We’re now heading into the first week of the Australian Football League Finals Series, and we’re looking at four powerhouse matches this weekend to kick things off.
The road to AFL finals glory starts on Friday, August 27 with the Power playing to a home Adelaide crowd – it’ll be the only team fortunate enough to play on its home ground, as the ongoing Covid lockdown for Sydney and Melbourne has forced games to move to South Australia and Tasmania.
• Port Adelaide vs Geelong Cats: Friday, August 27 at 7:50pm AEST
• Sydney Swans vs GWS Giants: Saturday, August 28 at 3:20pm AEST
• Melbourne vs Brisbane Lions: Saturday, August 28 at 7:30pm AEST
• Western Bulldogs vs Essendon: Sunday, August 29 at 3:20pm AEST
• How to watch: Free-to-air on Channel 7 or 7Mate, on Foxtel’s Fox Footy, streaming on Kayo Sports or use Watch AFL if you're overseas.
Port Adelaide should be confident heading into its match against the Geelong Cats, as the team has won nine out of its last 10 games. Geelong did put one over the Power back in round 13, when Port Adelaide lost 112-91.
The Sydney Swans will face GWS Giants on Saturday, August 28 in a must-win match at University of Tasmania Stadium. The Swans will hit the field having won seven of their last eight games, and the last time these two met – back in round 18 – the Swans won by 26 points.
There’s potential for Buddy Franklin of the Swans to kick his 1,000th goal in the match, with only eight more needed for Franklin to mark the milestone. The AFL’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, has warned fans not to storm the field if he does, which has been tradition in the past.
Minor premier winners Melbourne will go up against Brisbane on Saturday, August 28 at Adelaide Oval. Melbourne last claimed the minor premiership in 1964, but that’s no guarantee of winning the flag, as a team hasn’t managed to do both since 2013.
Finally, the Western Bulldogs will play Essendon in an elimination match on Sunday, August 29. It’s been 17 years since Essendon last won an elimination final, and that’s a drought it’ll be looking to break on Sunday. And it’s certainly possible, with the Bulldogs suffering three back-to-back losses in the lead up.
Every finals game will be broadcast live on free-to-air and Fox Footy, with all games shown live and on-demand on Kayo as well. If you’re overseas, there’s options for you too. Here’s how you can watch it all unfold in the lead up to the grand final.
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How to live stream AFL Finals Series 2021 in Australia
Arguably the best place to catch all this year's qualifiers live online is on Kayo. This streaming service is dedicated to sports so there won’t be any distractions, with the exception of a few ad breaks perhaps.
If you are interested in taking up a subscription, the basic tier on Kayo gets you access to over 50 sports streamed simultaneously on two screens for just AU$25 a month.
If you reckon you’ll be watching across more devices, then the premium tier for AU$35p/m allows for three simultaneous streams. There’s no lock-in contract, so you’re free to cancel anytime. Kayo also comes with a free 14-day trial, so you can try out the service for yourself at no cost.
How to live stream AFL Finals Series 2021 for free
The Seven Network has broadcast rights to all the qualifier games during the Finals Series. They’ll be available to watch live and free on Channel 7 or 7Mate, depending on which state you’re in.
That means you’ll also be able to stream the games on the Channel 7’s catch-up app, 7Plus. This platform is available on a web browser, and has apps for both Android and iOS.
How to live stream AFL Finals Series 2021 from anywhere
If you’re a footy fan who happens to be living outside of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific Islands, don’t worry. You can watch every single AFL game this season no matter where you are on the Watch AFL streaming service.
Like Kayo, Watch AFL is also a subscription service and has three different plans to choose from:
Weekly: US$17 / £13 / €17 / AU$25
Monthly: US$33 / £25 / €33 / AU$39
Annual: US$165 / £130 / €155 / AU$199
For the qualifiers, Watch AFL has a new option called the Finals Pass, which temporarily replaces the monthly plan. It gives customers the ability to watch all the matches during the Finals Series as well as the grand final live.
Watch AFL Finals Pass | US$62 / £45 / €53 / AU$85
The contents of this streaming service are only available to view outside of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, but a subscription can be purchased from anywhere in the world. It includes every match in the Premiership, and allows you to pause and rewind live matches, and download matches for offline viewing. While you can watch the livestream on desktop via the website, the Watch AFL app is also available for iOS, Android and Apple TV. You can even cast onto a TV via AirPlay or Google Chromecast.
If you’re outside Australia and still want to tune into the matches, you’ll quickly find that online access is geo-blocked. In order to get around that – and assuming it complies with the Ts & Cs of the broadcaster in question – you can download and use a VPN.
ExpressVPN is the world's top VPN right now
We’ve taken the time to try out all the biggest VPN providers and we found ExpressVPN to be the cream of the crop. It works with lots of devices and offers super fast connections across its many servers.
Perhaps best of all, it has a 30-day money back guarantee plus 3 months FREE when you subscribe for a year.
Access ExpressVPN via your laptop, iPhone, tablet, Android phone, PlayStation, Xbox and plenty more. Express is a do-it-all service that also benefits from 24/7 customer support.
How to a VPN:
1. Download and install a VPN: as we say, our top choice is ExpressVPN
2. Connect to the appropriate server location: open the VPN app, hit 'choose location' and select the appropriate location
3. Go to the broadcaster's live stream: so if you’re an Aussie abroad, just head to Kayo and stream like you were back at home
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