Mitch Robinson was hit by finals heartbreak on Saturday.
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The Lauderdale hard-nut, who is very much a heart and soul character for Chris Fagan's side, has been ruled out of Saturday's semi-final against Greater Western Sydney after a final quarter hamstring injury on Saturday.
Before that moment the 30-year-old, who has reinvented himself on a wing, had played an important role for the Lions as they were overpowered by Richmond, with 22 possessions (six contested and five intercepts) at 68.2 disposal efficiency, seven marks, two tackles, one clearance, seven inside 50s, three rebound 50s, 0.3 and five score involvements.
While Robinson had his difficulties, George Town's Toby Nankervis made a successful return for Richmond, combining well with Ivan Soldo to help the Tigers win the hit-outs 49 (with 18 to advantage) to 39 (13 to advantage), but had just five possessions (three contested) and laid five tackles to go with his 24 hit-outs.
Clarence's Jack Riewoldt kicked 3.0 in the win, with Darcy Gardiner doing a solid job on him to keep him to six possessions and one mark, with four tackles.
Friday night saw Dodges Ferry's Jeremy Howe put in a strong showing as Collingwood got the job done against Geelong in their qualifying final.
Howe had 23 possessions (16 uncontested and 10 intercepts) at 73.9 per cent disposal efficiency, 13 marks (six intercepts), one tackle, 10 rebound 50s, one inside 50, 1.0 and two score involvements.
Former Burnie Docker Brody Mihocek was kept to 0.2 and four score involvements from 14 touches, five marks, one clearance and four tackles.
Launceston's Jake Kolodjashnij was one of several Cats who were below par, with the defender collecting just seven disposals, taking four marks and laying three tackles.
It was a quiet end of a disrupted season for Launceston's Thomas Bellchambers as Essendon's season came to an end at the hands of West Coast on Thursday in their elimination final.
In his second game back after a long layoff due to a calf injury, Bellchambers again found the going tough as West Coast won the hit-outs 38-18, with each side having eight to advantage.
This was notable when comparing his work to Nic Naitanui's, with the returning Eagle winning 24 hit-outs (four to advantage) to Bellchambers' 16 (eight to advantage).
The 30-year-old finished with 13 possessions at 62 per cent disposal efficiency, three marks, six clearances, one inside 50, three rebound 50s and one score involvement.
He played 16 games this season, averaging 11.2 touches, 3.2 marks and 1.9 tackles, 25.6 hit-outs a game, while he kicked 6.4.