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September 23, 2025 • 66 mins

It's officially Grand Final Week! Rhys and Behm dissect the Cats vs Hawks and Pies vs Lions prelim as the Lions make it 3 Grand Finals in a row, we analyse whether Jamie Elliott deserved the free kick after Brandon Starcevich's incredible spoil, the controversial WAFL Grand Final non-call, whether Mabior Chol should have been suspended and break down the Cats vs Lions 2025 AFL Grand Final!

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good everyone. Welcome back to 0 Access for the
episode #31 and it's Grand Finalweek.
It is, of course, the final weekin September, the final week of
the 2025 AFL season, and once again joined with Mr Ben Gaddy.
He's looking very, very nice this week.
I don't want to spoil your party, but technically it's
going to be the second last weekof September, so unfortunately

(00:21):
we do have another week. Way to kill it bro.
Way to kill the intro. No, that's really nice of you to
do that. That was really sick.
It literally rolls off the tongue.
I don't know about you. A bit of an off tangent. 27th of
September feels like a perfect grand final date.
Something about it. No, to me it's 28th.
No, it's 2727, has to be something about that number, but
that's unimportant because we'vegot the big business coming out

(00:44):
long. But first we've got to look at
how they got there. Let's have a look at prelims for
the previous week and how the Games went.
So yes, prelim, final two or thefirst one.
I've never understood that. Why?
Prelim final two have no idea. It's the weirdest thing.
Really strange, but either way doesn't matter.
Cats ended up taking it. I wouldn't say comfortably

(01:04):
because man was this a fun game.They took it by 30 to a very,
very good Hawk side on the day who just couldn't get over the
top. Lots of little storylines here
and there with this one as they were with both of them.
Little moments in between here and there.
One of the biggest ones for me was the Tom Stewart one because
that plays into grand final week, but Bailey Smith had a RIP
a game. Paddy Dangerfield.

(01:26):
My God. Way to show out.
That was one of the most physically dominating games I've
ever seen from anybody. This is.
I can't believe he's still got that in him.
I can't believe. It it's ridiculous in like the
mid twenty 10's and like 2016, you'd have him going up against
five and they'd have like 35 and3 and 42 on a goal and they were

(01:47):
just like sitting there in or watching.
That was prime vintage danger. That was one of the most
impactful games I've ever seen from someone.
You were like going into the game, OK, where's this extra bit
going to come from? Because obviously we know, you
know, they're going to use theirtaggers, They're going to put
Atkins to someone and it ended up being Nuken.

(02:09):
They're going to put a Shane Mullen to Nick Watson.
And I thought really interesting, they put Mark
O'Connor to Joshua Weddell, which is sort of quelling his
influence. And then you're like, OK, aside
from Smith and Holmes, who's going to do it?
And you're like dangers a full time midfield now and he just
ruined any chance of Hawthorn doing anything.
I just didn't think he could be that impactful at this point

(02:29):
because he's been delivered in such a role and it shows how
versatile the team is. As Geelong has been known for
the last 15 or 20 years. They are that team that just
find a way to pull something outand they know how to, you know,
twist. It just comes down to Chris
Scott, master class. It seems to always be the case.
He is a fantastic coach and given the fact that he was let

(02:51):
off the leisure little in this game, Patty and giving him his
time in the midfield, 31 disposals and what was it one or
two goals. I don't know.
I can't remember off the top of my head, but yeah, impactful on
the scoreboard, impactful on theball.
On top of the usual that you getfrom Bailey Smith from Max Home.
Mark Blitz also had a half half decent game too.
He did the scoreboard too. Positives all around for
Geelong, but it was shaky. It was shaky certainly because

(03:14):
yeah, early on Hawthorn got off for a really, really nice start.
And yeah, honestly, the first half is exactly what you want
out of a prelim. Hard fought, no one gave up.
Both teams really, really foughthard.
And credit to both teams for that.
Nick Watson's goal, if you remember that one, that was
bloody insane. Left foot, boundary line.
Don't think it bounced either. Can't remember, but insane goal

(03:37):
and you're just like this is live this is a prelim.
This is this is what you want prelim finals to be like that.
Unfortunately, one of the streaks that we're really
excited about John Newcomb's number one rated player on the
ground didn't come through this week.
And while you could say that wasexpected because of the tag,
you're hoping that he'd do something magical.
It was again another one of those storylines that Finals

(04:00):
always brings up. Joy had his nice little
storyline coming in, but unfortunately it just didn't
work out the way that they wouldhave liked it to.
Well done on them fighting so hard from eighth position.
I think it's easy to forget thatconsidering how dominant the top
8 was this year so that you finished eighth, you think, oh
they've got no chance, but realistically they do have quite

(04:20):
a chance at pulling something off.
Just have to hope that the cardsfall right, and they did up
until now. And so good on Hawthorne.
Of course we know obviously aren't looking at merit and you
look at the midfield, which is where he'd come in.
Josh, what did 8 touches James wobble head under 20 and I think
you can just got over 20 as well.
Yeah, I think you can hit 20. You can, you can see the reasons

(04:43):
they're improving and then I'm going to stop.
They're going to go all out. We're all in.
They've gone for battle, they'vegone for Boras, They're going to
do it again this year with merit, obviously.
If they can get him in. But like, I assume with the way
that things are looking at Essendon, you think it had
happened. Yeah, just Sam Mitchell has
reshaped the culture. I wouldn't say he's flipped it
on its head because Hawthorne's had a pretty decent culture

(05:05):
going back to Alistair Clarkson.But oh, I say that now that I
think about it out loud. Maybe not the greatest culture,
but yeah. But in terms of winning
football, he has brought that and Sam Mitchell has brought his
own flavour. But Sam Mitchell has shown to be
the kind of recruiter the the recruiting role, which is

(05:27):
really, really interesting from AI.
Don't remember the last time a coach kind of became a key
recruiter almost because it feels like every time a player
is linked to Hawthorne, you think of someone mentions Sam
Mitchell and his wife talking tothis player, making them feel
like they belong. Really laying it down to them
that this is more than just a football club.

(05:48):
It's a, it's a family. It's it's a long, long period of
success. They kind of try to reinvent
what Geelong's doing. Geelong have been fairly known
to be that type of team that youknow, they've got their perks of
not having all their home games at the MCG, they've got their
own home ground. I mean with Geelong they just
give you a farm and it's an extra years worth of salary.

(06:10):
So that's why they don't. Need to pay you that.
Much, of course. But from a team that has looking
to continue to improve, to a team doing the exact same thing
in Brisbane and getting all the free agents they can possibly
get, that was one of the most impressive wins I've seen from a
team. To be able to hold off a team
like Collingwood who has 80,000 plus at the game, their fans are

(06:31):
getting behind and they're getting involved in the game.
Also just very quickly, you mentioned crowd numbers, Cats
Hawthorne 1999 1/2 thousand. I think that's the record for a
non grand final final, right? 99 1/2 gets you really excited
for next week. It's going to be a great game
next week. But yes, go on, continue.
Yeah, So yeah, Brisbane would just lead blown out a little

(06:55):
bit, but it was a very topsy turvy game from from what I
noticed. Like, you know, she had Geelong
coming out early and getting a full goal lead in the first
quarter. Collin, Collin.
Was it who? Yeah, you said Colin.
That's all right. Brisbane came out to an early
start. Brisbane came out.
What's the teams you got to keepin mind?
But then in that second quarter,Collingwood came out and I

(07:15):
kicked six goals and you're justlike, this is insane what is
happening. And I think the big thing I
noticed in that first half, specifically with Brisbane, is
that they continued to take an extra step or two before they
were looking to dispose of the ball.
And the one that I want to pointout, it was Dane Zolko of cross
half back. Nice mention a far back.

