Clear and present Danger as Cats sweep aside Carlton

We’ll leave it there! Two finals down this weekend with two more to go, and the blog will be back tomorrow for both Sydney-Brisbane and Adelaide-Western Bulldogs. I hope yo can join us then.

For now, the night belongs to Geelong. On to the next one for Chris Scott and his Cats.

A bit here from the Geelong coach:

“I thought we were outplayed early in the game. We knew there would be periods where they would have the ascendency, their form has been red hot. Their guys in and around the ball are a real handful for us.

“I know there were a lot of rushed behinds, but there were a lot of scoring shots too. I thought we were dominant after quarter-time.

“It was really challenging when we lost [Max Holmes], but it was also really challenging to make the decision to play him tonight. But we had so much faith in the people that worked with him.”

A few bits and pieces here from the Carlton coach:

“We started the game reasonably well, but once their stoppage game and contest stepped up we found it really difficult.

“Tonight was disappointing, and we certainly don’t want to be a club that lives in mediocrity. The players deserve a lot of credit, so do the staff and coaching group, but we don’t want to be a club that is satisfied with finishing eighth.

“We were outplayed, they were far too good.

“I feel like I’ve got a really good handle on where we’re at and understand we have a lot of work in front of us. We need to build depth, improve our players and build our system.”

Geelong have ended Carlton’s dream run, kicking clear in the second half to win their AFL elimination final by 33 points.

Trailing by 21 points in the second term on Friday night, the Cats reduced the margin to three points at the main break and kicked 10 goals to six after halftime for the 14.23 (107) to 11.8 (74).

The crowd of 96,680 was the biggest for an AFL match at the MCG this season.

The Cats will head to Perth next week and play Fremantle in next week’s semi-finals.

Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield kicked five goals in the wet conditions, including three in the final quarter.

Midfielder Shaun Mannagh continued his strong form with 25 possessions and six clearances.

Under new coach Josh Fraser, Carlton turned around their disastrous 1-9 start to the season with a stunning run of 12 wins, two losses and a draw before Friday night’s season-ending loss.

AAP

Let’s go through the statline, shall we? And keep in mind Danger played exclusively forward tonight, no midfield time at all.

21 disposals. Five goals. 10 score involvements. 10 contested possessions. Two clearances. 485 metres gained.

Now there was a little bit of junk time in that, but it’s also true that Dangerfield looked Geelong’s most dangerous forward all night. He got his rewards in the last for a night of massive effort.

Really does feel like just the beginning for the Blues. Patrick Cripps I’m sure agrees.

It wasn’t perfect, he says, but it was still mighty impressive.

And as the man himself says, Patrick Dangerfield has still got it.

Been a very solid acquisition for Carlton this year, that being his 30th goal of the campaign. A strong return for a small forward.

We’ve got 3:15 to play in this one, Geelong leads it by 32.

These are consolation goals for Carlton at this point, but Lord won’t turn down his second.

When things have gone well for Carlton, that forward line has ended up very open. Hasn’t been enough of it in this second half.

Bailey just set that one up on the breeze and let it float its way on through. It’s all going Geelong’s way in this second half.

Not been Smith’s best night, but he’s certainly done his bit.

EDIT: Never mind, the ARC says Jagga Smith touched it. Ahh well.

The sting has long since gone out of the game as the rain tips down, but the Blues this time are able to find enough numbers out the back for Kemp to goal from the line.

Seven minutes still to play in this last quarter and it looks like Chris Scott is taking the veterans off the ground. They’ve got a trip to Perth to prepare for.

He’s going ballistic! Danger initially dropped the mark from the Holmes kick, but his new opponent Jacob Weitering went to ground and left the Cats skipper a free run at it.

Dangerfield gathered, stepped, and bombed one home off a step from 50. It’s a remarkable night for a champion footballer.

He’s been one of Carlton’s best tonight and one of their real success stories of 2026. He stuck the tackle on Blicavs, was rewarded with the HTB call and nailed his second.

The crowd is thinning, but the Blues faithful who have remained will be pleased to see yet another Evans goal.

So of his last three finals, he was best on ground in the 2025 prelim, totally anonymous in the 2025 granny, and now among the best on ground in the 2026 elimination final.

A pretty soft high free kick earned him another look at the big sticks, and Danger made no mistake. The Cats might start thinking about resting some players now.

He’s still got it, Danger. He’s been Geelong’s most dangerous forward tonight, selfless at times and punishing at others. We’ve seen him take a loose ball, get around onto that right foot and snap a goal a million times before.

It’s a six-goal lead and the Cats have kicked seven in a row. It looks like the Carlton fairytale ends here.

You don’t want to call it this early, but it’s going to be mighty tough for the Blues now.

How did Geelong escape Carlton tight on the boundary line? Poor missed tackles, half-hearted defensive efforts. And suddenly Bailey Smith is flowing forward and finding Neale, who did brilliantly to outpoint Weitering. It’s 29 now, and nearly done for the Cats.

For one of these sides, this is the final quarter of their season. The Blues need a four-goal turnaround to make sure it’s not them.

Ball is in the air, here we go.