevailed, paving the way for a Tigers versus Magpies Grand Final extravaganza.

But somebody forgot to tell GWS. The Giants, without two of their stars Toby Greene (suspended) and Lachie Whitfield (appendectomy) ignored the script, firstly by staying within touch of Collingwood in the first half of their Preliminary Final, secondly by virtually blowing the Magpies away in the third quarter and finally by withstanding a withering last-quarter burst from the Pies to hang on and win a match that will live long in the hearts and minds of those who witnessed it.

So, instead of a seventh Geelong-Collingwood premiership decider to go with the ones that came before in 1925, 1930, 1937, 1952, 1953 and 2011, instead of a Grand Final that pits Richmond and Collingwood together as happened in 1919, 1920, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1980, we will see Richmond and GWS clash for the first time in a Grand Final in the 123rd V/AFL season. That combination will be the 55th discrete Grand Final combination in that time.

Richmond will start the match as firm favourites, but it is worth remembering that Collingwood did the same on Saturday, and Brisbane also began their match as favourites against GWS a week earlier. The Giants do not mind being the underdogs.

The Tigers will be able to draw on their own Grand Final experience, having made it to the big day — and won — only two years ago, and they are also driven by redemption for missing out on last year's premiership decider having gone into the 2018 finals series as hot favourites. But Richmond will not want to go into the match thinking they have it won. The Tigers started very slowly last Friday night against Geelong and found themselves 21 points behind at the long break. They will not want to give the Giants a similar head start.

Grand Final experience — or the lack of it — will, on the other hand, be an issue for the Giants. Only three players — Heath Shaw (Collingwood), Matt de Boer (Fremantle) and Shane Mumford (Sydney) know what it's like to perform in front of 100,000 at the MCG in the last match of the season. But the large core of GWS players have had a solid grounding in overall finals experience. The Giants, along with West Coast and Geelong, are the only team to have made finals in each of the last four years, and indeed they are the only team to have won at least one all four of those campaigns.

If the occasion overwhelms the Giants, we could see a big win to Richmond in the 2019 Grand Final. But if it does not, the intensity and pressure the Giants have brought to their three finals so far should mean that scoring won't be easy. And if that's the case, we may well have a Grand Final as close and as thrilling as GWS-Collingwood Preliminary Final last week, and the West Coast-Collingwood Grand Final last year.

For one team that will mean euphoria, for the other it would mean heartbreak. Magpie fans will take some comfort in knowing that the heartbreak won't be theirs this time, but, given the chance, most would be prepared to risk heartbreak to be where Richmond and the GWS Giants are next Saturday.

R-23, Ladder

Team GP PTS %
GEEL 22 64 135.70
BRIS 22 64 118.30
RICH 22 64 113.70
COLL 22 60 117.74
WCE 22 60 112.48
GWS 22 52 115.40
WBULL 22 48 107.24
ESS 22 48 95.40
HAW 22 44 108.74
PORT 22 44 105.37
ADEL 22 40 100.85
NTH 22 40 99.45
FREO 22 36 91.91
STK 22 36 83.89
SYD 22 32 97.71
CARL 22 28 84.46
MELB 22 20 78.65
SUNS 22 12 60.53

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.