Round 24: In 4 minutes or less (according to Wix)

You know the drill. Lets review a big final round. I will be going in order of games played so the 3 big Sunday games will be reviewed last.

A 4th quarter lightning display was not enough to stop a lightning magpies side who ended their disappointing campaign marred by injuries against another team with a disappointing year with the demons. The final quarter went for 65 minutes as the lightning delay was called with players stuck in the rooms for around 35 minutes. Nick Daicos was everywhere for the pies in a game that will possibly crown him the 2024 Brownlow medalist. Both teams go into the off-season and 2025 with improvements in mind to make finals next year. Now onto Saturday and tghe first two games turned out quite ugly. The Hawks or dare I say FlagHok absolutely dismantled the Roos by 124 in a very dominant affair at Launceston. This game was of particular interest as just 24 hours beforehand the game was moved forward multiple hours due to threats of power not being supplied to the ground, making the AFL wary of the last few quarters of the game. Jai Newcombe was huge with 35 disposals and Dylan Moore kicked 4 goals. The Hawks have secured finals for themselves which is a huge turnaround from earlier this season starting 0-5. Traveling down to Kardinia Park and we saw a dominant Geelong taking care of the Wet Toast Eagles by 93 points. Jeremy Cameron kicked 9 goals, 7 by half time which was huge for the cats. Not to mention the Half-Time scoreline read 114-14. The cats locked in a top4 spot for themselves after a much better year then last year. The tigers farewell to 3 premiership stars didn't end nicely as the lose to the Gold Coast Suns who kind of not really maybe have their best season ever with 11 wins? Kind of a boring game as the Suns win, but Dustin Martin speaking to former teammate and now media man Jack Riewoldt was something special as we farewell legends of the game. Next up with have some action at the Gabba as the Lions grab 5th spot after beating the Bombers who excuse the pun, have bombed themselves out of finals. Joe Daniher run around his guard of honour for some reason as he played a milestone game. Lachie Neale was huge with 40 disposals which could push him towards another Brownlow Medal possibly. At the joy of most footy fans Essendon's streak without a finals win continues. And in the last Saturday game the Swans officially lock themselves in for the minor premiership as they beat the crows by 31 points. The Lizard Nick Blakey played a good game as the swans take some good form coming into finals. This caps off a disappointing year for the crows who now must focus on 2025 and improving themselves as a team this off-season. Now we move to Sunday and things get interesting. The Bulldogs get a big win over rivals the Giants to secure their place in this years finals. Don't stress giants fans you are still very much in the finals race and have a huge run ahead of them. Lachie Whitfield had 42 disposals but that was not enough as the Bont very much got involved in the game as well. The Giants will play Sydney in a huge clash in week 1 of finals. The Bulldogs will play the Hawks in a big elimination final. Then to the next game with a huge 2 point win to the saints who sent the Carlton supporters into disarray. They were up by 4 points the blues but a huge goal from Jack Higgins late gave the close win to the saints. Newman was big for the blues but it was not enough to take the win. But Carlton are in the finals. The last spot of finals. How? They have to thank Port Adelaide for beating Fremantle by 20 points at Optus Stadium. This game felt like a final and the intensity matched it. Freo were leading until the second quarter where basically after that Port out-toughed them, and the Dockers fumbled. Andrew Brayshaw tried hard for the dockers but it was Willie Rioli who kicked the 2 winning goals for the Pear. They lock in a home final, and the dockers miss out. What a final round of football.

Here is the 4 match-ups for the first week of finals:

Swans V Giants

Power V Cats

Lions V Blues

Hawks V Bulldogs

And here at The Sporting Maniac we are there by your side in these next few weeks of finals action. With the latest news coming every Wednesday, Final Previews and Reviews for every single match-up with even more on the way. Sometime this week a post discussing each of the 8 teams biggest weapons will be dropping.

And even if your team is not one of the lucky 8, off-season content will be coming shortly as well.

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