AFL Grand Final

1897–1901: Origins

The concept of a "grand" final gradually evolved from experimentation by the Victorian Football League (VFL) in the initial years of competition following its inception in 1897. During the 19th century, Australian football competition adopted the approach that the team on top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away series was declared the premiers. However, the fledgling VFL decided that a finals series played between the top four teams at the end of the season would generate more interest and gate money. For 1897, the VFL scheduled a round robin tournament whereby the top four played each other once and the team that won the most matches was declared the winner.

However, this method had flaws, so the VFL continued to experiment, playing "section" matches after the regular season and then a finals series where first on the ladder played the third team and second met fourth. The winners of these "semi" finals then met in a final to decide the premiership. The first such final was contested in 1898 between the Essendon Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club at the St Kilda Cricket Ground, which Fitzroy won scoring 5.8 (38) to Essendon's 3.5 (23).

The second finals format was ultimately discarded by the VFL after the unsatisfactory conclusion to the 1900 VFL season, where Melbourne won the premiership after having finished sixth out of the eight teams after the home-and-away season (ahead of Carlton and St Kilda) with a record of 6-8.

The new finals system caused problems in 1901 when Geelong finished on top of the ladder but was immediately eliminated when defeated in the semi final. A "right of challenge" was introduced, giving the team that finished on top at the end of the regular season (the minor premier) the right to challenge if they lost the semi final or the final. This challenge match came to be called the "grand final". The first four grand finals were scattered around various Melbourne venues: one at Albert Park, two at St Kilda's Junction Oval and one at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground. The selection of the venue could depend on the portion of the gate demanded by the ground's landlords.

1902–1914: MCG move

The public remained ambivalent to the concept of finals football until the VFL pulled off a coup in 1902. Previously, the MCG was unavailable to football in the early spring months as it was being prepared for the coming cricket season. The VFL convinced the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) to rent the ground for the finals series and the first grand final at what is today considered the home of the game attracted more than 35,000 people to watch Collingwood down Essendon. The success of the finals at the MCG was proven with big attendances every year, and soon all the major competitions around Australia were employing what was known as the "amended Argus system" of finals. The "original Argus system" had been instituted by the VFL in 1901, the amended system was instituted by the VFL in 1902.

By 1908, a new record attendance of 50,261 was set, on a day when the crowd was so huge that it broke through the fence and filed onto the ground, sitting around the boundary line to watch the action. This figure was beaten in the 1912 Grand Final when 54,463 saw Essendon defeat South Melbourne. The big finals crowds (and increasing cricket attendances) prompted the MCC to cut down the eleven fifty-year-old elm trees inside the ground and turn the stadium into a concrete bowl, complete with extra stands and standing room. The record fell again in the last grand final before World War I, when the excitement of St Kilda's first premiership attempt drew 59,479 spectators.

1915–1930: World War I and the end of the challenge final system

The war had a considerable effect on the impact of the grand final and attendances plummeted. One critic called for the Carlton team to receive the Iron Cross after they defeated Collingwood in the thrilling 1915 Grand Final, ironically dubbed a "glorious contest" by famous coach Jack Worrall. But many diggers supported the continuance of the game, and both the 1918 and 1919 grand finals were notable for the large number of Australian servicemen in attendance, many of whom wore uniform.

During the 1920s, the VFL grappled with the problems associated with the "amended Argus system", specifically that a true grand final was not played if the minor premier won both the semi final and the final. Although new attendance records were set in 1920 and 1922, these were for the semi finals, which often drew bigger crowds than the grand final.

There was no grand final in 1924; a once-off finals system was trialled, in which the top four contested a round robin, with the top team from the round robin to face the minor premiers in a grand final if required; but, when minor premiers Essendon also won the round robin, no grand final was staged.^[3]

The league reverted to the "amended Argus system" for 1925, when the grand final attracted a new record crowd of 64,288: the match was Geelong's first VFL premiership win, and a huge contingent from Victoria's second city descended on the MCG to watch their team make history. From 1927 until 1930, Collingwood won four premierships in a row, which remains the league record.

In 1927, 1928 and 1930, the biggest crowd of the year was again drawn to the semi final and not to the grand final. This, coupled with the perception that the minor premier could find losing its semi-final to be advantageous, resulted in the league abandoning the amended Argus system after 1931, replacing it with the Page–McIntyre system.^[4]

1931–1939: New finals system and start of a golden age

The Page playoff system (or 'final four") was introduced for 1931, whereby the semi finals (1 v 2 and 3 v 4) were followed by the preliminary final and then the grand final, with the right of challenge abolished. This proved satisfactory to all, and the new system ushered in a golden age for the grand final.