(07:38):
Shut up. I swear that's happened like 3
weeks in a row now, but something like that.
Purposefully. It has to happen.
Yeah. Still haven't seen anything from
them but you know I. Know what the hell?
Yeah, I'm getting upset. What the hell?
Just keep talking, you people. Keep talking numbers.
Keep talking numbers. It just like they take an extra

(07:59):
step and Zorko was the one who was kicking it across the back
50. And I think it was, I can't
remember who exactly what might have been Dacos that just
followed him and was able to geton a hold of his jumber and it
affected the kick and Elliot wasable to get a goal out of it.
And Zorko again, it was another time where he was kicking across
the 50 and he just took that extra step and that one step

(08:21):
allowed someone to close in, take the intercept mark and
they're up to kick a goal out ofit.
And I noticed that a fair bit. And it felt like, you know, the
pressure was there or they were too relaxed in a sense.
And that second half, they just came out and they had the
urgency. And I think, you know, Cam
Rayner was a huge part of that as well.
Like he had five handles on the first half and they had five
kicks in the second. He was very much, I was going to

(08:44):
say very much. His play in this game was high
effectiveness, right? You didn't expect him to get the
ball, especially because, I mean, even without Lucky Neil,
the the Lions have so many ball winners.
But yeah, Cam Rayner just took what he could get from the
midfield and became just the usual Cameron a dominant strong
finds his way to put six points on the board.

(09:06):
Yeah, and I mean when we were previewing the game we were
like, OK, Brisbane forward line,who's going to be the one?
Because obviously he had them more against Morris match up.
We got spot on where obviously Morris kicked six against them.
Last time. It was actually Ty Gallup who
had a career best game. I think it was like 17.8 player
ratings according to Jabby and Dada, The best player like for

(09:29):
Brisbane that game. Three goals, three goals, three
huge contestant marks. We did.
Very much call that in the sensethat we they needed someone to
step up. If it wasn't for Ty, you
probably could have said Zach Bailey had himself two goals and
20 puzzies and really got himself involved as he continues
to get better and better. But yeah, Ty Gallup was the guy
who you like. Could you have planned for this?

(09:50):
Like obviously if any, any AFL player given the opportunity
will have themselves amongst thegame if you allow them to, but
ties five games in, you think the moment would get to him.
It did not. It very much did not.
So I just another player for this Brisbane side who could
potentially spell big things forthis team.
And as bad as Hitwood's injury was, it has just created

(10:13):
opportunities for these younger blokes that early.
My God. Yeah, they're only going to get
Australia next year as well to pair alongside Morris, so.
They'll also get presumably, I don't know how much Jordan
Ridley is going to help him, butit's again, numbers, depth,
hopefully if he stays healthy. That too, but I mean to speak
about calling, what I thought defensively it was one of their
poorer games, especially at stoppage.

(10:35):
You know they're allowing. When you think of Brisbane, when
you think of Reyna, he can play midfield but he's such a forward
half player. Do you think of Zach Bailey?
Sure, he might play on the wing,but he's going to leak forward.
When you think of Fletcher and we think of Wilmot and you think
of Zorko, just because they're playing off a half back flank
doesn't mean they're going to goand stick in that, in that, in
that. Area Wilmot, especially Wilmot

(10:56):
especially, I've seen him get. He gets really excited for a
chance at goal. 100% Zorko kicked a goal late as well.
I mean, I thought at defensive stoppages Collingwood weren't
aware enough, they weren't switched on to the point where
Rayner kicked 2 from there or sorry, kicked one and then not
missed another, where Bailey wasable to Rove the pack as well a

(11:16):
couple of times. And it's just like, surely you
would have been coaching on thisand you would have made your
plays aware obviously had Pendlegoing out early, which I think
is a whole separate topic. Whereas, you know, speaking to
the doctors early and he plays that defensive midfield role.
I thought someone like Jack Crisp, who's been known as a
good finals performer, this is probably his worst finals series
I've seen him play. And I think that was pretty

(11:38):
disappointing. Aside from that.
Like, I mean, there was just nothing really about
Collingwood. Like they had that good second
quarter, but aside from that they were nowhere.
There's players that needed to step up the din.
I think the exceptions are probably memory looking here.
I'm seeing Elliot, of course. Yeah, he's he's been their best
forward all season. And we will talk about the free

(11:59):
kick later, don't you worry. About yeah, we will get on that
memory had two, which isn't bad.Cox kick 2, which is honestly
not bad considering what you're kind of asking him to do.
I'm looking at specifically Lipinski, Houston.
Looking throughout here. Darcy Moore didn't do all that
much. No, he he was on Morrison.

(12:20):
I was going to say, I don't think that's on him.
No, I think that's just the rolehe had to play.
He also had that fantastic smother against Zach Bailey that
I was like. So I don't think I'm going to
give him much of the blame football.
But like Houston, you, you brought him in expecting to
elevate the role, and it's like you could have used someone else
there, man. He's not.

(12:41):
He's not fitting in. He's had the occasional game
where he works it out and then more often than not, we get a
performance like this. And so it would have been nice
for Houston to, who knows, potentially get on the
scoreboard at some point. I think he needs a serious Yeah,
he did. Kick a goal, but at the same
time there was a there was a play where he was on the 50 he
was running through and then he absolutely Shanks the kick

(13:01):
inside 50 and Harris Andrews takes the inside marketing just
like OK. This is not the damage that we
paid for you. Paid up a fair bit and it wasn't
overpaid by any means, but you paid for a good kicker.
You brought him in for this exact moment, he just completely
screws up. Yeah, it's just he's not doing
what Pies fans expected him to do.

(13:24):
And so there's definitely the the few individuals to blame,
but I've always found it interesting that Collingwood
structure usually holds up really well.
You could switch in anyone and it'd be fine.
But now more than ever, after that little hiccup throughout
the midway point of the season, their structure looks looser
than ever. I I remember their game against
Hawthorne, I think it was where it was just, it was Hollywood

(13:47):
stuff, it was Showtime stuff where everything they did turned
to gold. It was so incredible to watch
and it looks nothing like that anymore.
Nothing like that. And I don't know what's changed.
I don't know whether it was specific game plan to against
Hawthorne to make it work that way, but against every other
team since then. Hell you could even say against
West Coast where they didn't even beat them by that much.

(14:08):
Like it does not look at all like the Collingwood that was
showing off their and flexing their stuff in the first half of
the season. Absolutely not.
Macca's man of the Week for the prelims.
Yeah. So let's let's say.
For me, it wasn't terribly difficult getting these ones in.

(14:30):
It was mainly the ball winners. You can't probably give
honourable mentions to Ty Galluplike you mentioned, yeah,
because for a player like him tostep up in that situation is
fantastic, I feel. Like Tom Atkins 100% is.
There's a shout as well. Tom Atkins too, because yeah,
yeah, I was going to say not just in the tagging role, but
also just effective with the ball.
He's he's a ball as well. So big credit to him.
Mac is man of the Week 1 vote goes to Bailey Smith.

