AFL grand final 2026 live: Fremantle Dockers v Brisbane Lions

Q4: 1 min remaining: Fremantle 12.17.89 – Brisbane 13.12.90

Brisbane in front! Finally they get loose. Berry out of defence, finds Neale on the wing, sloppy kick but McCluggage gets the loose ball, inside 50 and finds Morris… and he kicks the set shot!

Q4: 2 min remaining: Fremantle 12.17.89 – Brisbane 12.12.84

How Fremantle would love to have their captain, Alex Pearce, marshalling the backline instead of sitting on the bench next to a pair of crutches. Treacy takes a clutch mark on the wing to get them out of defence. Forward they go, the ball rolling inside 50, and Voss lays a tackle as crucial as any goal to hold the ball up at the right end of the ground for Fremantle.

Q4: 3 min remaining: Fremantle 12.17.89 – Brisbane 12.12.84

And again! Bailey this time, hasn't been prominent today, but he finds the middle of the sticks when it matters. Ball-up just inside 50, Bailey grabs the loose ball, shoves off an opponent, and off balance, off a step, 40 out, tumbles a drop punt through.

Less than a goal in it.

Q4: 4 min remaining: Fremantle 12.17.89 – Brisbane 11.12.78

Brisbane hit back immediately! The stars lifting, Will Ashcroft in heavy traffic, running towards goal after the centre square tap, low kick inside to find Cameron, brilliant pickup at full speed running away from goal, then turns back to snap it through!

Q4: 4 min remaining: Fremantle 12.17.89 – Brisbane 10.12.72

Neither has Matthew Johnson, with a long set shot from outside 50, missing to the right, but perhaps Patrick Voss has finished off the reigning premiers. Zorko's ball out of defensive 50 goes awry, Bolton picks it up off the ground, runs back inside and crosses to Voss right in front of goal. Shoots from about 25, nails it, and now they hit the button for Wharfie Time. Biggest roar of the day, from the crowd and from Voss, both arms spread wide as he runs a huge semi-circle.

Q4: 6 min remaining: Fremantle 11.16.82 – Brisbane 10.12.72

What?! Treacy has missed from two metres out! Serong inside 50, clears the pack, Mason Cox tries to run back but he's like a jeep in sand, somehow the ball is knocked back towards goal, Treacy runs back onto it under severe pressure, and his flailed kick skews off the very outside of his boot from inside the goal square, and goes wrong side of the post! Could have finished off Brisbane, but he hasn't.

Q4: 7 min remaining: Fremantle 11.15.81 – Brisbane 10.12.72

Frederick is paid a fortuitous mark! A desperate Brisbane kick out of defence in the forward pocket, but the Freo player is in the way. Harris Andrew protests that the ball didn't travel 15 metres, and he has a point, but perhaps umpires are more receptive to turnover passes than ones from the same team.

Frederick goes around the body from the left pocket and… goals!

Where is Wharfie Time? We haven't had it. You'd think seven minutes to play would be the time!

Q4: 8 min remaining: Fremantle 10.15.75 – Brisbane 10.12.72

Hipwood down behind play after a knee in the ribs. Bolton runs down the wing and again makes a hash of it, half pass and half shot from 50, the ball ends up rolling into space and is repelled by Brisbane. The next foray forward is intercept marked by Andrew. Freo don't have a route to goal at the moment. Voss tried to provide it, wrestling with Andrew in the pocket, the only two within 50 metres of goal. Voss eventually wins the fight, gets possession, handballs to Amiss, and his kick is smothered! Young gets a snap away a little later, but misses.

Q4: 11 min remaining: Fremantle 10.14.74 – Brisbane 10.12.72

Bolton kicks his second point of the day. McKenna returns serve at the other end. Three points, 12 minutes to go. Brisbane with the experience. They keep on pushing forward, will Fremantle break? Oh, Freo get lucky as Rayner snaps another behind.

