Fremantle meet the moment as AFL’s final round unfolds in dramatic fashion | Jonathan Horn

The Dockers shrugged off intense pressure to secure a fully-deserved place in this year’s finals, but for the Bulldogs it was the same old storyAhead of finals sign up for our free weekly AFL newsletterI’ve never been one to run with the “let’s just stick to football” line. But every person has their breaking point. Mine came this week when Andrew Dillon – a man who’d spent the previous four days weighing and measuring a slur, and four days negotiating five weeks down to four – carved out a good chunk of his press conference reminding us that Snoop Dog was “a grandfather and a philanthropist”. A few hours later, footage emerged of a less than grandfatherly and less than philanthropic headline act, accompanied by the headline “Snoop Dog’s Dig at Gay Parents”. That was it for me. Within a few hours, the AFL had appointed one of the state’s preeminent spin doctors and crisis managers. She could deal with this sort of stuff. The rest of them could just step out of the way, take their learnings, close the roof and bounce the effing ball.There’s always lots of talk about wildcard rounds and manipulating the fixture to create more games of interest. But it’s usually best to let these things unfold organically. The drama at the Adelaide Oval on Friday for Ken Hinkley’s final game couldn’t have been conjured up by some sizzle merchant. Nor could the sense of dread that enveloped the MCG when it looked for all money as though Collingwood had thrown away the double chance and their season. Continue reading...

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