With 40 seconds left in one of the greatest preliminary finals I have ever seen, Jarman Impey was rightly pinged by Hugh McLuggage. McLuggage, who played himself back into form in the second half, drilled it to put the Lions up by three points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But McLuggage had rushed the shot, probably not wanting to let the emotion or the lactic get to him. In a game where the teams combined for 22 goals from stoppage, it was a three-point game. The ball would be thrown up with 18 seconds left.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hawks had more than half a chance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ball went up and neither ruck got much of a hand to it and it fell to space, bouncing up as if suspended in mid-air. The entire country was asking, in the split second the ball was hanging, who had the juice left in their legs to get to it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the ball reached its apex, Will Ashcroft and Jai Newcombe were the two most likely. Ashcroft had just that little bit more speed, that little bit more agility to glide onto a ball that slightly changed angles and exploded onto it. He got there first, leaving a lunging Newcombe sitting on the deck pondering what might have been, as Ashcroft\u2019s clearance drove Brisbane to a fourth straight grand final.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a show of speed and power, but also of will and fitness. It showed us that, if you have it in you, you can leave exhaustion behind for one last effort as Will Ashcroft did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The heavily jowled Greg Swann went on AFL360 on Wednesday night and told Gerard and Garry that \u201c30 minute quarters would be utopia\u201d and raised shortening quarters to 18 or 19 minutes plus time on as a way to get there.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Garry Lyon said supporters would \u201crail against it\u201d, the man anointed Swanny during his honeymoon appointment said supporters \u201cdon\u2019t care\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s wrong. We do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both of the preliminary finals this year were about the kind of attrition that exists when games put massive load on players, then asks them to push through the pain barrier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the weekend, the games did that. They demanded that the combatants in them go into the fire again and again. They asked the players to reach deep within themselves and dig out one last sprint effort, then they asked for another one, then they asked for one last, one last one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those two minutes they want to take away at the end of each quarter pile up, and occasionally we get magic at the end of games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Sydney v Fremantle game, Sydney\u2019s final term showed a team that applied truly manic pressure for a game and three quarters, then didn\u2019t have enough in reserve for a fourth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They destroyed themselves physically and couldn\u2019t hold on as the Fremantle wave started to take hold. They got asked if they could answer the bell one last time, and ultimately they failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dockers, who hung around like Mike McD in Rounders <\/em>all game despite being outplayed, were inspired by Hayden Young\u2019s already iconic three-quarter-time goal to turn a 21-point deficit into a 12-point win in just a quarter of footy.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it\u2019s not only the attrition. To shorten the games would be to strip footy of its most exciting development. Among the four teams that contested the preliminary finals, the most obvious constant is the proliferation of high half-forwards or forward half midfielders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Footy has become a game dominated by Dustin Martin\/Cyril Rioli hybrids. Look at the prelims and you saw game-defining patches from Shai Bolton, Nick Watson, Kai Lohmann, Dylan Moore, Murphy Reid, Isaiah Dudley, and Braeden Campbell, and I could go on.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n