Q4: 13 min remaining: Fremantle 10.13.73 – Brisbane 10.10.70

Is that the moment for Fremantle, the one they'll look back on? Lohmann lines up to kick from outside 50, then tries to run around the man on the mark to decrease the distance. McVee gets across and dives to smother! Reid picks the ball up and sprints back towards his defensive goal, picking the one gap to get between a couple of defenders, then kick long across the face to find Frederick and get out of trouble. Incredible defence.

Well, perhaps not, because Brisbane kick the next one anyway. Back inside Lions territory, Dunkley lays a tackle, ball spills free, and Morris finishes from 40 metres out on the snap!

Q4: 16 min remaining: Fremantle 10.13.73 – Brisbane 9.9.63

Ashcroft gets pinged for a throw even though he got a knuckle on the ball. So fast with the release that it looked like he tossed it. It doesn't cost Brisbane though, they end up with possession again and go forward through Rayner. Lohmann is tackled as he attempts to pass, and it drops short and is repelled, but back come Brisbane through McCluggage, whose name hasn't been called too many times today. He misses his gettable set shot, slight angle to the left.

Q4: 18 min remaining: Fremantle 10.13.73 – Brisbane 9.8.62

The last tilt begins. Ball out to the wing, Serong with a huge long kick forward, but Brisbane intercept mark via Gallop. Bolton a similar kick from the other wing, but again it's picked off. Spoiled, ball loose, Gallop picks it up, and Voss nails him with a tackle. He screws up the kick though, tries to play on and run around the man on the mark from 50, runs into trouble, and is hampered in his kick, which doesn't make the distance. Rushed behind.

Fremantle lifted in that quarter, then Brisbane dragged it back. Freo looking just the stronger team here, but only by a whisker.

Grand finals level at half-time have been rare: this year, last year, then 1909 and 1905 the only others, in the days when scores were rather lower. But by three-quarter time, the teams that lead go on to win. Geelong overrunning St Kilda in 2009 is the only exception in the last four decades.

If ever that's going to change, it's today. This one is closely matched.

Q3: 0 min remaining: Fremantle 10.12.72 – Brisbane 9.8.62

Oscar Allen's playing a game today. Fights at ground level in the forward 50 and manages to win back a ball that looks like it's Fremantle's, setting up Morris for a play-on shot from the pocket, but Morris misses. Fremantle get to the far end quickly from the kick-in, where Levi Ashcroft gets a bit fancy trying a tap to a teammate, instead allowing Fremantle to get possession. There's a kick out wide to Young, who marks a millimetre inside the boundary, deep in the right pocket… and shoots truly from his set shot around the body! Just inside the paint, on the left foot, he curls it back.

Q3: 2 min remaining: Fremantle 9.12.66 – Brisbane 9.7.61

A couple of huge spoils from Harris Andrew, after Chapman takes a soaking intercept mark at half back that looks destined to set up a Fremantle goal. Not to be.

Q3: 4 min remaining: Fremantle 9.12.66 – Brisbane 9.7.61

Scratch that, Freo in front! This lead is going back and forth like a ping-pong ball. Out of the centre bounce, kick up to Switkowski on 50, hands off to Young, slots it on the run! Easy as you like.

Q3: 5 min remaining: Fremantle 8.12.60 – Brisbane 9.7.61

Brisbane are resurrected, and so is Charlie Cameron! How did that happen? He was hobbling off with the trainers two minutes ago. Now he's back in the forward line, bobbing up to mark, after Bailey receives a handball from Neale in heavy traffic in the centre square, and runs clear of the pack.

Q3: 7 min remaining: Fremantle 8.11.59– Brisbane 8.7.55

Charlie Cameron is down now, done an ankle. Hobbling. Oof, twisted under him in a tackle, yuck. In better news for Brisbane, Will Ashcroft from the centre square finds Allen, marking low to the ground 35 metres out, and he goes back and kicks the goal. We're back to four points!

