If you needed reminding why September hits differently, the 2026 finals series answered before it had properly begun.

The AFL's first ever wildcard final gave us the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood trading the lead over and over through a frantic final term, 81,036 people at the MCG losing their minds, and Tim Membrey marking 40 metres out directly in front after the siren with the season on his boot.

It faded right and Collingwood's year was done.

That's finals footy. A handful of games to sort out a premiership, and every one of them capable of turning an ordinary Friday night into something you'll still be arguing about in 20 years.

Some of these games announce themselves as classics on the spot. Others need a decade to properly ripen, the sort you'll sit down and watch again for the fifth time because you already know exactly what's coming and you want to feel it anyway.

So we've gone digging through the entire AFL era to find the very best of them, with one rule: no Grand Finals. The last Saturday in September gets enough love. This is about the games that got teams there.

Before the countdown, some context on just how rare these nights actually are.

• 11 finals will be played in 2026, up from nine. The introduction of the wildcard round added two extra games to the series and replaced the pre-finals bye that had been in place since 2016. 
• 10 teams now qualify for September, expanded from eight. The top six go straight through to the first full week of finals, while seventh through 10th play off for the last two places in the eight. 
• 12 different finals systems have been used across VFL and AFL history, catering for four, five, six, eight and now 10 teams. The final eight ran from 2000 to 2025 and the McIntyre final five ran from 1972 to 1990. 
• First change since 2000. The wildcard round is the first alteration to the finals framework in 25 years. 
• Three finals have gone to extra time. The 1994 qualifying final between North Melbourne and Hawthorn, the 2007 semi final between Collingwood and West Coast, and the 2017 elimination final between Port Adelaide and West Coast. 
• Three Grand Finals have been drawn. 1948, 1977 and 2010; with each one replayed the following week. Since 2016, a drawn Grand Final goes to two five-minute periods of extra time instead. 
• 47 points is the largest comeback in any VFL/AFL final, set by Geelong against Carlton in the 1931 preliminary final. Brisbane's 44-point recovery against GWS in the 2024 semi final sits equal second. 
• 112,838 is the largest crowd for a final other than a Grand Final, drawn by Collingwood and Carlton for a semi final at the MCG in September 1970.

Now, the good stuff. 

The Best Finals Matches of the AFL Era

7. Geelong Cats vs Collingwood Magpies - Preliminary Final, 2007

Geelong were the story of 2007 long before September arrived. Minor premiers with an 18-4 record, they had dismantled North Melbourne by 106 points in the qualifying final and were carrying a premiership drought stretching back to 1963.

Then Collingwood turned up and very nearly ended the whole thing.

Josh Fraser was a late withdrawal for the Magpies, which handed Brad Ottens a ruck contest against stand-ins Guy Richards and Chris Bryan. Ottens took full advantage and finished best afield.

Even so, the Cats could not shake them. Travis Cloke and Paul Medhurst kicked three each, and with 57 seconds left Medhurst converted a free kick to drag the margin back to five points.

A boundary throw-in followed. Alan Didak got the ball onto his boot and drove it inside Collingwood's forward 50 with the clock bleeding out.

The Cats forced a ball-up. The siren sounded as it was thrown in the air.

Geelong 13.14 (92) to Collingwood 13.9 (87), in front of 98,002 fans, 700 more than would attend the Grand Final a week later.

It was Nathan Buckley's 260th and final game in black and white. The Cats went on to beat Port Adelaide by a record 119 points and break a 44-year drought.

6. Melbourne Demons vs Carlton Blues - Semi Final, 2023

Carlton's 2023 was a genuine oddity. Four wins from 13 rounds, coach on the hot seat, season effectively cooked, and then a run that carried them all the way to the last four.

This was the night it peaked.

The Blues had already survived Sydney in the elimination final courtesy of a late Blake Acres goal. A week later, in front of 96,412 at the MCG, they asked him to do it again.

Melbourne had every chance to end it. They finished with eight more scoring shots, 24 to 16, and simply could not put the thing away. Kysaiah Pickett hit the post. Max Gawn hit the post. Clayton Oliver had one touched on the line.

Their last five scoring shots were all behinds.

Jesse Motlop snapped truly to bring Carlton back within a kick. Then Sam Docherty, playing on with a dislocated shoulder, outmarked Judd McVee and pumped it long.

Acres marked at the top of the goal square and squeezed it home with 56 seconds on the clock. Blues by two 73-71

Sam Walsh had 34 disposals and two goals. Carlton were into their first preliminary final since 2000, and Melbourne were out in straight sets for a second straight year.

5. Port Adelaide Power vs West Coast Eagles - Elimination Final, 2017

Only a handful of finals in VFL/AFL history have needed extra time. None of them have finished like this one.

West Coast scraped into eighth on the final weekend of the home-and-away season and shot out to a 31-point lead at Adelaide Oval before Port kicked six unanswered goals to seize control.

Ollie Wines gave the Power their first lead of the night in the last quarter. Matt Priddis and Drew Petrie, both retiring, dragged the Eagles back in front. Travis Boak levelled it.

Then, with scores tied and seconds left, Eric Mackenzie slid after a ball rolling towards a certain behind and crashed ribs-first into the point post to keep it out.

Extra time. Port kicked the first two and led by 13 before Josh Kennedy responded twice to make it a four-point game.

With 20 seconds remaining, Luke Shuey was awarded a contentious free kick for a high tackle. The siren sounded before he could take it.

He had a wry smile to himself, went through his routine, and split the middle from 40 metres out.

