A year on from last season’s epic preliminary final which saw Brisbane storm home to edge Geelong, the Cats and Lions meet again on Friday night in the second qualifying final.
The Cats (17-6, 141.5%) go into the fixture having won all five of their last home-and-away games, but they haven’t been tested by a top-eight peer since falling to the Giants by 26 points back on July 12.
Meanwhile, the travelling Lions (16-1-6, 114.2%) beat Collingwood, Fremantle and Hawthorn in the lead-in to September and have won a league-leading seven games against top-eight opponents.
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In a huge boost, the Lions have brought back dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale and industrious midfield teammate Jarrod Berry for the clash.
Meantime Geelong made three changes of its own, recalling Shannon Neale from suspension, Mark O’Connor from injury, and Jhye Clark.
However, veteran ruck Rhys Stanley is its big loss due to a hamstring issue. Mitch Knevitt and Jed Bews were omitted.
Friday night will represent the fourth time in the past six seasons that these clubs have met in a final, with their burgeoning rivalry to file another chapter.
Pies once again in the ‘Box Seat’ | 03:21
In terms of the strategic machinations set to play out at the home of footy, transition could well be one of the factors that could set the game apart.
Against top-eight teams, Geelong ranks dead-last for defending opponents’ half-back chains. It also sits 12th in the competition this year for defending ball movement.
Its standing in those metrics won’t bode well against a Lions side that has ranked third this year for the rate at which they transition the footy from defensive 50 to attacking 50. At the very least, it’ll be a watch on Friday night.
Where the Cats do thrive, however, is with their punishment in counter-attack. This season, they ranked first for intercept-to-score rate, meaning they’re almost unstoppable going the other way once they generate a turnover.
But that strength will be met face-on by a Brisbane brigade that, against top-eight teams, ranks first for intercept-to-score against and second for score-per-inside-50 against.
The match gets underway at 7:40pm AEST at the MCG.
Watch it live on Fox Footy (channel 504), and streaming on Kayo, from 6:30pm AEST.
Follow our live coverage of the Second Qualifying Final between Geelong and Brisbanebelow!
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