MCG -- Brisbane's premiership defence remains on track after defeating Collingwood by 29 points in their preliminary final at the MCG on Saturday.
It's the Lions' third straight AFL Grand Final berth, with Geelong waiting in next week's decider. The Cats won the last clash between these teams by 38 points just two weeks ago in the qualifying final.
Here's what we learned from the preliminary final:
The Lions have an envious ability to keep plugging the holes
When Joe Daniher retired at the end of last season, there was already enough scepticism about Brisbane's capacity to challenge for back-to-back flags. Particularly when the injury obstacles the Lions encountered last year if anything intensified rather than abated.
Apart from long-term casualties like forward Lincoln McCarthy and key defender Jack Payne -- not to mention a couple now in cotton wool for two years in Keidean Coleman and Tom Doedee -- Brisbane has continued to host a busy medical room. Payne was a particularly significant structural loss, then recently key forward Eric Hipwood and champion and co-skipper Lachie Neale just added to personnel problem.
But the Lions just keep not only finding replacements, but having them perform well on the biggest of stages, just as Logan Morris had managed last September, and the preliminary final win over Collingwood was another example.
Young key forward Ty Gallop has played just five AFL games now, but three of them have been finals, and his three goals on Saturday night all came at critical stages of the contest. He's a big boy, but mobile and smart. Last week, senior teammate Jarrod Berry called him the best contested mark at the club. After this win, skipper Harris Andrews said Gallop was only scratching the surface of his potential.
Sam Marshall has played just 10 senior games, but his eight-disposal first term was instrumental in Brisbane's hot start. Bruce Reville has long been a fan favourite, but was important to this win for far more than cult status once subbed into the contest in the second quarter for the injured Berry.
And that was just typical of how Brisbane spreads the load among so many contributors that calling any of them "lesser lights" or "bit players" misses the point.
Yes, Brisbane has plenty of stars -- like Cam Rayner, whose two goal in the third term inspired his side -- but it also has more players capable of pitching in with an extra level of performance, or even just a cameo which can help bust open a game and deliver a big win, arguably more such players even than Geelong.
It makes them hard to stop, indeed, it sometimes seems Brisbane's opponents are playing a losing game of 'Whack-A-Mole'. Curb one threat, and another just pops its head up elsewhere.
The Pies backed their ageing list this year, but that might change in 2026
Big finals are rife with big symbolic moments, and it's hard to find a bigger one from Saturday's preliminary final than ageless Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury limping off with a calf strain without having touched the ball and being subbed out after five minutes.
The loss of his consistently high possession rate was critical, the loss of his cool, quasi-coaching head perhaps even more so, Collingwood looking rattled as Brisbane established an early break, and on three separate occasions during the game the Pies were unable to thwart the Lions piling on a run of four unanswered goals.
Collingwood has made age seem irrelevant at times this season as it week after week broke records for the oldest AFL team ever fielded. But this wasn't a good day for the Magpie veterans.
In defence, Jeremy Howe really struggled upon his return from injury. Up forward, Brody Mihoeck was even less of a presence, failing to trouble the scorer. Steele Sidebottom seemed subdued, and uncharacteristically fluffed a chance to boot an important goal at the start of the last quarter, and Jack Crisp was also quiet.
33-year-old Jamie Elliott was an obvious counter to that 'ageism' with four goals, and Tim Membrey and Mason Cox chipped in with two goals apiece, but across the park, the Pies looked slower, less sprightly, and of course, older despite the extra week off.
Can Collingwood possibly afford to keep pushing the age barrier in 2026? Coach Craig McRae appeared to concede after the game that the Pies might need to be at least a little more youth-orientated next year, while revealing that Elliott and Mihocek had both been offered two-year deals.
"Last year, I said it was players over picks, it won't be at that extreme this year," he said. "There will be a balance. We want to bring talent into our organisation that makes us better and we won't stand still."
It's going to be a big week for 'injury watch'
How do you know an AFL season is at the pointy end? When for probably the first time all year, you start hearing talk about hyperbaric chambers. For the uninitiated, it's a special pressurised room where the patient breathes pure oxygen, reportedly expediting the healing process.
And with Brisbane insisting Neale is still a chance to play in the Grand Final, the little room is going to get a decent workout, Harris Andrews telling Fox Footy after the win that his co-captain was "spending lots of hours in the chamber".
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan is certainly upbeat about Neale's chances. "He completed a very searching training session this morning and our fitness blokes are telling me he is, probably, in really good shape to play," Fagan told Fox Footy.
Neale's presence would be massive for Brisbane. But sadly, even that may be at the cost of his experienced midfield cohort Jarrod Berry, who was subbed out in the second term with a recurrence of a shoulder injury which saw him miss the last home and away game against Hawthorn.
Berry was putting a positive spin on the situation post-game, at least. "They said before the Hawthorn game that if it was a Grand Final I'd play," he told Channel 7, "so we'll see what happens. I might not even scan it, just strap it up and go for it."
You suspect that's probably not necessarily the official strategy, but hey, with a hyperbaric chamber on hand, who knows what might be possible?