Tyrone Sam Maguire winner Conor McKenna is three matches away from AFL Premiership glory after the Brisbane Lions comfortably defeated Carlton (99-71) in their home elimination final at the Gabba yesterday to set up a semi-final showdown away to the Greater Western Sydney Giants next Saturday.
The Lions are the only AFL team to feature in the past six consecutive finals series and after booting the first nine goals of the contest produced their best 55-minutes of football this season according to coach Chris Fagan.
The Lions were premiership favourites a few weeks ago but late season defeats to Collingwood and GWS cost them a top four spot and two home finals.
McKenna collected 7 disposals (5 kicks & 2 handballs), 2 marks, and three tackles.
The possibility of a Tyrone-Derry contest between McKenna and former Oak Leaf underage footballer Callum Brown is far from certain given the latter was dropped for the Giants pulsating qualifying final defeat (88-82) away to the Sydney Swans at the SCG.
Brown has been restricted to just one brief cameo as a substitute since round 17 in July and is no longer in the GWS best 22-players.
On Thursday, Geelong became the first side to reach the preliminary finals when they demolished Port Adelaide 54-138 in their qualifying final at The Adelaide Oval.
Mayo speedster Oisin Mullin started the first final of his career but left the field later in the fourth quarter after landing awkwardly in a marking contest. He wore a compression bandage after the incident but given that Geelong don’t play for a fortnight, he has time to recover.
Mullin finished with 9 disposals (3 kicks & 6 handballs), 2 marks, 2 tackles, and also kicked a behind.
Portloaise legend Zach Tuohy came on as a substitute for the final 12 minutes when he collected 4 disposals and 1 mark.
On Friday, Meath midfielder Conor Nash helped Hawthorn to win their elimination final against the Western Bulldogs (62-99) in front of 97,500 supporters at the MCG.
Hawthorn is only the third team in history to play finals after a 0-5 start to the league season and given their imperious form they will start as many neutrals favourites, in the second semi-final away to Port Adelaide at The Adelaide Oval on Friday.
Nash tallied 16 disposals (7 kicks & 9 handballs), 2 marks, and 6 tackles.
GWS/Brisbane Lions will travel to the MCG to play Geelong in the preliminary finals next week.
Hawthorn/Port Adelaide will travel to the SCG to play the Sydney Swans.
The 2024 AFL Grand Final is on Saturday September 28 at the MCG.