I’m thinking both Semi Finals could (and should) go down to the wire this weekend.
Although given how amazing Sydney were & how poor Geelong were, I could be wrong for Friday at least.
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UPDATE
What on earth has happened to the Swans!?
Premiership favourites of many going in… Now looking like they’ll be out 
Just shows that you make Top 4 for a reason, Cats redeemed themselves tonight!
What a rebound from Geelong tonight after last week’s big loss to Richmond. They went defensive and kept stars like Franklin and Kennedy quiet (Franklin was kept goalless) while scoring goals at ease. The Cats will play Adelaide in next Friday night’s preliminary final. It’s only the third time Geelong plays an interstate final, their first was against the Crows in 1997 semi final at Football Park which was also their first ever finals clash. The Crows won by six points, 11.10 (76) to 9.14 (68). Geelong’s second interstate final was the famous 2005 semi against Sydney at the SCG, in which Nick Davis snapped a goal in the dying minutes to give the Swans victory.
For Sydney it was the end of their remarkable run after they lost their first six matches of the season. They then won 14 of their next 16, only losing twice to Hawthorn, to make the finals. According to the Herald Sun, the Swans’ score of 5.9 (39) is their lowest score in a final since 4.15 (39) against Essendon in 1924 and lowest score in any game since 5.11 (41) against Carlton in Round 21, 1997.
It was a good game. Turned around on Sydney and they ended up getting thrashed after thrashing the bombers!
Now this is interesting, Richmond may be forced to wear their clash jumper if they make the grand final with Adelaide. I’m pretty sure only Fremantle (2013) and St Kilda (2010) have been the only teams in recent times to wear their clash jumpers in Grand Finals. Also, West Coast let the Hawks in 2015 to wear their home strip even though it was the Eagles ‘home’ game (no one wanted them to wear that awful ‘Power Ranges’ style jumper).
Eagles also wanted to wear their “Wings” jumper which at the time was their away strip.
Told you they don’t have a finals team. They simply don’t have the game style to play on a ground like the MCG.
Yeah they would have been better off playing at Kardinia Park
a) we didnt get on the plane to Melbourne
b) Dangerfield deserves a best actor oscar for his ability to stage for frees
c) it was only a matter of time before the good performance collapsed
I think point 3 is very poignant 
Amazing achievement, after losing first 6 games & then everyone saiying they were premiership favourites.
I’d hardly call Dangerfield an actor, but can’t deny he got a couple of lucky ones last night
What a performance by our boys, and in such stark contrast to the stinker we put on against Richmond last week. Agree Sydney failed to turn up, but a semifinal appearance after an 0-6 start to the year isn’t a bad achievement.
Though personally I still believe last night’s game was just a playoff to see who gets to lose to Adelaide next week. I guess that’s us, although I was very pessimistic about last night and look at what happened
As were most.
Especially given Cats’ performance last week vs. Swans’.
Kudos 
Adelaide v Geelong 7.20CST
Richmond v GWS 4.45EST
Steve Johnson was the star tonight with six goals as GWS thrashed West Coast by 67 points. The Eagles just ran out of legs after last week’s overtime win. However not many people were at the game: 14,865 was the smallest VFL/AFL finals crowd since 1916 when 9690 saw Fitzroy beat Collingwood in a semi-final at the MCG.
The Eagles’ loss also marked the end of playing careers of Sam Mitchell, Drew Petrie and Matt Priddis.
Yes, I’m surprised they didn’t get a few more, given the Swans also got eliminated.
A big win for the NRL in the crowd stakes, with 41,287 next door at ANZ Stadium for the Parramatta vs Nth Qld NRL game tonight.
I’d be willing to predict that if/when a better stadium in Western Sydney for AFL comes up in the future, GWS will move out of Spotless Stadium ASAP because it isn’t the best venue for a regular season match of football let alone a final!
Mind you, the fact that Spotless probably can’t be used for a good chunk of the football season (remembering that it’s also the “Main Arena” for the Royal Easter Show) doesn’t really help things either!
GWS were amazing tonight!
Prelims will be on 
next week.
Smart move by the AFL, scheduling the RICH vs GWS game, away from the NRL game.
Allowing a good Sydney audience again (identical to last year’s incredible Prelim situation).
Also provides an enormous lead-in for Seven’s prime-time, particularly Melbourne & also Adelaide and Perth.
Men against boys last night, or more accurately, a top 4 side versus a team that was lucky to even make the 8. I couldn’t help but watch last night thinking what might have been had Port won the extra time game last week - they would have in my opinion taken it up to GWS far better
Full credit to the Giants though - they looked ruthless as they tore the Eagles apart, particularly on the counterattack. And the Geelong boy in me was happy to see Stevie J light it up once again
Next week should be fascinating, hopefully we get some better and more closely contested finals than we’ve had so far (Port v Eagles aside). Adelaide and Richmond rightfully deserve to be favourites, but it’s not impossible to see one or both of the underdogs possibly getting up. What is everyone here’s ideal GF scenario?
West Coast had their most experienced team in their history last night with around 3500 games in total.
Fat lot of good it did them, although I’d argue that it might have been uglier still if not for the contribution of the likes of Priddis and Mitchell. It will be interesting to see how they go next year having lost a fair bit of talent to retirement
Port would have got flogged.