SUMMARY

These two clubs are at the centre of a budding rivalry, and if the preliminary final last year is any guide, this should be a classic.

The Lions charged home past the Cats last September on their way to a first premiership since 2003 and Friday night's clash marks the fourth final between the clubs in the past six seasons.

Brisbane has beaten Geelong twice this year and, with its MCG hoodoo well and truly behind it, has won its past five games at the famous ground.

Brisbane is boosted by the returns of Lachie Neale and Jarrod Berry, who replace omitted pair Bruce Reville and James Tunstill, while the Cats have been dealt a blow with ruck Rhys Stanley injured. Jed Bews and Mitch Knevitt have been dropped with Shannon Neale, Mark O'Connor and Jhye Clark returning.

Clark starts as the Cats' sub, while Sam Marshall is Brisbane's starting sub.

Where and when: MCG, Friday September 5, 7.40pm AEST

Geelong v Brisbane at the MCG, 7.40pm AEST

NO LATE CHANGES

SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Jhye Clark
Brisbane: Sam Marshall

CATS v LIONS Follow it live

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR?

Round three: Brisbane 10.10 (70) defeated Geelong 9.7 (61) at the Gabba

Round 15: Brisbane 14.8 (92) defeated Geelong 6.15 (51) at GMHBA Stadium

After their stirring preliminary final win over the Cats last year, the Lions did the double over Geelong in 2025 in two contrasting affairs. Brisbane came from 32 points down at a wet Gabba in round three, with All-Australian Hugh McCluggage (30 disposals, eight tackles, six clearances) playing a key role. Brisbane's win in Geelong in June was ominous as it spoiled Patrick Dangerfield's 350th game, and won at GMHBA Stadium for the first time since 2003 to end another hoodoo. Young gun Logan Morris kicked five goals, while Coleman Medal winner Jeremy Cameron booted four for the Cats, whose inaccuracy also proved costly.

THE STATS THAT MATTER

Geelong

The Cats struck it lucky with their fixture in 2025 and just whether their easy run home is a positive or a negative remains to be seen, but they are riding a six-game winning streak. Since 2000, Geelong is just the second team to head into a finals series having played six games in a row against bottom-10 opponents.

Brisbane

Led by co-captain Harris Andrews, the Lions thrive on intercepts. Andrews is ranked No.4 in the League for total intercept possessions in 2025, but Darcy Wilmot (No.21), Jaspa Fletcher (No.24) and Dayne Zorko (No.34) are also in the top 40. Brisbane is unbeaten when it has outscored its opponents from intercepts this year, winning 15 times and drawing once. It is 1-5 in the six games it has been outscored from that source.

IT'S A BIG WEEK FOR ...

Geelong
Max Holmes' hamstring injury in last year's preliminary final may have been what ultimately cost the Cats a Grand Final spot, but the running machine has bounced back to enjoy the best season of his career. He was named in the 44-man All-Australian squad but, perhaps unluckily, missed out on selection in the final team. Given the strength of the Lions' midfield, Holmes – alongside Bailey Smith – will have to play a big role if the Cats are to secure a home preliminary final.

Brisbane
While he hasn't enjoyed his best season, Charlie Cameron has flourished on the finals stage, and if he can hit form in September the Lions will be hard to stop in their bid to win back-to-back premierships. Cameron has kicked 26 goals this year, and five in the past fortnight against finalists Fremantle and Hawthorn. Cameron has booted 47 majors in his 23 finals appearances, including 36 in 16 for Brisbane, with at least one goal in each of those September outings in Lions colours.

PREDICTION

This should be an absolutely enthralling contest between two modern-day heavyweights. The Cats will need big games from Holmes, Smith and Jeremy Cameron, but it's Brisbane's midfield depth that could give it the edge in this clash, with Hugh McCluggage, Will Ashcroft, Josh Dunkley and the returning Neale, plus the game-breaking ability of Zac Bailey and Cam Rayner. Lions by eight points.

IT WAS the type of Hero vs. Villain narrative that almost felt scripted.

Geelong's angelic Rising Star in Ollie Dempsey could almost be typecast as a Hollywood hero, and so it proved. His explosive and mercurial three-goal performance was as influential as it was fun, proving a decisive factor as the Cats coasted to yet another prelim courtesy of a thrill-a-minute 38-point qualifying final win.

CATS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats

And yet, for so long it looked as though it could have been so different. Brisbane's Cam Rayner, the man with the Star Wars tattoos, threatened to be the MCG's killjoy with the type of villainous performance that would have made Darth Vader blush. His antics played a big part in the Lions ever being a chance at all.

In reality, Geelong dominated this September showcase. Its 16.16 (112) to 11.8 (74) victory over Brisbane was a statement performance, the type that reminds every remaining flag contender – not that they needed it – just what type of powerhouse coach Chris Scott has built down the highway.

There was Dempsey's brilliance. His three goals were complemented by 25 disposals. There was the running power of Max Holmes, who himself had 23 touches and six tackles. There was the prolific Bailey Smith, who notched another 22 disposals and four clearances. And then there was 'Jez'.

