Sydney Swans Steamroll Reigning Premiers Brisbane by 53 Points in Qualifying Final Upset
Sydney booked a home preliminary final and sent the reigning premiers packing, beating Brisbane 21.15 (141) to 13.10 (88) in the second qualifying final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, 5 September 2026. The 53-point margin made it the second qualifying-final boilover inside three days in what is shaping as a wild opening week of September.
The Swans were undermanned and supposed to be vulnerable. Their own club chair had declared the season "torpedoed" just weeks earlier. Instead, Sydney fielded Harry Kyle, Tom Hanily, Jesse Dattoli and Billy Cootee — four players with fewer than 50 AFL games between them — and ran the Lions off their feet. By the final quarter, Sydney coach Dean Cox had Charlie Curnow, Errol Gulden and Brodie Grundy resting together on the interchange bench. The game was already gone.
It was gone early. Sydney kicked six goals before Brisbane star midfielder Lachie Neale touched the ball. The Swans won the inside-50 count (the number of times a team moves the ball into its attacking zone) 69 to 52, and the clearances (possessions won from stoppages) 45 to 35. Gulden kicked a goal among the rout.
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan did not mince words afterwards. He said he was "not sure" his players had believed his warnings that the match would be tough, pointing to complacency after a season in which the Lions had lost just twice since May. Co-captain Harris Andrews and Fagan left the SCG together, the weight of a wasted opportunity clear. Brisbane were the reigning AFL premiers, a club that had climbed from mid-2010s despair to back-to-back flags. This was not how September was supposed to start.
For Sydney, the win means a week off and a home preliminary final — the penultimate match before the Grand Final — against the winner of the Fremantle v Geelong semi-final. For Brisbane, the path gets harder: they drop into a semi-final against Adelaide, who were the 2025 minor premiers (the team that finishes the home-and-away season on top of the ladder). Crows coach Matthew Nicks was already under pressure heading into finals, so that clash carries its own storyline.
What makes this result stand out is the gap between expectation and reality. Brisbane had been the form team of the competition. Sydney had been written off by their own hierarchy. The Swans turned that narrative inside out in the opening minutes and never let the Lions back in.
For fans, the first week of finals has delivered exactly what September is supposed to: upsets, consequences, and the sense that nothing is settled.