New records were constantly set and when 75,754 attended the 1933 Grand Final between South Melbourne and Richmond, it started the MCC thinking of expansion again. Just months earlier, cricket attendance records were shattered during the "bodyline" series between Australia and England. The MCC decided to build the southern stand, which enclosed almost half the ground and was completed in 1937. That year, the Geelong-Collingwood grand final attracted 88,540 and the spectators were sitting five deep along the boundary line. Somehow, the following year, 96,834 people turned up and squashed in to watch the Magpies take on Carlton. At the time, Melbourne's population was about one million, which meant that on grand final day, almost one tenth of the city was at the game.

1940–1953: World War II and after

The VFL grand final in 1946 from the stands of the MCG

Football served as a distraction for people on the home front during the war, particularly during the darkest days between 1941 and 1943. The Australian government requisitioned a number of VFL grounds, including the MCG. Therefore, the grand final was staged at Princes Park (Carlton) in 1942, 1943 and 1945, and at St Kilda's Junction Oval in 1944 when Fitzroy won its last premiership on the second hottest grand final day on record. The 1943 clash was a thrilling contest, Richmond defeating Essendon by five points. The 1942 and 1945 matches were marred by violence, and the latter game has gone down in history as "the "Bloodbath". An amazing crowd of 62,986 crammed into the Carlton ground for this game, which was played just weeks after the armistice with Japan was declared.

So when the MCG was finally relinquished by the government in August 1946, there was great expectation in the buildup to the grand final, where Essendon booted a record score to defeat Melbourne. Attendances were back to 1930s levels by 1947 and 85,815 turned up to see Carlton beat Essendon by a solitary point; a similar crowd a year later watched the Bombers and Demons play the first draw in grand final history. Melbourne won the replay the following week. The sight of thousands sitting between the fence and the boundary line, first seen in the late 1930s, was now usual at the grand final. Spectators were admitted on a first-come basis, and thousands took to lining up outside the stadium in the days before the match to gain the best vantage point when the gates opened on the morning of the match. Some reservations were raised about spectator safety as the MCG was clearly being filled above its capacity.

1954–1961: Melbourne Olympic Games and ticketing

As the MCG would be used as the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games, the ground was upgraded again with a new stand and extra capacity. Construction work restricted the crowd at the 1954 Grand Final when 80,897 people saw Footscray win their historic first flag. Eight thousand more witnessed the 1955 Grand Final, before the stand was fully completed. The 1956 Grand Final was seen as a dry run for the opening ceremony of the games two months later, but no one was prepared for the outcome. Officially, 115,802 fans turned out to see Melbourne take on Collingwood for the second year in a row, but contemporary reports state that anywhere between twenty and thirty thousand people were turned away. Some gained admittance by storming the gates, while others perched precariously on the roof of the southern stand. The old record had been shattered by almost 19,000 but the chaos outside the ground prompted the VFL to introduce a ticketing system for the first time.

Attendances now hovered around the 100,000 mark during the coming years. Melbourne dominated the era with seven straight grand final appearances (for five flags), playing Collingwood three times and Essendon twice. The 1958 Grand Final, when Collingwood upset a Melbourne team attempting to equal the Magpies' proud record of four consecutive premierships, was arguably the greatest upset recorded in the biggest game of all. The Demons made amends by winning the next year, when the premiership cup was presented for the first time. Previously, the crowd descended on the arena at the end of the game, and the players were variously chaired off the ground or walked to the dressing room. The presentation of the cup gave the after-match a ceremonial focus and allowed the attention to settle on the premier team.

Following the 1956 introduction of television to Australia, there were repeated calls for the grand final to be telecast live, but the VFL refused on the basis that the crowd numbers might be affected. A delayed telecast was allowed for the 1961 Grand Final, when Hawthorn won for the first time, but thereafter only a videotaped replay was shown.

1962–1983: Second golden age

In contrast to the 1950s when a few teams were monopolising grand final places, the 1960s was a decade of variety. Between 1961 and 1968, seven teams won the flag and a number of classic encounters were played. In the 1964 grand final, a thrilling finish enabled Melbourne to win their last premiership to date by four points. Two years later, in arguably one of the most famous grand finals of them all, St Kilda won their only premiership by one point, and their players went for an impromptu lap of honour with the cup, a tradition that endures. In the 1967 grand final, Geelong and Richmond played a match of the highest standard, with the Tigers winning in the last minutes to end a long premiership drought. The next season, Carlton also ended a long run without success and set a record as the only winning team to score fewer goals than the opposition as they defeated Essendon by three points.