(14:53):
Bailey Smith just ball magnet inthis one.
Again, the effectiveness with the ball.
I don't know if it was like it was.
Pretty poor in that first. I don't know if it was like
something to really get worried about, but at the same time,
that's kind of what you expect from Bailey Smith now.
And the day he improves it, if he improves it to the point
where he is electric with the ball, look, I think just because
he gets the ball so much, yeah, hard to really ask him to be

(15:14):
100% effective every time. 2 votes for me is for who I am
predicting to be the Norm Smith medalist.
We'll go to Hugh Mccluggage. Going to say I say that for
later. I'll save it for later, but
we'll go for any more. I can't anymore.
But I'll bring it back up later and it's just a quick little
shout because humour. Mccluggage, I think, is a lucky

(15:36):
Neil. I wouldn't say replacement, but
my God are they happy to have him now.
I think with the fact that Lockie has had to sit out his
role, he's basically flipped into Lockie's role but much more
ball dominant. I think Lockie seems to be more
of a more of those in and undone, not necessarily
possession get up, but definitely works on giving them

(15:58):
first bite at at the possession at bringing that ball forward,
While human cargage is much moreof a link up, but also hardball
get up. And I think because Lucky Neil's
out, he's upped that, but he's kept to the same amount of
possession getting and averages in that sense.
So he still gets in and under, but at the same time he keeps

(16:18):
finding these easy possessions to make easy link ups and great
decisions. With on the outside.
He's just been elevated a littlebit with with Lucky Neil's
absence and that's not that's not easy to do.
It's much easier said than done.So much credit to him and then
three votes for me. Was Paddy Dangerfield easy?
Had to be, Yeah, had to be. No one expected that type of

(16:40):
performance from Paddy. It just like you said, vintage
it was. Vintage it was, It was.
Brownlow medalist Paddy it was 201617 Paddy it was.
No Fear with his body Paddy, this is what you want to.
Say exactly. And God, how lucky Jalong to
have that kind of player in justthe the back pocket in in the
most important times. Ridiculous.

(17:02):
My favourite moment of the week though.
It's Meg. It's Meg.
Come on, let's hear. It my problem is this week I
couldn't think of 1. I actually couldn't think of a
donkey of the week. Wow, I couldn't.
I know there's moments, but I'd like the more I think about it.
I was and that's why I was goingto continue to.
I'm going to open it to suggestion because I think you

(17:23):
probably have got someone. I just couldn't think of anyone
off the top of my head. I do have someone.
Who do you have in mind? Josh Battle?
This cause a Josh Battle? Yeah.
No, I should have expected that.That is, I get it, right?
That is all Australian Josh Battle.
Thank you. That doesn't mean any difference
to make all Australian. Donkey of the week Child in the

(17:45):
old In the old donkey score the actual the actual.
Donkey of the week though, in myopinion goes to Tim Membray for
that kick over the top to Jamie Elliott when he was 30, out
directly in front and he chose to pass it off.
We've seen a few of. Those that.
Is my series and whilst you may say it's a thank you, that was
the moment where it lost callingwith the game because we will

(18:09):
discuss very shortly just after this first segment, obviously
the free kick to Jamie Elliott, should it have been paid?
Stay tuned because it's going tobe in what, like 5 minutes?
Yeah, something close to. That but we now.
Move on to the greatest segment,anyone, I thought.
You said that was your favouritesegmental.
That was the greatest segment. No, it was my.

(18:30):
Favourite. That doesn't mean it was the
greatest. Doesn't mean it was the
greatest. OK, I understand.
What you're saying, apparently Benny's TT is that one.
I mean, we say it all the time. We love Benny's TT.
We always do. We've.
Got the spin. Offs of Benny's TT, especially
coming up towards the the rest of the segment.
But yeah, Benny CT, there's someobvious ones.
I'm interested to see if there'ssome not so obvious ones.

(18:52):
OK, so. We'll start off with a couple
outside ones. Dane Zorko was fined $5000 for
taking off Mason Coxes glasses. Hey.
Nerd, Come on. That's funny.
I know. Like, I know there's people who
are like, oh, you know, he wearsthem for a reason.
Yeah. He's got no damage.
Yeah. Imagine if you poked his eye in

(19:13):
it and it stopped him from playing.
It's like, come on, do it. Play.
Oh, my God. Oh my God.
Yeah and Jack Enovan was fined 10K down to 6.25 for tripping
Jack bows I think third offence.So they've clearly raised it a
little bit. Whether you think 1/3 offence
should be fined or suspended I think is a bit interesting of a

(19:37):
topic to discuss I think. Guineven's lack of suspension
got pushed to someone else's suspension, yes, which we will.
Discuss right now might be your toll three week suspension for
this tackle on Tom Stewart. Three weeks the.
Outcome from this was absolutelyslandered by everyone I've ever

(19:59):
seen. Like we've had games called
about 100 times since the seasonstarted.
This was the 101st and the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th.
Like, you know, it's funny. Everyone was saying it.
He doesn't have. Both arms pinned.
Technically, he definitely. Pins both arms.
Oh, maybe I'm. Missing.
Yeah, I was gonna say that angleshows a bit that that I thought
for a moment that that on the right side, on his right hand,

(20:22):
on his right arm, he didn't get pinned.
But now I see him. Yeah, I see the arm come around.
So he does get pinned. There's definitely the double.
Pinned, so this was graded as careless, severe impact and high
contact and obviously you got the argument of the the two arms
pinned, which is where the main thing comes from.
That's not what the AFL want. The main thing I want to talk

(20:44):
about is Sam Butler #30 the bloke who originally tackles Tom
Stewart. See where his hand slipped her?
Yeah. Below the knees.
Below the knees. So first of all it should have
been a tripping to Tom Stewart. I don't know if there was a free
kick pad or not, I do not remember.
But the outcome only occurred because Sam Butler tripped Tom

(21:05):
Stewart, not because of what might be your child did.
Whilst might be your child did tacking limb and he did pin both
of his arms. He wasn't the one who caused Tom
Stewart to fall down which then caused him to be concussed.
Because it's not maybe your child's fault that he got
tripped at all. I understand that the fact that
we want to remove the fact that you're pinning both arms, but to

(21:28):
'cause this a three week suspension, I think is insane.
I think it should still be a suspension, probably one week I
was thinking. One week because I'm because I'm
I agree with the idea that we want to get the idea of pinning
someone's arm, stopping them from protecting themselves.
Get that out of the game. But when a result like that
occurs, it's and you. Just mentioned a result we've

(21:52):
been all year. Action or result.
The action isn't good, but the result is not based off the
trolls action, so it should still be a week because the
action is not good. However, the result was not
based off of Charles actions. So I think the AFL got this one
wrong when I've been pretty pro their choices for the second

(22:14):
half of the year pretty much since Greg Swan came in.
So I think that there's certainly been an improvement.
I think this one they've missed.I don't know how significant it
is because obviously they're notgoing to play in the grand
final, but. Had they have tried?
To make the grand final, this one would have been talked about
so much more and honestly, no. Matter.
Once this had occurred, everyoneknew it was a double edged sword
because Tom Stewart is very clearly concussed.

(22:35):
Everyone knew, all right, his season's done just in that.
So there goes one of your most important players for the rest
of 2025. And then Marby or Charlie are
like, because of that, because he's the one who's pinned the
arms. If Hawthorne make it, he's not
playing. So it's a double edged sword and
that both teams are have kind ofdisadvantaged themselves in a
completely unfortunate event. Like sure, you can tell Chol,

(22:59):
you know, don't pin the arms andall that, but in a ferocious
final like that, it's it's very hard to stay perfect.
And so I, I do feel bad for Mabiel and I feel bad for Tom
because both of them are in a situation that God, it's just so
human to have heartbreak for something like that.
So as much as you wish that Cholwould get a one week or as much

(23:21):
as you wish Stewart would get toplay next week even if he starts
feeling OK, it's just it does. It's a no win for anyone.
And I think that's what frustrates me the most about
this. It's not even the decision.
I think a lot of people will forget the fact that Charles got
three weeks or or will forget the fact that Tom Stewart can
cast the main storyline will be someone missed out on a grand

(23:42):
final because of this. Someone missed out on it and so
I wanted to talk a little bit about it and I'll keep it really
brief because there's more you want to talk about.
It comes back to our discussion last week when we talked about
should we have a pre finals or should we have a pre grand final
buy. This is what a lot of people