Q3: 9 min remaining: Fremantle 8.10.58– Brisbane 7.7.49

Brisbane hanging on at the moment. Amiss spearing inside 50 to Voss, looks a certainty to mark on the lead, but Harris Andrews does superbly to get an arm around the body and spoil. Chris Fagan coaching from the bench is getting animated. The margin only 15 points but the game has been so tight all day that 15 feels a lot, and 21 would feel like double that. Vibe Maths, go with me.

But no! What's the vibe on nine points? Because Lohmann has just cut the gap to that, after a long chain of counterattacking possession, after Rayner digs it out in the centre square, finds a flying McKenna, who kicks to Morris, who hands over the top to the goal square.

Q3: 12 min remaining: Fremantle 8.10.58– Brisbane 6.7.43

DUDLEY! What a goal from the goalsneak! He bobs and weaves, he's a human game of Whack-A-Mole. Ball coming shallowly inside 50, he slaps it to his own advantage, runs onto it while going laterally to goal, traps it, doubles back, dodges one tackle, ducks underneath a second, pops up again, and sends the ball home around the body from 45!

Q3: 12 min remaining: Fremantle 7.10.52– Brisbane 6.7.43

Looks like an Achilles snap for Pearce. He's getting a huge ice chunk glad-wrapped to his lower leg. Freo's captain is gone for the day.

Q3: 13 min remaining: Fremantle 7.10.52– Brisbane 6.7.43

Uh oh. Alex Pearce has something seriously wrong. In a contest on the wing, sprinting for a ball, suddenly his leg gives way under him. Calf tear? Seemed to be lower leg, the way he collapsed. He's been helped off the field. Switkowski kicks a long point, another wasted chance by Freo. Brisbane are scrambling to make changes off the bench to take advantage of Freo being down a key defender.

Q3: 15 min remaining: Fremantle 7.9.51– Brisbane 6.7.43

This time Brisbane get out of the centre square after a second bounce, but the long kick forward is picked off. Back go Fremantle the other way with some run and handball, and Amiss on the 50 is scragged in the marking contest, nothing glaring but enough for the umpire to whistle it up. On the left from 55 he hangs it left and Draper punches it through.

Q3: 16 min remaining: Fremantle 7.8.50– Brisbane 6.7.43

Ashcroft goes long to a pack on the wing. Jackson gets up there like Jezza (finish that name with either lenko or Cameron, as you wish) but doesn't quite haul down the mark. Freo get back inside 50 but the ball is locked up for a time. Finally Young squeezes a low flat kick out of the pack, and Amiss marks! Near the goal line, but on a severe angle … he kicks it anyway!

Q3: 19 min remaining: Fremantle 6.8.44– Brisbane 6.7.43

First centre clearance to Fremantle, Jackson perfect tap down to Bolton, into 50 to find Treacy, huge chance to start the second half with a bang, but his set shot fades right after looking on target off the boot. That point gives Fremantle the lead…

A huge cheer for Brandon Leary of Tasmania, the first time a Tassie rep has lined up in one of these races. Another cheer for Cathy Freeman, firing the starting gun. A bit tough to invite Jarman Impey back to the MCG on grand final day to be doing this rather than playing, but he has a smile on his face as he applauds Jed Walter of Gold Coast who streaks away from the field to win the sprint as he did last year. An omen for the Lions, about history repeating?

Lining up for the Grand Final Sprint…

Scores are level at the half. Wasn't that also the case last year, before Brisbane dropped the hammer? They looked by far the better side then, and they don't today. Neither side has dominated, both have been pretty scrappy given the conditions, with occasional bursts of class. It seems like a question of who can turn a burst like that into a three-goal run, and take control of the game.

Q2: 1 min remaining: Fremantle 6.7.43– Brisbane 6.7.43

Finally, Freo slip the noose via a high tackle. Worner pushes forward, Switkowski gets hold of it near the 50, but then two Josh Dunkley smothers in ten seconds defuse two attempts at gold! First from Bolton, after Switkowski hands off, then from Serong who got the loose ball inside 50! Another botch from Fremantle going forward, they've had a number of those today. Finally Freo get a shot away, but Karl Worner from 55 wouldn't be their first-choice route to goal. He misses and ties the scores.

