LUKE Jackson, third quarter, Optus Stadium. It's a combination that delivered a flag for Melbourne in 2021 and Fremantle will hope its superstar ruckman set the platform for a maiden club premiership with a repeat of those heroics on Friday night. 

Jackson was a skinny 19-year-old playing his 30th career game when he turned the 2021 Grand Final in the Demons' favour from the centre square in a famous third quarter, using his athleticism and attacking flair to become a premiership player. 

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Five years on and at the same venue, that premiership class was the defining factor in a famous Fremantle win, with the older, wiser, and stronger ruckman using his natural gifts and his big-game temperament to play a match-winning role against Geelong. 

The Dockers were on the ropes before Jackson's intervention in the third quarter of what was a riveting semi-final, with their 31-point lead erased after a dominant quarter from the Cats and their own September stars. 

Freo could have let that momentum carry into the final break and potentially let its season slip away, but Jackson stamped himself on the contest and produced the most impactful seven minutes of football that he has played in 92 games for the club.  

He converted a brilliant set shot from just inside 50 after winning a free kick in the ruck, then won a clearance at a forward 50 stoppage and used his strength to get a handball out to Pat Voss for a crucial running goal. 

With more than 35 minutes played in a rollicking quarter, he won another free kick in the ruck against young Cat Mitch Edwards, converting again from 40m after the siren to give the Dockers a 16-point lead in a four-goal burst that changed the game. 

The 24-year-old finished the quarter with eight disposals, two goals, four score involvements, and 12 hitouts, underlining his status as a top five player in the game. 

"Jackson is such a rare player," Geelong coach Chris Scott said after the match. 

"He's got the physical attributes that are so admirable but he's a smart footballer as well … the free kicks that he drew, it's the craftiness of an experienced ruckman. 

"I always hesitate to say unique but he's as close as there is to unique in that position as there is in the competition."

Jackson was a focus in the build-up to Friday night's final, with the Dockers preparing for the prospect of a tag-team approach from the Cats in the ruck to try and blunt their 'unicorn'. 

While that approach might have worked in the past, Jackson is a different beast in 2026 after adding significant size and building his aerial game further to make sure he can impact games in a variety of ways. 

On Friday night, it was a case of using that muscle against a less experienced ruckman and then drawing on his athletic traits to follow up at ground level, finishing with 25 disposals, 35 hitouts, and an equal game-high five centre clearances as the Dockers won the ball out of the middle 23 times to the Cats' 13.  

"Teams can have any type of plans they have in place for negating rucks around the ground. But when someone competes as hard as he does in the ruck and then follows up the way he does, you can't tag that. You can't tag that type of player," coach Justin Longmuir said.  

"He's a competitor. He wants to be around the ball and he wants to make a difference in the game.

"Sometimes you've got to temper that with those types of players, but when your rucks are that competitive and they want to be a part of the game and they want to influence the game, I imagine it's great being a midfielder under someone like that."

While the Dockers have never won a premiership, Jackson and dual Richmond flag-winner Shai Bolton provided the critical big-game experience needed in the biggest final the club has played under Longmuir. 

Where Jackson got it done in the third quarter, Bolton provided the fast start that was needed to settle the collective nerves of the team and a record home crowd of 59,725. 

A poor start last Thursday night against Hawthorn set the tone for a qualifying final loss, and Bolton was not going to let it happen again, kicking two brilliant goals in the opening two minutes to bring the crowd into the game. 

In a match where Fremantle needed to show bravery with the ball and take the game on, Bolton's assertive start gave the team the confidence to test tackles, carry the ball, and take risks with its kicks. 

After kicking a combined 2.7 in opening quarters across their four previous finals under Longmuir, they kicked 6.2 on Friday night and received a standing ovation at quarter-time from the Purple Army. 

Geelong refused to go away in an extraordinary final and answered every Fremantle goal with one of its own in the second quarter to keep the margin to 21 points at half-time. 

Ollie Henry took over the third term and would have been the hero if Geelong had gone on to win, booting three of his five goals in the quarter to wipe out the Dockers' lead, with Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron then silencing the crowd with back-to-back goals. 

Every moment was massive from that point on, and Fremantle will reflect on clutch set shots from Caleb Serong, and the disciplined role of four-goal forward Pat Voss on Tom Stewart. 

But it was the premiership class of Bolton and then Jackson that has kept the dream alive for this Dockers team, which will play in a preliminary final for the first time under Longmuir.