(24:03):
were warning regarding not having a pre grand final buy
because now a man who could veryeasily be fit and healthy for
next week cannot play, not due to his fault, not due to
suspension due to a tackle goingwrong.
And so that's why a lot of people that I've listened to
have thought of the idea of thatpre pre grand final buy because

(24:25):
now people aren't unfairly takenout completely out of their
circumstances. This is not Tom Stewart sitting
here and going I'm I'm making a decision that's actively going
to stop me from playing next week.
This is him just doing regular, making a regular football play,
trying to get rid of the ball from a tackle and the
unfortunate circumstance he's found himself in.
So again, I'll leave it there. It's very brief, but comes back

(24:47):
to that discussion that I think will be a little bit louder as
the grand final comes out, especially depending on how the
result goes 100%. 100% from contentious call to another
contentious call. Jamie Elliott, Brenda Stasovich.
Yes. This contest.
Was game game deciding? Like absolutely game deciding

(25:10):
when momentum. Is involved in such a big moment
Yeah, oh man. So as you can see in the.
Bottom right the scores were a two goal difference under 10
minutes left. I believe Collingwood had just
kicked the goal or two to to shorten the margin a little bit.
This was one of the biggest calls I think all year from an

(25:31):
umpires point, from what you think of.
From what I can remember, has tobe and first of all, what are?
Your thoughts on this, Should this have been a free kick or
should this have been a no call?I'm, I'm very confident on mine
and I'm very strong in my opinion.
I know. And I know the kind of, I know
the area you're going to go in, but I'm just basing it off of

(25:51):
what I've seen all year. No matter whether he gets his
hand on the ball first, he's made contact with the body.
He's he's technically looking atthe ball the last second, but
running towards the Paki isn't. I know you'd have from that
angle, that left angle that I just saw.
He is following the ball the whole way through.
But Elliot gets his hands to it first starts, which makes body

(26:13):
contact that is almost always being called front on contact.
But karma strikes. So I think back to 2023's Grand
final when yeah, the. Advantage.
The advantage paid. When there was no advantage, I
think back to that, I'm like, yeah, that's funny, isn't it?
So. The way I'm going to look at it

(26:33):
is simply based off of the AFL'srule book.
So I've got it right in front ofme.
There were two free kicks that could potentially have been paid
here. The first one is front on
contacts and the second one is amarking infringement or top of
the arm where you don't get the ball and you stop the player.
The other one is where you make contact without making an
attempt on the ball. So the AFL rulebook states a

(26:58):
player who makes the football their sole objective shall be
provided every opportunity to doso.
Now there are five different institutes where if your umpire
shall award a free kick in a marking contest.
So first one holds or blocks an opposition player, does he do

(27:18):
that? No.
Second one unduly pushes or bumps an opposition player, does
he do that? No.
C deliberately interferes with the arms of an opposition
player. Given his eyes are on the ball.
You cannot say it was deliberate.
D makes contact to an oppositionplayer from front on and whose
sole objective is not to contestor spoil a mark.

(27:42):
Can you say his sole objective was not to do that when his eyes
were on the ball following it? Yeah, and the entire time.
That's where I get. My leaning to your end from
because, yeah, looking at that angle, his eyes are on the ball
and he's following it. He's, he's intentionally
following the football, which isvery smart on staff stars, which
is, and it shows that he's got abit of that, you know,

(28:03):
premiership thought and the, thecalm mindset because I know a
lot of AFL players who will see that coming and just go straight
for the man. So what they do?
What a lot of players do is theywill look at the player and they
will say, I'm going to go then spoil the the the ball.
Once they see where the ball is in regards to the player, that
is where the free kick becomes because the sole objective is

(28:24):
not to contest, it is to look atthe player.
And then the final stage is theymake the player makes an
unrealistic attempt to contest or spoil a mark with
interference. Is it unrealistic?
No, because he gets the ball andso any front on contact that he
may have is completely disregarded because he's looking
at the ball. His sole objective is to spoil

(28:46):
the ball and he makes contact with the ball and he doesn't
interfere with the arm of Jamie Elliott at all.
So in every regard that the AFL has laid out, this is not a free
kick and it is one of the best calls I've ever seen for an
umpire to do that call and to have the calls to.
I was going to say. To to hold the whistle that is,

(29:08):
that is, again, like I've said, that is almost always called.
But if you can do it by the rules, and I think the reason
it's so contiguous because it's not 100% clear, right, They're
very slow motion on that left one because of the fact that you
can't really 100% tell. It looks more like Jamie Elliott
gets the ball 1st and Brandon Stasovich's then body contact

(29:32):
forces the ball out in some angles.
But that's why it's so slow, because you can see that he does
get the what you see on the. Ball what you see in the next
page here, arm gets the ball andthen afterwards is when his arm
connects with Elliot's which is the body contact that draws him
back. That is not a free kick because
the permitted contact stated in the AFL rulebook.

(29:55):
Incidental contact Contact on a marking contest will be
permitted if the players sole objective is to contest or spoil
a mark. So it's a very easy call.
It is not a free kick and any outrage for any other free kicks
might be understandable because there was some contentious
calls. However, this one is a perfect

(30:17):
free kick and absolutely applaudthe umpires at every stage in
this one. I think this is one of the best
things I've ever seen. It's very rare.
That you get very high on the umpires for around.
I remember round one predictionsyou literally had mentioned that
there was going to be a call made my ball.
Prediction is actually insane. Also no.

(30:38):
Come. Has there been a comeback
excuse? Me also.

(30:59):
We're children. We're children.
Oh my God, that was so dumb. That was so stupid.
I loved how. Excited you got for that.
Oh, my God. Oh, look, credit to the umpires.
Very good job on the call, especially with 9 1/2 minutes
left in a prelim final in a close game.
My goodness, that is a ballsy nocall.

(31:21):
Very ballsy no call. But also credit to Brandon
Starsimage. Yeah, very, very smart play
there. I was meant to say no comeback,
which is one of my ball predictions, but I don't know
why I stopped it. I don't know why, but there
wasn't a comeback this week, wasthere?
Because. Brisbane ended up.
Winning and they got out to an early I mean, unless you.
Call Geelong's like first half, even still the first.

(31:43):
Quarter ended up much closer, didn't it?
Yeah, I guess so. So I wouldn't call.
Let me come back per. Say, I'd say.
That it was just a tight game until yeah, till the end where
Geelong got away. So yeah, not too bad.
Oh, we want to have a talk on this one.
Very, very nice. So I had found some footage of
this. This is really exciting,
something we haven't talked about ever before.

(32:04):
WAFL, the waffle, the waffle, the waffle, The West Australian
Football League. I recently had their grand
final. I cannot remember who it's
between. I'm very sorry, Western
Australian. Supporters, I was between, I
don't know. Look, either way, very, very
close game. You can say 56 to 54, and this
ended in a very controversial way, a way that reminded me very

(32:26):
much. If you guys remember the
Richmond Sydney game from a few years ago, you'd see a free kick
there for holding the ball. Siren goes and he boots it away
and very quickly you see number 5 right next to the umpire let's
him know, right, we have a free kick and they've just booted the
ball away. So they're all celebrating.
They're going. We just won the grand final.