By now, the MCG had been expanded again so that record crowds were set in 1968, 1969 and 1970. In what is commonly referred to as the greatest of all-time, the 1970 grand final saw Carlton come back from a 44-point half time deficit to beat Collingwood; it was watched by an all-time record crowd of 121,696 people. Most of the matches during this period had something to remember: Hawthorn's comeback to win in 1971, Carlton's record score in the highest scoring grand final ever played in 1972, Richmond's two wins over Carlton in 1969 and 1973 in very physical encounters, and North Melbourne's first grand final victory in 1975 . In the memorable 1977 grand final, North Melbourne came from 27 points down at three quarter time to play the second drawn grand final in history (the first since 1948). The momentum continued on the first Saturday in October 1977, when they defeated Collingwood in the replay.

After the 1981 grand final, the old scoreboard was removed to Manuka Oval. The MCG installed a new electronic colour scoreboard in 1982.^[5]

By the start of the early 1980s, Collingwood had lost eight grand finals in a row since winning its 1958 premiership. The term "Colliwobbles" began to be used at this time to describe the team's inability to win grand finals.

1982–1999: National team competition

The 1980s saw a sustained period of dominance by Hawthorn, who appeared in every grand final from 1983 to 1989, winning four of them in 1983, 1986, and back to back in 1988 and in 1989 contest. The 1989 Grand Final, a high scoring and very physical encounter in which Hawthorn defeated Geelong by six points, is considered to be one of the greatest of all time.

With the transformation of the VFL into the Australian Football League in 1990, and the move to a truly national competition, there emerged a new era in which non-Victorian based clubs now competed for the Premiership. Collingwood won the inaugural AFL Premiership in 1990. Between 1992 and 2006, non-Victorian clubs won ten out of fifteen premierships. The first club to achieve the feat was West Coast in 1992 and 1994, and Adelaide won back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998. North Melbourne was the only other club to win two grand finals in the 1990s, 1996 and 1999 respectively, as no team dominated the era.

21st century

Cameron Mooney (No. 21) lines up for goal in the 2008 AFL Grand Final against Hawthorn

Beginning in 2001, the Brisbane Lions won three consecutive grand finals, with its nine-point win against Collingwood in 2002 the closest of the three matches. In 2004, Port Adelaide defeated Brisbane Lions in the first grand final ever played between two non-Victorian teams. The 2005 and 2006 grand finals were played between Sydney and West Coast, with each winning one premiership by less than a goal; the 2005 match is remembered for the strong defensive mark taken by Sydney's Leo Barry in the dying seconds.

Sydney Swans supporters celebrate a goal at the 2006 AFL Grand Final

The years 2007 to 2011 saw a dominant Geelong appear in four out of five grand finals, winning three premierships. The only match to not feature Geelong was in 2010, when Collingwood and St Kilda played the third draw in grand final history, with Collingwood winning the subsequent replay by 56 points.

After 2011, Hawthorn established itself as a dominant force, finishing runners up to Sydney in 2012 then winning the 2013, 2014 and 2015 premierships against Fremantle, Sydney and West Coast.

On 19 April 2016, the AFL announced that drawn grand finals will be resolved by the use of two five minute extra time periods, with the siren not being sounded to end the second period until the tie is broken, abolishing the use of a full replay.^[6]

On 12 April 2018, the AFL, Victorian Government and Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) announced that the Melbourne Cricket Ground would continue to host the grand final until at least 2057.^[7]

Flag

Carlton Football Club hoist the 1906 VFL premiership flag at Princes Park in 1907

The premiers are awarded the "premiership flag", a large pennant which is unfurled at the premiers' first home game of the following season. The current flag is blue with the AFL logo, the word "premiers" and the year of the premiership. Although the cup features much more prominently in celebrations immediately following the grand final, the flag has far greater symbolic significance.

This is reflected in football parlance, in which speaking of a team winning the flag rather than the cup is much more common: this is possibly the result of history, as the presentation of a flag first occurred in 1895 when the VFA recognised Fitzroy's first premiership win, while the cup was not introduced until 1959 (retrospective cups were awarded by the AFL in 2010 for VFL/AFL premierships in 1897 to 1958).

