Mark Duffield: Jesse Hogan fires in first final as Greater Western Sydney sweat on verdict for Toby Greene’s umpire bump

1. Port Adelaide Necessity is the mother of invention. Did the hamstring scare to Mitch Georgiades cause Port to stumble across their best forward line set-up? Georgiades’ tight hamstring meant the Power had to punt on the smaller and underdone talent of Orazio Fantasia and go with two tall forwards (Charlie Dixon and Todd Marshall) and a resting ruckman (Peter Ladhams). The big men did their job and the smalls – Fantasia, Connor Rozee, Robbie Gray, Zak Butters and Steven Motlop – were a nightmare for the Geelong defence. 2. Aliir Aliir Whatever the stats tell you, the most influential player in the Port-Geelong final was the newly crowned All-Australian defender. Was utterly dominant with four intercept marks in the first quarter, an effort that set the tone for the match and forced Geelong into an on-the-run do-over on their ball movement which had to be done under extreme pressure from Port. Aliir has to be the recruit of the year now. 3. Ollie Wines and Travis Boak The class and Power in the Port Adelaide midfield. Wines finished with 33 disposals including 12 in the second quarter when the Power turned their slender quarter-time lead into a commanding 29-point buffer. Boak was still going strong in the last term to make sure there were no late Geelong heroics. With Willem Drew paying close attention to Joel Selwood and Paddy Dangerfield and laying 11 tackles, the Power held sway in the midfield all night. 4. Jesse Hogan Has kicked more goals in other games for GWS but this was his best effort after crossing from his ill-fated stint with Fremantle. Regularly got a mismatch in marking contests against the smaller and lighter Lewis Melican and made the most of it to take six contested marks, several of them where and when it mattered most. Kicked two and hit the post with two others. It was his first final and he will take a lot out of it. Likely to be a key when they face the Cats in Perth this week. 5. Isaac Heeney With Sam Taylor coping very well on Lance Franklin despite Buddy’s three first-half goals the Swans shuffled their forwards a little to let Franklin play higher and get Heeney isolated deep. He didn’t let them down. Took a couple of telling marks and kicked straight. His four goals got the Swans within striking distance and then teammates James Bell, Tom Hickey, Sam Wicks and Franklin missed the late shots that would have clinched it. 6. Toby Greene We saw the best and worst of him at Launceston but if the AFL judiciary does its job properly (big if) we shouldn’t be seeing him in Perth. Kicked three great goals and was mighty in the contest but had a typically Toby brain fade at three-quarter-time when he literally walked into umpire Matt Stevic. The only other things as crazy as that in recent days were Jaidyn Stephenson on a mountain bike and ex-footballer commentators who tried desperately to absolve Greene of guilt. 7. Bayley Fritsch The only real question mark about the Dees in this outstanding season has been whether they have the forward line firepower to win the whole thing in September. Fritsch’s career-best form patch has gone a long way to showing that they do. Kicked four goals against Brisbane on Saturday night with a mix of strong marking, astute positioning and precise finishing. With Ben Brown and Tom McDonald also there to watch he gets good match-ups and good looks, he tends to make the most of them. 8. The Petracca & Oliver show Clayton Oliver’s brilliant first half helped the Demons put a gap in the game and Christian Petracca’s two brilliant last-quarter goals put a full stop on Brisbane’s plucky resistance. They are the AFL’s most powerful midfield one-two punch and when you throw them in with Max Gawn and Jack Viney you have an engine room that is going to be very hard to stop. 9. Keidean Coleman Lachie Neale’s 46 disposals and Charlie Cameron’s five goals made them stand out performers for the Lions but if there was an eye-catcher it was Coleman, whose cool head, sure hands and clever feet helped Brisbane keep a toe-hold in this game until well into the last quarter. After teammates had bombed the ball to Jake Lever and Steven May in the second quarter Coleman shifted the ball off the line to help Brisbane get around them more. His shift to defence has been an inspired move by Chris Fagan. 10. Cody Weightman The pocket rocket provided the scoreboard pressure that separated the Bulldogs from Essendon in their wet elimination final at Launceston. Weightman kicked four goals, all from free kicks. A couple of them were dubious but there was nothing questionable about Weightman’s finishing in the wet. The two he kicked in the third term, one from the boundary, gave his team the impetus to shake off recent form wobbles and surge to the win. 11. Josh Schache Has found form at senior AFL level hard to find since he was taken at pick two by Brisbane in the 2015 national draft and this final was just his sixth game this season. He wasn’t the best player out there but he gave his team something to kick at, gave them three talls when Tim English went forward and supported Aaron Naughton when English went into the ruck. Kicked two goals and created a third for teammate Laitham Vendermeer. 12. Bailey Dale With the midfield battle a fierce scrap between Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli and their Bomber counterparts Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish, Dale gave his team the daring run and penetration off half back that helped put a gap in a game played in wet conditions where providing run and dash was tough. He had 19 disposals for 711 metres gained with 84 per cent disposal efficiency.