(32:47):
So is that S Fremantle in East Perth?
So East Perth very much appealing, right?
They earned the free kick holding the ball.
They have a kick to try and get in the Ford 50.
Siren goes and he kicks the ballaway right.
So any other scenario that's 50 metres, which means East Perth
would have a shot after the siren, presumably from about 30

(33:10):
to 40 metres directly in front to win the grand final.
The umpires did not give them that opportunity.
And you had brought it up when Iwas discussing this.
It feels very, very rough and a lot of people are giving a lot
of crap to the umpires about this.
But you had mentioned that that particular scenario, there's

(33:31):
rules to it. Yeah, there's rules to that
scenario. So the free.
Kick where it's 15 metres after the the free kick has occurred
is called wasting of time. Unfortunately, due to the siren
sounding there is no time left to waste, meaning you cannot pay

(33:51):
A50 metre penalty because there's no time and there's no
free kick there, which feels very.
Very harsh because in any other scenario it does and I just.
Want to mention who's the playerthat got tackled and gave away
the free kick? Matt Parker, Saints legend.
Of course you're. Praying everything.
So what I'm? Looking here, I haven't actually
seen past this point because I had just presumed they didn't

(34:13):
give the free kick to you, but technically they've earned the
free kick. He can have a go from halfway
through the past the ground I but they don't get the 50 metre
no so. What ended up happening is
because the ground staff were onthere, they had the fireworks
coming on, they had to get everything off.
There were fans on the pitch andeverything.
That one was funny, getting the cameras off her because she was
crying. I can't blame her, no.
Absolutely. Not, but yeah, that ended up

(34:34):
happening. Yeah.
So you can see the fireworks on the ground and everything.
Oh my. So they had to get them off 1st
and you can tell they. Are not happy.
They are not. Happy because they very much
feel like they owed it. Bloody hell.
Good effort. Yeah, it's a fair.
It's a. Fair talk.
It's absolutely smacked, but they know.
Halfway down the ground. Never happened before.

(34:56):
Oh no. Annoyingly, I've just realised
who has done it before. Taran Thomas has done it before.
He's kicked a goal from halfway down the field.
Seb. Ross did it actually against you
guys, kicked it from like the middle wing and it went all the
way, Yeah. I've seen it happen before but
this is very unlikely scenario and they are not happy.
I would be very unhappy too because like any other scenario,

(35:20):
that is A50 metre penalty and a shot at goal, but just something
I thought was really, really interesting, gets you in the
mood, gets you in the spirit forthe grand final week because
stuff like this is probably going to pop up everywhere.
It already has through local leagues.
You'll hear about one point thrillers, you'll hear about
shots after the siren all aroundthe AFL community.
It just shows why I love the sport, hopefully why you love

(35:43):
the sport too. But when it happens on one of
the biggest stages, a state league, it's something that you
have to point out because that defines people's jobs, that
defines people's careers 100%. So big stuff.
Really, really I, I want to say funny, but it's also very
unfortunate for East Perth. Very, very unfortunate.
So nice little story to go through.
Let's go now to BIM Gaddy's a deal or no deal.

(36:07):
You mentioned big stuff. There's no bigger stuff than
this. There's.
No bigger stuff than you. Yes, yes, got it all right into
the segment. Let's go, baby.
You got yours. To be fair, yours is
unintentional. Your stupid moment, but here we
are. Bam Gaddy's deal or no deal
Trade update. Continue with the big news from

(36:30):
the previous week. Stop looking at the camera.
No one cares, bro. No one cares.
Stop looking at it. Just do your little segment.
Have your little fun. I want to talk about the grand
final, man. I want to talk about the grand
final. Oh my God, here we go.
OK, continuing the. Segment we have done for the
last three or four weeks, going through every time that have

(36:51):
been eliminated and providing 3 players that they should target
this offseason. Typically we do 10 teams at once
and then we go through every time coming out of finals.
So two teams we are discussing today, Hawthorne and
Collingwood. I'm so glad both teams are out
of finals because they have two players that would be saying

(37:12):
called the players potentially winning a flag aside from Flat
Stanley and Dara Joyce. Love them.
What the hell was that? I love them.
Stand with them. So Hawthorne.
You having a shock at 10 minutesmate?
Keep going, Hawthorne. 3 plays they should target obviously
Zach merritt's one. Zach Merritt is.

(37:33):
Easiest one in the world at the moment.
He's the most talked about and the most links to Hawthorne at
the moment. Shout out Sam Mitchell.
Yeah, and. His wife and his wife and.
His wife doing all. The all the bargaining there.
So unfortunately, if I do miss out on Zack Merritt, an option
they could go for is Sam Flanders, who has officially
requested a trade out of Gold Coast, but to no specific team.
Yeah, he has. Been on just about every team

(37:56):
that we've mentioned in terms ofneeds of midfielders because
we've seen his potential. He can rack up big possession
numbers, it just hasn't been on the effect of Gold Coast side
that he would have liked to be apart of.
So he's going to test himself elsewhere and most likely going
to be a Victorian team who is probably favourite to get him
right now at the moment. It's probably a tie between

(38:17):
Saint Kilda and Melbourne. Melbourne obviously because of
Stephen King and the link there when he was interim coach of end
of 2023 and he gave trust in him.
And then St. Kilda.
I've got some good mail that there's pretty much a deal
already been placed between Saint Kilda and Gold Coast for
him. However, there's nothing
official as of yet. Last player I want to talk about
for Hawthorne, Mitch McGovern. I think some of their K backs

(38:40):
this year could potentially be on the move, something like
James Blake or Sam Frost becausethey're going to look for some
opportunities elsewhere because no one's getting in above them.
And I also think up forward, if Kalchadi has more injury issues,
Mitch Lewis has more injury issues and Jack Gunston can't
fully stay fit for a full year. Mitch McGovern can be a swing
man and could by both ends of the field, so I think he's an
all right player. Won't be too much money either,

(39:02):
and it's not the worst option. Low ceiling but high floor type
player you don't expect the mostfrom but you expect to at least
see a decent performance out of the next week.
I think they could do like. A a Jack Martin thing with John,
what they did with him. Yeah, I get you.
Collingwood. This one is.
Really interesting, I'm seeing 3crazy names.

(39:22):
Ben King. Yeah, Ben.
King, they need forward and. Half and they need an answer to
their forward half issues. If Jamie and Elliott leaves they
are completely fucked. I know, but like.
How on earth would they get Ben King down?
That silence tells me a lot. Yeah, this is a hell of a lot.
This doesn't need to be really. Sick because the.

(39:42):
Next, the next person. Is Charlie I need Wayne?
Carey prime Wayne Carey they could really use, according to
David. King.
His name is Jesse Hogan for God's.
Sake, for God's sake, we're bringing that one up.
That's like, that's old news, man.
That's an old joke, Charlie. Kono was rumoured to also have
some interest in joining Collingwood.

(40:04):
Has come out that he's looking to play towards a beach and out
of the spotlight and that is theopposite of Collingwood Gold
Coast. Or so the the.
Preference at the moment is Geelong, Gold Coast, Sydney.
It's just like beaches. Are you dumb?
Geelong? Oh yeah, no are.
You are you. I'm just.
Why do you think? They've got beach, they've got

(40:25):
surfables. I'm gonna say I'm just.
Thinking Gold Coast. I'm just thinking Gold Coast.
I feel like Gold Coast is perfect.
Gold Coast have the. Best trade package, Yeah.
They do 100% but it's like I think that's perfect for him to
get to even though GT Everest. Have the package.
Bad joke, I know. Oh my God, that's three.
Stinkers in one area. Oh, shut up, old.
Man, Actually, no, the first. One wasn't a stinker, but that

(40:45):
wasn't intentional. That was good though.
You called me fat. Yeah, I can say whatever the
fuck I want back to you. OK.
And the last? Person The last person for
Collingwood is Joyce Simpkin. More midfield depth.
Tom Mitchell's probably going tobe gone side button and you
can't trust anymore. Scott Pendlebury probably won't
play much midfield next year either and I think he will want

(41:06):
to get more midfield minutes andI think he can come in.
So long as N pay about 25% of his salary he should be able to
get there. I don't want him.
To no, I don't like no, yeah. No, this one's not good.
That Josh Simkin use has got me really conflicted because I know
that he's on the out of that midfield.
So I think just the midfielder, the midfielders are better than

(41:27):
him. I wouldn't say North midfield is
stacked per SE, but I'd say thatthey've got enough players to be
without him. But it's like, how nice would it
be to have Simkin's depth? Would be so nice to have him
rotate, but if he doesn't want to rotate then I'm just worried
that he's going to go to a team like Collingwood.
I'm very worried. Oh well.
Doesn't matter. You got no say in the matter.

