RECAP: Fremantle Dockers sunk by single point in outrageous elimination final thriller
Fremantle’s season has ended in the ultimate heartbreak, sunk by a golden point by retiring Suns hero David Swallow.
Recap all the action as it happened in our blog.
Grandstand finish
The Giants have whittled down a 30-point deficet to just a single goal at the final break.
Hogan has been huge but they have sustained another couple of injuries.
It is set to be a massive last term.
First in, first served
Josh Treacy is the first player out on the ground hours before the bounce.
It’s his bare-foot routine as the big forward gets a feel for the ground.
Chances are he would have been out earlier except he had to wait for a downpour to finish.
A half to go
The Giants have a half of footy left to save their season and they will need to do it without Darcy Jones.
The young West Aussie has been subbed out with a knee injury after an awkard one-legged landing post bump.
Running away with it
The weather in Sydney is a stark contrast to here in Perth with Hawthorn and the Giants enjoying the sunny weather in a high-scoring contest.
There has been 16 goals in the game with just seven behinds.
WA’s All-Australian defenders Sam Taylor and Tom Barrass are having strong days despite the high scores.
Jesse Hogan grabbed two second-term goals to keep the Giants in it but Hawthorn hold a 23-point lead approaching half-time.
Hawks fast starters
Looking at the day’s other elimination final, and the visiting Hawks could barely have dreamt of a better start.
Sam Mitchell’s team leads 7.2 (44) to 3.2 (20) off the back of some midfield domination and making the absolute most of their forward-50 entries.
Jai Newcombe has starred with nine first-term touches and a goal, while Connor McDonald has booted a couple of majors.
It’s their highest-scoring first term of the season and their highest-scoring first term of finals footy away from Victoria in club history.
Rain, rain and more rain
It’s been a very wet 36 hours in Perth, with spring on hold as showers smash the metro area.
Optus Stadium’s turf just copped a heavy downpour, with rain still sprinkling on the surface here.
The showers are tipped to subside by the time we get closer to bouncedown, and the forecast has the actual two-and-a-half hours of the game looking relatively unaffected by the wet.
That might not actually suit the Dockers, who have been superb in rain-impacted games this year with a 5-0 record. Read more about that and the players who have stood up in wet conditions here.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of a super Saturday of finals!
Freo are in action from 5.35pm at a wet Optus Stadium, which is being lashed by rain as we speak.
More on that shortly, but the day’s other final has just got underway - and it’s a fast start for Hawthorn on the road against GWS.
The Hawks have booted five of the game’s first six goals to set up a 5.1 (31) to 1.2 (8) lead entering time-on in the opening term.