Q2: 3 min remaining: Fremantle 6.6.42– Brisbane 6.7.43

Stuck in Brisbane's right forward pocket as we count down towards half time. Two boundary throws, two ball-ups, no Moses to part the seas. Another ball-up. Erasmus toes a kick 20 metres. Out of bounds, another throw-in. Another ball-up. Soccered up to the wing by Freo for another throw-in.

Q2: 6 min remaining: Fremantle 6.6.42– Brisbane 6.7.43

Now the Lions are starting to click. Little momentum shifts through the day. Will Ashcroft streaming down the wing with that mullet flowing, kicks inside to find Neale. Also finding Neale is Mason Cox, who has not been sighted otherwise today, and crashes into the Brisbane player, knocking him to the ground. Neale wants a 50 metre penalty. Several Brisbane players want a fight with Cox, who is game to take them all on. Getting heated out there. But after all that, Neale misses the simple set shot to the right. Gives Brisbane the lead by a point.

Q2: 7 min remaining: Fremantle 6.6.42– Brisbane 6.6.42

Poster from Hipwood! Kicking a set shot around the corner from the left forward pocket, he never looked entirely confident. Had marked a ball that drifted across the face of goal. Brisbane get another chance though, Andrews a chiselled pass to Draper, who'll have a 52-metre shot … and dumps it right through the middle! Scores level again!

Q2: 12 min remaining: Fremantle 6.6.42– Brisbane 5.5.35

Control C, Control V! Dudley to Voss, that is! After a couple of fierce tackles at half back, winning possession for holding the ball, Dudley is in position to take a handball from Jackson in traffic, burn away, take a bounce, then thread a 40-metre pass to Voss between two Lions at full forward. Until today, a Voss slamming goals on grand final day was good news for Brisbane. Not any more.

Q2: 12 min remaining: Fremantle 5.6.36 – Brisbane 5.5.35

Brisbane look like they're out, down the wing in front of the Southern Stand, but Lester's long kick forward becomes a shorter kick forward, and Freo pick it off. Dudley finds Voss just inside the boundary, but from 45 metres out his shot is narrow. Freo up by a point.

Q2: 15 min remaining: Fremantle 5.5.35 – Brisbane 5.5.35

Voss handballs to Bolton, whose snap misses. Brisbane try to slow the game down a bit with some possession footy. Easier said than done in grand finals. Lots of tackles being laid. Then Brisbane benefit from a horrible handball on the wing, Cameron applying pressure around the contest, and three of their stars combine. Cameron into 50 to Lohmann, who doesn't mark but taps to his own advantage and butters up nicely, goes over the top to Ashcroft, and Levi Ashcroft can kick a goal from 30 out straight in front. Scores level again.

Q2: 16 min remaining: Fremantle 5.4.34 – Brisbane 4.5.29

Frematnle back in front! Serong prominent twice, sharp handball from the centre bounce, but Young is caught holding the ball. Brisbane take the advantage but make a mess of it, and Serong eventually gets another chance, a long kick inside 50 to Amiss who kicks his set shot. The lead keeps changing here.

Q2: 17 min remaining: Fremantle 4.4.28 – Brisbane 4.5.29

And back Brisbane go the other way! This has been so tight on the scoreboard. McKenna in the pocket, Punt Road End, right pocket, deep near the paint. Under pressure, through traffic, somehow scuffs the ball off his toe with no angle and watches it dribble through along the turf.

Q2: 19 min remaining: Fremantle 4.4.28 – Brisbane 3.5.23

First strike for Fremantle! Treacy makes up for the last quarter's disappointment with a big mark outside 50, then a long kick to full forward and Voss in from the side clunks it! Goes back and kicks the set shot.