(41:48):
Yeah, you got technically. My football team, My opinion is
irrelevant. North Melbourne will win a flag
within the next 5. Getting it.
Finally getting. It North Melbourne will.
Win a flag within the I'd even say the next three years she's
will take us to victory and you think you're going to be?
There do you? Yeah.
I can't wait to see the kangarooup there.
There's going to be a kangaroo up there and I'm going to be so

(42:09):
happy. It's just going to be.
Bouncing and kicks too long out of there.
Oh my God. I can't.
I'm actually so excited for the day North Melbourne make a final
because I'm going to that if youwere to make a.
Final Who would you really want to play on?
This is off topic and it doesn'treally matter.
You would want to play the dogs family.
Oh. Yeah, true.
I've got family who go. For the dog.
So like I'd be, that'd be a family thing.
It'd be really big for us. Or Saint Kilda, Not for Saint

(42:33):
Kilda a Zaf. Cup a ZAF final.
Final Oh my God, imagine a content.
Imagine a grand. Final ZAF Cup Oh my God, we'd be
like called the. AFL, you don't understand what
you've got on your hands. You really don't understand.
Are you going to be up? Zafic your cup day, Andrew
Dylan, are you going to be doingit?
Bro imagine the ZAP Instagram account messaging AFL.

(42:56):
Are you up? ZAP in your cup right now, you
know. How they just did a live stream
with bad dogs footage Oh my they.
Do a ZAP one. Oh my God that would get no
views. It would be so funny.
You get your little. Minions.
You know the minions. My know the minions.
Yeah, yeah, just our producer. That's it.
He's a little goblin, that man. He's my little Northy minion,

(43:18):
OK? Oh well, let's get into the
predictions for the AFL Grand Final.
Oh yes. Now I want to quickly bring up I
did say that this match up in the very first week of finals
has a lot of modern history to it.
Yes, this has been going back since 2022, potentially even

(43:40):
earlier, but 2022 is the earliest I can remember because
Brisbane got pumped by Geelong at the MCG and Geelong went on
to win that grand final. 2023 I think Geelong had lost to
Brisbane, or Brisbane at the very least made the grand final
that year. Obviously they lost to college.
2023, Geelong. Did not make finals.

(44:02):
That's right, I. Keep forgetting that 2024.
These guys did both all right, of course, Brisbane and prelim,
winning it all. Prelim Brisbane took it.
They met each other in the qualifying final.
Geelong took it comfortably. It's been going back and forth.
They've both been in their highsand lows and who would have

(44:22):
thought Brisbane, after finishing sixth last year in a
bit of a surprise premiership, are looking to go back to back
next week? We're going back to back
Brisbane Lions potentially. I'm just really excited for
this. I think both teams are going to
bring it. I'm really, really excited.
It's not A and it's not a grand final where one of the teams
have questions. You know, their form has been,

(44:43):
if Collin would have made it, I would have made like, I'm really
worried this gets to a blowout because Collingwood's form has
been really shaky at times. Obviously they were really good
to start the year and if we got that really good Collingwood
again, that'll be fantastic. But they also had their really
shaky games and you're thinking if they come out with that type
of game, the grand final is going to suck.

(45:04):
Both of these teams, both of these teams have had really good
formers of light and I think it could be an absolute, just a
thrilling ride from start to finish and I'm really hopeful
that's the case. I would love another close grand
final like we had in 2023 and I think this is the perfect match
up for it. I really do.
I think out of the last four teams this is my most preferred

(45:26):
match up and I am really excitedto see what type of Geelong and
what type of lines we see both having to shift a little bit
around. So should.
We get straight into it. I get started.
Into a preview. Let's start with the Cats
defence versus the Lions forwardline, because there's obviously
not going to be Tom Stewart. There's going to be a few

(45:46):
selection calls actually this week, which is going to be very
interesting. No to Tom Stewart, I feel like
means they're much more inclinedto play Reese Stanley and that
allows Sam to Koning to play more, more back and and Mark
Blitz eyes potentially to play more back as well.
And I think that's a pretty obvious force selection call
because Brisbane also don't havea genuine rock and they got

(46:08):
Darzi fought and Mackin and he has to play more forward now.
So I think that allows Sam Dakoni to play defensively on
McInerney. I think that means Jack Henry
goes to Logan Morris again, and that means kind of Sullivan goes
to Ty Gallop. And then you've got the
interesting calls of Zach Guthrie on probably Charlie
Cameron. He's done a good job on him

(46:29):
before where obviously he was really quiet in that qualifying
final. And that leaves Kyle Lerman, who
goes to Kyle Lerman because he'sgood in the air, He's good at
ground. Hasn't been his best year,
though. I think it could be a very
interesting call because so we might be a Lawson Humphreys, I

(46:49):
was gonna say. Because you're looking at the
fringes. I don't think Jack Martins the
guy for him. Martin is not a lot less of a he
plays. Everywhere.
He's kind of a wandering. Leading me back club.
It could be the sub. Too.
That too. Yeah.
Lawson Humphreys. I'm thinking, what's Sean Manor
usually playing? Sean Manor's half.
Forward. Yeah, yeah, 'cause I, I.
Was gonna think maybe he's half back but half forward seems more

(47:09):
his his role. I just know he's played a bit of
back in his path cause then you've also got.
Mark O'Connor on Cam Rainer, which is the match up last week,
which I think size wise is the clear option to go with it.
Yeah, well. If we we can literally look back
a couple of weeks, yeah, when they last played and see who
played on who, Yeah. So absolutely, of course this is
what worked for Geelong. We're going to have different

(47:31):
teams. I believe Lucky Neil was playing
in this one too. He was.
So yeah, well, there's also a chance he.
He does come back again this week, which does change some
things as well. There's issues around Jared
Berry and whether he plays as well with his shoulder.
It looked pretty bad. That was obviously the the issue

(47:51):
with the Dacos tackle, but I don't know if he gets up and
there's a few selection calls that are really interesting.
So you look at the midfield though, you got Smith, Holmes,
Atkins and Jed Bose plays in there and then you got Danger.
Obviously who wants to play in there at times versus
potentially Neil, but we're not going to bank on it.

(48:13):
And then you got Mccluggage, Ashcroft, Dunkley, Reyno goes in
there, Bailey goes in there, andthat's pretty much it saying
Fletcher, get in there. Yeah, occasionally.
Probably will eventually become a mid mid footer you'd assume
leave. Ashcroft also plays in there a
fair bit. Yeah, I think the edge slightly
goes to Geelong given what we saw with Paddy Dangerfield.

(48:35):
However, there's also the chancelogging Neil's come back and
that swings up back in Brisbane favour in my opinion.
I'm just looking. At this back line honestly,
because I think that's Geelong'sbiggest worry.
I think Brisbane know, despite some inaccuracies during the
season, they know how to put points on the board and so if
they they've even got a little bit of a problem in the back
line, it's going to be a worry. So obviously no Tom Stewart I'm

(48:57):
seeing from the last time they had Stewart in there, Humphreys
off the half back with Blitz offthere too, Mark O'Connor, Jack
Henry and Zach Guthrie. So there's two players
potentially compromised there with Jack Henry as well.
Sam Dekoning was a ruckman, yeah, at this point.
So Sam Dekoning was presumably go the half back with Bruce
Stanley coming in. When Stanley comes in, that's

(49:19):
the. Switch Connor.
O'Sullivan off the interchange, Jack Bose, Jack Martin, Orson
Mullen and that's the other. One does Mullen go to?
It's just. Yeah, it's that, but it's also
then you, like you said, the Loman, the Loman problem.
I feel like Loman, he's done it before.
He's shown out in the grand final.
Obviously they're not going to do it every grand final, but who

(49:42):
could they possibly put on Lomanand then?
This is the interesting thing. It all leads to who goes on
Jeremy Cameron. Did you look at the the game
last time? There was no match up for him.
He had six shots on goal, could have easily kicked 5 very easily
because Lester, who's been very good on him beforehand, that was
the worst performance I've seen from him ever.

