Suns Edge Dockers in a Finals Thriller
What a night it was in Perth, where history was made under the bright lights of Optus Stadium. Gold Coast, a club long searching for its first taste of September glory, finally claimed it – and in the most dramatic fashion possible. In front of more than 57,000 fans, the Suns edged Fremantle by just a single point, 80 to 79, in a game that will be remembered for years to come.
The night had everything: early nerves, big swings in momentum, and a finish that no scriptwriter could have improved. Gold Coast, written off by many before the season even began, stormed out to a 26-point lead late in the third quarter. Their midfield stars Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson were relentless, winning clearance after clearance, while young forward Bailey Humphrey made the most of the supply by kicking three important goals. For a team with almost no finals experience compared to Fremantle’s 51 games combined, the Suns looked anything but overawed.
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But Fremantle wasn’t done. Spurred on by the home crowd and the knowledge that it was Nat Fyfe’s farewell match, the Dockers mounted a furious comeback. By the final minutes of the last quarter, Luke Jackson’s towering mark and clutch goal gave them a six-point lead. The stadium erupted. It felt as though the Suns’ dream had slipped away.
Then came the chaos. Mac Andrew, normally a defender, pushed forward and clutched a vital mark, calmly slotting the goal to level the scores with just over a minute remaining. And then, in a twist worthy of finals folklore, retiring club legend David Swallow was given a free kick after being tackled without the ball. With nine seconds left, he launched a set shot from 50 metres. For a moment it seemed the fairytale was complete – the ball sailed through and looked like a goal. But after review, fingertips on the mark showed it had been touched. It was ruled a behind.
That single point, however, proved enough. Fremantle had nine seconds to go coast-to-coast, but the Suns locked them down, and when the siren sounded, jubilation spilled across the field. Gold Coast had secured its first ever AFL finals win, finally stepping out of the shadows of the competition.
For Fremantle, the heartbreak was deepened by the sight of Fyfe being farewelled with a guard of honour. A dual Brownlow medallist and one of the Dockers’ all-time greats, his decorated career ended not with triumph but with a gut-wrenching near miss.
Now the Suns look ahead to a semi-final against local rivals Brisbane at the Gabba. Whatever happens next, this elimination final will be remembered as the night the Gold Coast Suns arrived on the big stage – tough, resilient, and victorious when it mattered most.
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