Rainy, chilly, but still a decent standard of skills on display at times in the first quarter. That will likely deteriorate as the game goes on. Both teams have botched a few chances. Thinking of last year though, you're always waiting for a Brisbane switch to flip. Fremantle need to push.

Q1: 0 min remaining: Fremantle 3.4.22 – Brisbane 3.5.23

Footy gods do the right thing as Logan Morris dives like a Swiss striker. Literally ran into Alex Pearce in an attempt to mark and then threw himself on the ground with arms waving everywhere. Umpire gives him a shot from 25 metres out and he butchers it utterly, all the way across the face and not even a behind.

Down the other end with seconds ticking down, and again it's a big umpiring call on the siren! Chapman, handball, Erasmus, kick, Treacy marks coming out from goal, and everyone assumes that it's a mark. The Brisbane defenders stop, Treacy starts walking back to take his shot, and everyone's waiting for it except the umpire nearest, who says the kick was too short! Play on! Finally Oscar Allen gets the memo, and mows into Treacy in a huge tackle.

Touch and go, the kick was pretty short, and they have called several of those already in the quarter. Rare that you see it paid for a stab pass to a leading forward, though.

Anyway, no quarter time shot after the siren for Fremantle.

Q1: 1 min remaining: Fremantle 3.4.22 – Brisbane 3.5.23

Shocking bit of decision-making from Reid. Runs up the wing, has a bounce, runs inside 50, then instead of finding a teammate, cuts inside past a defender, and tries to snap on the run from 45 out. Unsurprisingly, doesn't have the distance on that style of kick after a 90-metre sprint. But as with Lohmann and Dudley, he gets another chance moments later, reading the ball well from a boundary throw-in and snapping Freo's third!

Q1: 4 min remaining: Fremantle 2.4.16 – Brisbane 3.4.22

Lohmann is starting to get into this game now. Misses a shot from deep in the pocket, one that doesn't make the line, but he gets another chance moments later, again on the run but this time from right in front. A brilliant little flip handball to set up Lohmann burning past the contest.

Q1: 5 min remaining: Fremantle 2.3.15 – Brisbane 2.3.15

Who do you expect to see dancing past defenders and slotting them on the run? Is it Oscar Allen? Probably not top of the list. But that's what happens, as he turns receiver to Kai Lohmann's provider in the forward 50. Looped handball over the top, Allen does a candy-sell, and can run into goal after getting rid of the defender.

Q1: 7 min remaining: Fremantle 2.3.15 – Brisbane 1.3.9

Charlie Cameron doesn't have the leg for a shot from the pocket on the run, with plenty of space. It's marked on the line. And Fremantle go coast to coast! Dudley makes good! A familiar trip for the guys from the West. Young drills a long kick down the line to the attacking arc, Jackson grabs it just on the boundary and holds it back into the field of play before handballing, Dudley has overcommitted in leading up, and the ball goes over his head. He has to double back, dive at the ball to knock it clear from Brisbane's defence, then pops back up, grabs it off the deck about 45 from goal, and slams it through.

Q1: 8 min remaining: Fremantle 1.3.9 – Brisbane 1.3.9

Like a dollar coin in a pair of tight jeans, the ball is trapped in the pocket. Finally it gets squeezed out, then suddenly Fremantle have space through the middle. Young and Switkowski by hand through the centre, but Frederick overcooks his kick forward, setting up Voss to get flattened by Andrews rather than have a chance at a mark. Scrambling in the forward line, Bolton gets a snap at goal but it falls just short and is punched through. Then when Freo mimic Brisbane's example in getting another attempt through defensive pressure, Isaiah Dudley flashes a shot wide on the run.

Q1: 11 min remaining: Fremantle 1.1.7 – Brisbane 1.3.9

Pressure footy from Brisbane. Murphy Reid is hassled out of possession on the wing, Brisbane drive the rolling ball forward, but McKenna misses his shot on the run, then there's another rushed behind moments later. Lions locking down their forward 50 pretty well, Freo's next attempt to escape is also shut down, and there's a series of ball-ups near the boundary until Pearce gets a free for a ball that skews out of bounds off a Brisbane boot.