West Coast 78, Port Adelaide 76, the Eagles winning by two after being four down when the siren went. Port's inaccuracy, 26 scoring shots to 18, will haunt Adelaide Oval forever.

4. Hawthorn Hawks vs Geelong Cats - Preliminary Final, 2013

The curse. For five years it hung over every meeting between these two, and every meeting was outstanding.

Since Hawthorn's upset win in the 2008 Grand Final, and Jeff Kennett's remarks about Geelong lacking his club's quality and psychological drive, the Cats had won 11 straight. Nine of them by 10 points or fewer.

This one looked destined for the same ending. Steve Johnson kicked four in a champagne display, and when Jordan Murdoch snapped one just before three-quarter time, Geelong led by 20.

Then Hawthorn refused to go away.

The Hawks kicked the last three goals of the match. Sam Mitchell finished with 38 disposals, Jack Gunston with four goals, and it was Shaun Burgoyne who sealed it inside the final six minutes for his third.

Geelong still had one left in them. Travis Varcoe wheeled onto his right foot inside the last 30 seconds with a chance to level the scores. He sprayed it.

Hawthorn 14.18 (102) to Geelong 15.7 (97). Five points, the curse buried, and a premiership the following week.

3. Fremantle Dockers vs Gold Coast Suns - Elimination Final, 2025

Fifteen years of waiting, and it came down to a behind.

Gold Coast walked into Optus Stadium having never played an AFL final, with three players on the list who had any finals experience at all, and 57,507 Fremantle fans in full voice.

They led by 26 points in the third before the Dockers came roaring back, kicking four straight in the last quarter capped by Luke Jackson's mark and goal to go six points up with 3:21 to play.

Alex Pearce took six marks in the final term alone. But Mac Andrew, a defender, drifted forward, marked and goaled to level it with 1:13 left.

Then David Swallow. Pick one in the 2010 draft, the club's first ever selection, 14 seasons without a single final, and a retirement announced days earlier. Subbed on in the last quarter.

He won a free kick 50 metres out for holding the man against Brennan Cox and nailed the set shot. For a heartbeat it looked like the fairytale goal, before replays showed Neil Erasmus had touched it on the mark.

A behind was enough. Nine seconds left, no centre bounce, and Fremantle had to go coast to coast. Suns 80, Fremantle 79. Nat Fyfe's career ended in a guard of honour, and AFL.com.au readers voted it the second-best game of the entire season.

2. GWS Giants vs Western Bulldogs - Preliminary Final, 2016

Whenever this one turns up on the replay channel for the umpteenth time, you sit down and watch it. Every time.

It had the lot. A young rivalry with genuine needle, injury carnage, superstars, and a final quarter that would not sit still.

Clay Smith and Tory Dickson kicked four each for the Dogs, Jonathon Patton four for the Giants. Bulldogs ruckman Jordan Roughead and Giants co-captain Callan Ward were both lost before half-time.

The Dogs led by nine at the main break. The Giants led by one at three-quarter time. GWS then opened up a 14-point lead early in the last, which was the biggest margin either side managed all afternoon.

Dickson, Marcus Bontempelli and Zaine Cordy hauled the Dogs back in front. Patton answered. Two late behinds locked the scores at 82-apiece with under five minutes left.

Then Tom Liberatore found Jack Macrae 20 metres out, and a bloke who had kicked one goal all season slotted the last goal of the match.

With 35 seconds to go, Liberatore, Tom Boyd and Jake Stringer worked it forward and Stringer hit Dickson on his own, 20 metres out. Dickson simply stood there and let the clock die before hitting the post after the siren.

It did not matter. Bulldogs by six, into their first Grand Final in 55 years. We all know what happened next.

1. GWS Giants vs Brisbane Lions - Semi Final, 2024

Chris Fagan's line that year was that if you're walking on thin ice, you may as well dance. Brisbane had been 13th with a 4-9 record at one point. By the second week of September they were one bad quarter from done.

They got that bad quarter. Late in the third at Engie Stadium, GWS led by 44 points.

That is the largest deficit any side has come back from to win a semi final in VFL/AFL history and the equal-second largest in any final, behind only Geelong's 47-point recovery in the 1931 preliminary final.

Brisbane kicked five goals in eight minutes to cut it to 13. The Giants responded early in the last to restore a four-goal buffer. The Lions kicked five straight.

Jesse Hogan finished with five goals for GWS and Tom Green had 33 possessions, and neither was enough. Will Ashcroft and Jarrod Berry had 27 disposals each Dayne Zorko two goals and 25 touches and Lachie Neale played out the final minutes grabbing at a foot that went into a moonboot afterwards.

The hero was Joe Daniher, the often maligned, occasionally maddening key forward, who kicked the last two goals of the game and then sailed into the sunset, retiring after the GF.

Brisbane 105-100, in front of just 18,357 people who will never stop telling you they were there. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest finals ever played, and the Lions were premiers a fortnight later.

Honourable Mentions

Narrowing this to seven meant leaving out games that would top plenty of other lists.

Collingwood's one-point preliminary final win over GWS in 2023, 8.10 (58) to 8.9 (57) in front of 97,665, with Jordan De Goey producing 34 disposals and 13 clearances in the game of his life.

Port Adelaide's three-point semi final win over Hawthorn in 2024 which was decided when James Sicily hit the post late and Esava Ratugolea intercepted the final desperate entry.

And Brisbane's 10-point preliminary final win over Geelong a week after the GWS miracle, 95-85, where Ollie Henry's fourth goal put the Cats in front inside the last two minutes and the Lions still found a way.

So there you have it, our countdown of the best AFL finals matches of the AFL era. Surely we’re set for a few more bangers in 2026. 

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