(50:03):
And then they had to put Gardnerto him and whilst Gardner's OK
physically doesn't do much around the ground and that was
obviously where where Jezza was able to get over him.
Does Harris Andrews get on go onhim or does Shannon Neil be the
match of Harris Andrews? Because Harris Andrews is a gun.
He is a serious he's. A good player.

(50:24):
I'm trying to think because I always love the second.
I think the second option, when you have to think so hard about
who you played, the second option always explodes.
The most Prime example this yearhas been Aaron Norton's
resurgence with Sam Darcy exploding to the to the degree
he has. So I'm thinking Shannon Neal

(50:44):
could have a massive game here. Jeremy Cameron, of course, we
know the threat that he always is.
He's not going to kick 100, which sucks.
Unless he has that good of a game, he's not kicking.
Twelve goals. Unfortunately, he's not.
That would be insane. If it happens though, it is such
a great match up. It is so hard to predict and

(51:07):
with Chris. Scott and his ability to just
change things on a whim and and in game especially, and then
Chris Fagan, his faith in their system to just be able to get
over the top of any team They play.
Stengel also. Found some form in their game
against yeah, Hawthorne. So it's like, Oh my God, if
Brandon Popovich though, he's yes, Darcevich is really, really
good. But it's like my biggest,

(51:29):
biggest worry is that Geelong back line, because it's
noticeably compromised. So with as as much pressure and
as much ball use as they can getinto the forward line, I'm just
thinking how is that back line going to hold up?
But yeah, Chris Scott always hasa way.
He always has. Something, there's always
something with him. And when you look at the way

(51:50):
they played last, last time, Geelong was so switched on with
how they were looking at Paritzman's form, even where you
could see it in the first quarter, the second they went
inboard. Yeah, Myers, you're onto that,
Stengel, you're onto that. And they were able to turn it
over and get a goal out of it. And you can just see that if
that happens again, Brisbane could very well be shot.

(52:10):
But Brisbane is taking such risky kicks and they're being so
dangerous with their ball movement that if it works, you,
just like Geelong's backline, won't be able to stand up to
There's no no. One's backline can stand up when
Brisbane risky kicks work off because they do it in a way that
purposely advantages them if it pays off in a big way, as you'd
hope any kind of risk would go. But sometimes players will make

(52:32):
dumb risks. Lions very rarely ever do that
again. The only times we've seen it as
a recent Zorkos couple of kicks that have been a bit ill
informed. You know, he thinks he can get
one a bit further than he'd liketo or get an extra angle that
just isn't there. So there's potential for it to
go wrong. But both sides are so battle
test that are so like you're like going through all of their

(52:55):
game playing with a fine tooth comb.
There's no Cinderella story here.
Both these teams had this in mind at the start of the season
100% so I don't know how I'm going to predict this.
Where? Where?
Do you say the game won and lostBrisbane's?
Forward and Geelong's back line has to be for me, it has to be
so I think both sides. Will get.

(53:17):
Opportunities, I think both sides have such great midfields
that they'll both get opportunities going inside.
It's just and I think the game could easily be one in the on
the other end of the ground. I think 100% that game, the game
could be decided there, but the most questions for me come with
does Geelong's back line hold upwith the with this kind of

(53:39):
beatings that they've gotten over the week, do they hold up?
And they've got the tools to do it, but they've got to put it
into practise. So we'll see how it goes.
Again, like I said, could easilybe Geelong's forward line is
just so good that no matter whatBrisbane does, they can't stop
it as it seemed to happen the last time around.
The way the. Way I say it is if we can say

(54:00):
because obviously if you're banking on winning the exact
same way two times within four weeks, I think that's a bit
unrealistic and given Chris Scott's history, I don't think
he's going to be that ignorant with how Brisbane are going to
set up. I think there's going to be
something different in this game, whether it's Huma Kluggage
off half back or something like that or even on the wing,
whatever it is, where it could be rain as a full time

(54:22):
midfielder, who knows, because it's going to be such an
exciting game and both teams have versatility.
I think it's won and lost between Dangerfield and Rayner
because you look at those two, what Rayner did in that second
half, that brute force, that unrelenting tackle, breaking
pressure and the fact that no one really can go with him

(54:43):
physically. Obviously Mark Connor can go
with him around the ground, but physically he's not a great
match up. And then what we saw Danger do
against Hawthorne where he just crashed packs and he just
wouldn't allow Hawthorne to win the ball back.
I think whoever has a better game between those two I think
is the winner of the game. Well, the.
Game changes for a reason, we'veknown them for a long time as

(55:04):
those players, you can break open a game, they've done it on
multiple occasions. It's just about who you're
putting your marbles in and I think we've done all the
discussion we need. Who have you got winning the AFL
Grand Final? Brisbane, I think, I think it's
so tough for a team to win a qualifying final and then to

(55:26):
play them again and win again. I think especially without their
K pillar down back, I don't think Dangerfield's going to and
have that same game because it'sgoing to have a toll on his
body. I think it all just leads.
I've been so strong on Brisbane as well and given they've got a
chance I just I've got to go with my tip that I've had all

(55:46):
year and that is Brisbane winning again.
You have had it from day one? I have, yeah.
I've had Brisbane as. Minor premiers since day one,
they were my number one pick. They didn't get it obviously,
but here at the grand final on achance to become the premiers
again. But I didn't say they were going
to be premiers. In fact I had cats above them.

(56:09):
No, I didn't have them. I had them in the right
position, in my latter position.So I've been right about Geelong
every time and I'm going to stick with them again.
I think Chris Scott has what it takes to make the changes that
just completely bamboozle that forward.
Oh, sorry that you know that forward line for for Brisbane.
I think they do have the talent,but you're relying on Logan

(56:31):
Morris, who sure has so much experience and so much done
already in a short term career. But they've also got to rely on
Ty Gallop, they've got to rely on a Charlie Cameron who is very
on and off more often on. You'd hope he goes ballistic for
this game if you're a Brisbane fan, but he's not always capable
of doing so. I think a lot of their damage is

(56:52):
going to have to come from the midfield and when Geelong is so
ready, available and set up to stop your midfield dominance and
have proven to do so before, I think they can do it again, not
by as much. Again, I think this is going to
be really close. I think pressure of the day,
both sides very much capable of elevating their game to the
occasion and it's why I love this match up so much.

(57:15):
I think the Cats are going to take it by 10.
I think the Cats are going to take it in a really close one
and you're going to see struggles on both sides.
I think there's going to be moments where the Cats look
really vulnerable, look like thegame's about to break away from
them and then that game change happens.
Like you said, the types of Paddy Dangerfield, those game
Breakers, Ollie Dempsey, when hegets his opportunities, could

(57:37):
easily smash in a couple of goals to pick the momentum back
in their favour. I just think that there's too
much experience, too many great players on this team and too
many opportunities, too many options for this Geelong team
not to use them. And while it could easily go
Brisbane's way, I think I trust Chris Scott that much to make
the right decision despite the scenario.

(57:58):
I really do. I.
I absolutely agree with pretty much everything you said because
we've we've seen it and they're proven.
But I just think the lion, there's something about them,
even though they, I get it, the vibe.
Pick the vibe pick. Yeah, it's not even, I was going
to say it's not even a vibe pick, but I get what you're
saying. It's such to me.
This is the most 5050 grand final I've ever seen.