Q1: 13 min remaining: Fremantle 1.1.7 – Brisbane 1.7.7

Voss botches another chance, this time dropping a mark in the pocket on the lead. Ball back outside Freo's 50, where Shai Bolton has his head removed, puts it back on, and has it ripped off again. Gets a free from at least one of those amateur surgeries. Goes back into the pocket, but the ball is spoiled despite a big fly attempt. The Lions almost make them pay, good movement to the other end, Cam Rayner marks on the lead, runs wide of the man on the mark, and misses to the far side from the right forward pocket.

Q1: 16 min remaining: Fremantle 1.1.7 – Brisbane 1.0.6

The immediate reply from Fremantle to take the early lead, as Josh Treacy marks strongly on the lead after a perfect centre clearance, and despite the wet conditions, absolutely flushes the kick from outside 50!

Q1: 17 min remaining: Fremantle 0.1.1 – Brisbane 1.0.6

First break out of the centre square goes Brisbane's way, in a vortex of tackling and flying limbs, the ball scrambled forward rather than delivered. Fremantle repel the first two entries into 50, then an incredible pick-up at top speed by Jye Amiss on the wing helps neutralise a dangerous situation.

Ball back inside Lions 50, looks like a rushed behind but there's a Freo free for a push, so the score is chalked off. Dockers get out via Frederick down the wing, into the pocket for Voss, but he misses a checkside on the run from the pocket. Freo point, and Brisbane rebound immediately, down the other end, finding Charlie Cameron in space… goal!

Harris Andrews wins the toss of the coin, such as it matters, and chooses to kick… in one of the directions. Hard to tell on the close-up. I think he went City End?

Welcome to Country takes place, and now the national anthem. Get ready for the cheer…

Here comes the premiership cup, carried onto the field by Luke Hodge, then handed over to Fremantle rep Shaun McManus and Brisbane rep Simon Black, a couple of huge names from the histories of these two clubs.

Thanks Martin. That was actually quite affecting, the way that Kylie's show started with a whole montage of her as a kid and then as a young woman, then it cut to a girl in a school uniform walking onto the MCG wearing big Walkman headphones, the kid dreaming of being there one day… and the cameras panned over to Kylie's centre stage. Where she ended up. Top marks.

OK, I've almost got my head back in the game after that incredible performance from Kylie. I'm sorry, but it was. And it's time for me to grab a cuppa. Thanks a lot for following along today. Here is Geoff Lemon to guide you through what should be an absolute cracker.

Wow! An early contender for best on ground from Kylie. I need to collect my thoughts but back to the footy – here are the two lineups as named:

Fremantle

FB: 6 Jordan Clark, 25 Alex Pearce, 17 Judd McVee
HB: 23 Karl Worner, 21 Oscar McDonald, 5 Heath Chapman
C: 44 Matthew Johnson, 8 Andrew Brayshaw, 28 Neil Erasmus
HF: 32 Michael Frederick, 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, 26 Hayden Young, 13 Luke Ryan, 43 Isaiah Dudley

Brisbane

FB: 22 Ty Gallop, 31 Harris Andrews, 35 Ryan Lester
HB: 44 Darcy Wilmot, 27 Darcy Gardiner, 15 Dayne Zorko
C: 7 Jarrod Berry, 8 Will Ashcroft, 33 Zac Bailey
HF: 23 Charlie Cameron, 13 Logan Morris, 4 Oscar Allen
FF: 30 Eric Hipwood, 16 Cam Rayner, 1 Kai Lohmann
FOLL: 32 Darcy Fort, 5 Josh Dunkley, 9 Lachie Neale
INT: 2 Sam Draper, 3 Jaspa Fletcher, 6 Hugh McCluggage, 10 Levi Ashcroft, 26 Conor McKenna