First Qualifying Final live: Geelong v Collingwood

7.10pm

Finals experience

Geelong: J.Selwood 27, Taylor 24, Hawkins 20, Ablett 18, Duncan 15, Rohan 15, Dangerfield 13, Blicavs 11, Tuohy 7, Kolodjashnij 6, Menegola 6, Dahlhaus 5, Bews 5, Stewart 4, Parfitt 4, Henry 1, Kelly 1, O'Connor 0, Ratugolea 0, Atkins 0, Narkle 0, Miers 0. Total 182

Collingwood: Pendlebury 21, Sidebottom 18, Mayne 15, Greenwood 7, Thomas 5, Grundy 5, Roughead 4, Howe 4, Crisp 4, Maynard 4, Phillips 4, Mihocek 4, Hoskin-Elliott 4, De Goey 4, Stephenson 4, Treloar 4, Adams 4, Elliott 3, Moore 0, C.Brown 0, Wills 0, Noble 0. Total 118

6.40pm

The big questions

There are some huge questions regarding tonight's massive final and Peter Ryan does his best to answer them for you.

6.38pm

Dangerfield should stay true to himself

AFL legend Wayne Carey believes that in his hunt for that elusive premiership, Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield shouldn't change a thing.

6.35pm

Pendles the time stopper

It's the question that has stumped footy fans for 15 years. How does Scott Pendlebury stop time? Jake Niall delved deep into this modern day riddle and went a long way to explaining how the Collingwood captain does it ahead of his 300th game.

6.29pm

Jordy joy for Pies

A welcome return for the Collingwood faithful

6.27pm

Dangerfield arrives

Danger, Danger! Patty is in the house

6.23pm

Late change

Sam Menegola has replaced Rhys Stanley in Geelong's selected side, presumably due to the forecast wet conditions. Collingwood head in as selected.

6.22pm

Tonight's milestone

Scott Pendlebury (Coll) - 300 games

6.18pm

Recent history favours the Cats

Recent history definitely favours the Cats, who have won their last three against the Magpies (all at the MCG), and restricted them to an average of just 56 points per game in those meetings.

Geelong's record at the ground this year is 4-1 while Collingwood are 9-5.

But the Magpies’ form heading into this clash is more sound given they've won their last four games while the Cats have been very inconsistent, going loss-win since the mid-season bye.

6.10pm

Greetings, everybody!

By Ronny Lerner

Hello and welcome to our live rolling coverage of the massive first qualifying final between Geelong and Collingwood tonight at the MCG.

This promises to be an absolute ball-burster in front of an expected crowd of 95,000 people.

And the stakes don't get much higher - the winner qualifies for a preliminary final and gets another week off, while the loser faces West Coast in Melbourne in a cut-throat semi-final next week.

Given the Eagles are one of the strongest bottom-half-of-the-top-eight sides we've ever seen, and don't have any issues playing at the MCG anymore, tonight's loser will have a huge challenge on its hands to avoid a straight-sets exit from the finals.