While it was Dempsey who put the nail in Brisbane's coffin, it was Jeremy Cameron that made this contest seem ominous from the outset. The first term was all about the Coleman Medal winner, as he made every ball his own. Even if those chances weren't always converted.

He took a pack mark, but missed the shot. He got out the back to snare his first. He marked strongly on the lead to set up Dempsey for his opener. He nearly took a one-handed slips catch, then rushed his shot astray. He took another contested mark, but the resulting shot slapped off the post. It was 'Jezza Mania' at its most riveting.

And yet, amid all of that, Brisbane kept plugging away. While Cameron was brilliant, he was inefficient. The Lions were the opposite. The visitors might have made every passage look difficult, but they did enough to stay in touch. In fact, three of their first four entries resulted in goals, ensuring a 12-point quarter-time deficit wasn't even worse.

It meant that when Brisbane eventually got things on its terms, gaining more control to start the second term and kicking the quarter's first couple of goals through Kai Lohmann and Jarrod Berry, it was suddenly a two-point ball game. To illustrate the strangeness of the situation, Cameron had racked up six scoring shots on his own by that point. Brisbane had six amongst its entire side.

It was at that stage when Geelong steadied. Sam De Koning and Jack Bowes put through pivotal set-shots to calm the nerves, Dempsey ghosted into an open goal to extend the lead, while Tom Stewart's long bomb from beyond 50m carved open a 27-point buffer that more or less reflected the overall pattern of the first half.

In the shadows of half-time, the Cats smelled blood. Another centre clearance led to Tyson Stengle marking 40m from home. But, as he lined up for his shot – a shot that could have turned a satisfying first half into a dominant one – came the moment that threatened to change the entire momentum of the contest and set its villain apart.

More than 100m off the ball, inside Brisbane's goal square, a slight nudge from Mark O'Connor had Rayner on the floor. The contact was minimal, but the umpire was fooled. The ball travelled the entire length of the ground to ringing boos, as the downfield free kick resulted in a Rayner gimme and a significant flashpoint.

As frustrated Cats players remonstrated, Zach Guthrie nudged Rayner once more. Again, the contact was minimal. Again, the umpire was fooled. A second free kick was paid, a second goal was kicked, and suddenly a Geelong lead that should have been bordering on insurmountable was whittled back to being fragile at best.

Unsurprisingly, as Rayner trudged to his customary position in the goal square to start the second half – this time the one housing Geelong's cheer squad – he was given some unceremonious advice from the Cats faithful. But if you're going to be the villain you might as well play into the role, and Rayner did just that.

First, he dished it back. Then, when he ran into an open goal to snatch his third in the early moments of the third quarter, he celebrated by following through towards the fence and handing out some friendly feedback of his own. It certainly raised the decibel levels ringing around the MCG, if nothing else.

And, for the Lions, it basically did do nothing else. It was an energetic moment, but it was only a moment. Instead, the Rayner goal was sandwiched between three Geelong majors in a run that was highlighted by Holmes' brilliant running finish. Perhaps poetically, the Holmes goal also stretched the Cats' lead back to the 27-point buffer it was before Rayner's earlier exploits.

Geelong was just about ready to end this match as a contest and its hero, Dempsey, had one last party trick to pull out. After his captain, Patrick Dangerfield, shrugged a tackle and delivered a long bomb to the goal line, the mercurial Cats winger stuck out a leg and produced a half-volley that Mo Salah would be proud of.

For all of the fireworks to that point, Dempsey's soccer stunner set up a final term played out to little fanfare. If anything, it perhaps gave a crowd previously baying for blood the opportunity to take stock of the background actors – not just the main characters – that that had played such a key role in the contest.

Very few did that as well as Geelong's Irish duo. While it was O'Connor who kept Rayner to just one touch before his heel turn, Oisin Mullin played an even more defining role on All-Australian star Hugh McCluggage. The gun Lion was held to just 14 disposals, a sign of how Brisbane never really looked likely.

And just to compound matters for the visitors? Superstar dual Brownlow Medal winner Lachie Neale limping off in the game's dying stages, with his season suddenly hanging in the balance with a calf injury that coach Chris Fagan later described as a "significant" one.

Geelong, meanwhile, has never looked more primed. And even though Dempsey might hog the headlines in the aftermath of this one, courtesy of both his brilliant display and his sublime skill, he is by no means the only Cat capable of providing such heroism across the next few weeks.

GEELONG       4.6      8.11     13.12    16.16 (112)
BRISBANE      3.0       7.2         9.5         11.8 (74)

GOALS
Geelong: Dempsey 3, Cameron 2, Mullin, De Koning, Bowes, Stewart, Blicavs, Smith, Holmes, Martin, Neale, Atkins, Close
Brisbane: Rayner 3, Lohmann 2, Cameron, Fletcher, Berry, Morris, Bailey, Dunkley 

BEST
Geelong: Dempsey, Holmes, Blicavs, Cameron, Stewart, Bowes, Miers
Brisbane: Dunkley, W.Ashcroft, Neale, Zorko, Rayner 

INJURIES
Geelong: Nil
Brisbane: Neale (calf)

SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Clark (replaced Jack Martin in the fourth quarter)
Brisbane: Marshall (replaced Levi Ashcroft at three-quarter time)

Crowd: 86,364 at the MCG