(58:19):
It's so. So close and I'm really happy
it's the case again. Like I said, this was calling
with Geelong. I'd be like oh for God sake.
Other than the fact it's two bigVictorian sides and oh God, just
it's something like new as well.Yeah.
Have we ever seen this before? I don't think so.
No. That didn't happen in the old
dynasty. It didn't happen when the Cats

(58:40):
were O seven O 911. So this is the first time we've
seen Brisbane, Geelong, which iswhich I'm very happy about.
Could have been cool to see Hawks make it, but yeah, I'm
happy that it's Cats. Cats Brisbane.
I think it could have gone either way and this is the best
result we got. Think going on lines.
By 17, yeah, I think I am. That leads us though to our bold

(59:02):
predictions. We either have the choice of
going 2 bold predictions and ourNorm Smith prediction or our
Norm Smith and three bold predictions.
It is up to you. What do you want to choose?
So either three bold predictionsand a Norm Smith or Norm.
Smith is one of the bold predictions.
Norm Smith is 1. Of the bold predictions, because
I think, you know, you've got 48people to go through, That's a

(59:24):
bold prediction no matter what. I reckon.
I agree, sorry. Who is your Norm Smith Medal for
the 2025 AFL Grand Final? It's got to be humour cluggage
for me. It's huge.
It's got to be even in a losing.Grand Final.
Yeah, I think it genuinely couldbe.
I think genuinely, especially ifhe gets moved around to that,

(59:47):
especially off half back, especially off half back if
Geelong, I'm making those moves,Hugh Mccluggage could very
easily rack up a big disposal, disposal margin.
Obviously it's dependent on likehow effective he is, whether
he's getting the ball. I think the fact that it's going
to be close will help him out a lot.
Even if Geelong does take it, which I predict will happen.

(01:00:07):
Hugh Mccluggage has an elevated role, finds himself in a lot of
scenarios where he could be moved to a more ball handling
and on ball. Effective position and who
knows, he couldn't even get himself on the scoreboard.
But I think Hugh Mccluggage, theonly way he gets it is if it's
close. If it's not close, it'll go to

(01:00:27):
someone who dominates on Geelong's side or kicks a lot of
goals. Who is Jeremy Cameron?
OK. So you go on Mccluggage or
Cameron? Yeah, probably.
Yeah, I'll go. Jeremy Cameron.
OK, I'm going. Harris Andrews.
Brian. Brian like esque of the
Hawthorne, Yes, such a. Great shot, that.

(01:00:48):
Is my guess. I just think he's been
phenomenal. We saw how good he was in that
first week and I think if Brisbane are able to get up,
which I've tipped them to do, heis going to be the force that
just doesn't allow Geelong to penetrate that back line and
he's going to be a brick wall. So to me everything leads
towards him having one of the best key back final series I've

(01:01:09):
ever seen because he has stood up in every single final.
Phenomenal player, Best full back off.
I do not. Disagree with you.
I really do think it could be possible, especially again, that
comes with if it's really close,yeah.
If it's a blowout, it's always going to go to a high possession
getter or a high goal score forward, yeah.
Yeah, it's never going to go to a back.
When, if it's a big one, becauseyou know, people will be like

(01:01:31):
they didn't need to defend that much.
If it's close and Harris Andrew steps up in those big ways,
that's when he's going to get recognised.
So I think for both of us, the tips that we've gone with help
our cases a little bit. My first bold prediction for the
grand final is both teams are going to score over 90 points.
So it does go against your Harris Andrew's pick a little

(01:01:52):
bit. But I think they both have what
it takes to be a big scoring team.
I don't think either team are going to be a bit gun shy.
I think they both are going to step up.
That's why I love this. I love this matchup so, so much.
Neither of them look like they're going to have those ifs
like those those really like yips types of kicks and and

(01:02:14):
maybe a couple here and there, but they're both grand final and
final experienced teams. They're both very, very strong.
So I think both of them will start scoring in big ways.
I. Think my first bold prediction
is that the first half is going to end up very close in the in
the end of the margin, but the first quarter one team will

(01:02:36):
dominate and then the second quarter the other team will
dominate. And it's a very clear difference
where it's like 5 goals to 1 andthen it's six goals to two.
It's that much of a difference, I think.
A tale of two halves. Is that your bold prediction?
I don't know if it's a tail of two halves, but the first half
in a sense, yeah, the first halfis split into two halves, Yeah.

(01:02:57):
Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
So it's like first quarter one first.
Quarter one side is great, second quarter the other side is
great, but the margin ends up pretty close.
Is that for the first? Half.
Yeah, that's for the first half.I don't know what's happening in
the second half. OK, what a mystery.
Bold prediction is the first half.
Is split basically between the two teams.
Yeah, OK. Fair enough, fair enough.

(01:03:18):
I am actually going to think on the opposite end of the
spectrum. I'm trying to think of players
who are usually really good, whoI think may have a bit of a
struggle because like I said, both teams step up.
So I think a bold prediction could be someone doesn't live up
to that mark. And for me, that person
unfortunately is Levi Ashcroft. I think Levi can get himself a
lot of disposals very often, butI think he's going to have under

(01:03:40):
15 in this game. I think with his, you know,
young game, he's in a position where his role isn't so
necessary or reliant. They don't rely on Levi's play
as much as they do other players.
And so I think maybe it's just the habit of Levi not knowing
where to go. Maybe it's just the fact that he

(01:04:03):
is in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
But I think Levi may have himself a bit of a tough one.
Under 15 disposals when he very easily can rack him up.
I think under 15 is where we seeLevi.
Don't mind it, but I think just first year player, it's a bit
hard to to tell. I mean, you just.
Think back to Will he won the Norm Smith, so like it could go

(01:04:24):
the other way, but at the same time, considering both sides
look so ready for a grand final,I think it'd be interesting if
there is a noticeable player who's off.
And for me it just makes sense if it's the youngest or one of
the youngest guys out there. First big, big momentous
occasion. He watched his brother play in
the grand final as well from thestand.
So now to be out on the other side, that's a cool story in

(01:04:46):
itself. You just contrast Levi will
celebrating last year to, if they win it, celebrating this
year. Like that'll be kind of cool.
I like that. I'm going to go for Josh Dunkley
and Tom Atkins to combine 50 tackles.
No, that is double. That is 2 plays being the AFL.
I'm trying to think of a number.I feel like 25 is not bad, but

(01:05:09):
it's a bit low for a bold prediction I think. 25 is fine,
I'll go 25. Because that's 13.
If you're thinking the most, even 12, that's 13 and 12.
I'll go, Josh. Dunkley and Tom Atkins combined
for 27 plus tackles. OK, that is.
Yeah, no thinking that. I think that's very bold because
they very all it takes is 1 not to do that, not to have no

(01:05:30):
pressure, but that is maybe the intensity of the grand final has
a few more tackles to that count, to that count, Yep,
they're the 2. Hardballs.
They're two nuts, yeah. Fair enough, AFL Grand Final
time is upon us. I'm excited to come back next
week and talk everything regarding the Grand Final.

(01:05:51):
We'll find out who ends up beinga winner in the next episode of
0 Access Footy. Thank you guys so much for
tuning in. Hopefully you guys are just as
excited as we are. Be sure to follow us on all the
platforms you see up there. It's always greatly appreciated
you tuning in and joining along if your team is playing.
Best of luck to you. I hope whoever is watching this

(01:06:12):
that is Geelong Cats or Brisbanesupporter, I'm supporting you.
I'm supporting you for all the work that you've done and
continuing to watch us 31 episodes deep.
So appreciate you once again Benfor joining me for 0 Access
Footy episode #31. Thank you all very much.
Appreciate it. See you later.
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