Fremantle's Mark Harvey was coach of the year in the eyes of many. But against Geelong in the semi-final at the MCG on Friday night he coached dumb.

There are golden rules when it comes to finals footy and Harvey broke two of them well before the opening bounce.

His first mistake was to play unfit players. Back from injury, Des Headland was a late inclusion in the side, replacing Jesse Chrichton but he again hurt his knee early and was barely a factor. But a bigger issue for the Dockers was giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands, who hurt his knee against Hawthorn last week, battled through that match, and was no better this time around.

The no.1 ruckman of 2010 played only a few minutes in that position, and was barely a factor as a marking forward. The TV shot of a rueful looking Kepler Bradley sitting in the stands towards the end of the game amplified the obvious. He should have played instead of Headland, perhaps even for Sandilands.

To complicate matters further for the Dockers, having Sandilands play forward and not in the ruck, meant a major change to the structure that has worked so well for them all year. So not only was Fremantle trying to navigate a ground it hasn't seen all year, but with a different sort of team to the one that marched so impressively into the second week of the finals.

Once again, dumb coaching.

Of course, you can't pin the loss entirely on the coach. Too many missed targets when the game was up for grabs and a failure to adapt to the tempo were the most obvious failings. When Greg Broughton was mown down with the ball within the first few minutes, a turnover that led to Geelong's second goal, this columnist write 'game over' in his notebook.

Men against boys.

Jim Bartel was sensation for the Cats, David Wojcinski's pace blew the Dockers away and James Podsiadly slipped seamlessly back into the side with three goals. He hurt his knee for a time and limped from the ground, but was back later on showing no ill-effects. It was that sort of hassle-free night for Geelong.

The Collingwood boys were seen on TV to be sharing a few chuckles from the comfort of their private box, but they might have been of the nervous variety. The Magpies would have headed to the MCG hoping to see the Cats and the Dockers belt the living suitcases out of each other in a frantic knock-out final. But instead they witnessed something played for the most part with the intensity of an early-round NAB Cup match.

Denied a week off after their narrow loss to St Kilda week, the Cats could not have wished for a better hit-out ahead of next Friday night.

And what a match it will be. Collingwood versus Geelong was shaping as the likely grand final throughout the second half of the season, but we now get that match-up a week earlier with only one team able to advance.

The build-up will be huge and the match even bigger. A Geelong loss could well mark the end of an era (and perhaps the last game in Geelong colours for you-know-who), while a stumble from the Magpies would add to the litany of their September heartbreak and would mean the squandering of a golden opportunity to win the flag because their preparation could not have been any better had Bart Cummings been placed in charge.

It should be one of the great preliminary finals. Good luck getting a ticket.