Fremantle coach Ross Lyon put his hand up for getting a key match-up wrong in his AFL club’s most famous victory, but luckily he’ll be remembered for eventually getting it spectacularly right.

Lyon admitted his initial decision to send uber-tagger Ryan Crowley to Geelong’s Mathew Stokes in the first quarter of Saturday’s 15-point qualifying final win at Simonds Stadium was the wrong one.

But after Steve Johnson then sliced and diced his side in the first quarter, Lyon made the change.

And it made the difference – helping put the Dockers within one victory of their first ever AFL grand final.

“Probably after his 11th possession and second goal (in the first quarter),” Lyon said when asked when he knew he needed to make the change.

“I take the hit for that … we just thought Stokes had been getting on the outside and breaking the chain a lot, so we went that way.

“In hindsight, it was the wrong call. But to Ryan’s credit, to then go to a great player and do a pretty good job was important for the win today.”

Crowley’s shutdown of Johnson – who had 12 touches and two goals by quarter-time – allowed Fremantle’s midfield to wrestle back control of a game which looked set to follow the expected script.

Johnson managed just eight more possessions and zero impact in the other three terms, and Michael Barlow and Nat Fyfe were able to dominate the midfield for the Dockers.