Trophies

The winner of the grand final is presented with the AFL premiership cup. The current premiership cup is silver (with the exception of 1996, when a gold cup was awarded instead of the usual silver one in recognition of the AFL/VFL's 100th season) and manufactured by Cash's International at their metalworks in Frankston, Victoria.

The cup was first introduced in 1959 by the VFL, and the AFL has since retrospectively awarded all prior premiership winners trophies based on the current design. Before the 1960s, premiership players received a personal premiership trophy instead of a medallion.

The premier is also recorded on the perpetual E. L. Wilson Shield, which resides at AFL House.^[9] The shield, inaugurated in 1929, was named after Edwin Lionel Wilson, who was the secretary of the Victorian Football League from its inception in 1897 until his retirement in 1929. It was initially discontinued after 1978, when there was no room remaining on the shield for more teams.

In 2016, the shield was rediscovered under a stairwell at AFL House. It was refurbished, with extra space being added to bring the shield up to date, and it was reintroduced as a premiership trophy.^[10]

Prize money

Prize money is awarded to the victorious club.

However the amount is probably not reflective of the magnitude of participating in the event. It is often assumed simply that the winner of the premiership typically experiences an increase in revenue through increases in membership and merchandise sales.

The current cash prize for the winning club is A$1 million. Before 2006, a cash prize to the winning club of A$200,000 was awarded (In contrast, the winner of the NAB Cup, the far less important pre-season competition which was held from 1998 to 2013, was awarded a similar amount, A$210,000). Following the Sydney Swans premiership in 2005, many clubs publicly questioned the prize money,^[11] which had not increased significantly for many years and barely covered the cost of participation in the finals series.

Brownlow Medal

The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal, is the medal awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season (i.e. not including finals matches) as decided upon by umpires. It was named after a Geelong player and long-serving administrator who was the main advocate in establishing the Victorian Football League, Charles Brownlow. It is awarded at a special dinner on the Monday night before the grand final, recently at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

Grand final parade

Since 1977, a grand final parade featuring the players from each team has been held around midday on the Friday before each grand final. The parade was adopted from a tradition which had begun decades earlier in the amateur VAFA, and it became increasingly popular during the 1980s.

From its inception until 2014, the parade was based in the Melbourne city centre, usually proceeding from St Kilda Road along the city's main thoroughfares Swanston Street, turning into Collins Street, and ending at the steps outside the Old Treasury Building. The parade featured the players from the competing sides. The players have in the past appeared on parade floats; in recent times it has become a motorcade of open-top vehicles (weather permitting).^[12]

When the Friday of the parade was declared a public holiday in Victoria in 2015, the AFL determined that the traditional city route no longer made sense with most office buildings set to be vacant. The route now begins at the Old Treasury Building, heads south down Spring St, east along Wellington Parade, and ends within Yarra Park outside the MCG.^[13]

Since 2007, the parades have generally attracted in excess of 100,000 fans each year (except in inclement weather).^[14][15] Crowds have historically been smaller in years when no Victorian clubs contested the grand final – such as between 2004 and 2006, when crowds ranged only from 40,000 to 75,000.^[16][17][18] A record crowd of 150,000 people attended the first public holiday parade in 2015.^[19]

Some of the estimated seventy five thousand people who lined the streets of Melbourne for the 2006 AFL Grand Final parade

Grand Final Breakfast

The North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast has been held annually since 1967. Various football personalities, and politicians are in attendance for a lead up to the grand final. It is broadcast live on Fox Footy.

The first Grand Final Breakfast was held in 1967 at the Southern Cross hotel, as a valuable fundraising event. The inaugural guest speaker was the VFL's Administrative director Eric McCutchan. The event rose to prominence in the 1970s when the breakfast began to be televised across Victoria, and was officially endorsed by the VFL as the official pre-match Grand Final function. Since then the event has grown into a significant money raiser for North Melbourne, and the guest list has grown to include Prime Ministers, State Premiers and other celebrities.

Although many clubs hold their own Grand Final Breakfasts, the North Melbourne Breakfast was the first breakfast and is currently the only breakfast to be officially endorsed by the AFL. This ensures a guest list that reads as a 'who's who' of Australian business, sport, entertainment and politics. The breakfast includes a Grand Auction, with all proceeds being donated to the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Pre-match entertainment

West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans players lining up for the national anthem at the 2005 AFL Grand Final.

Many big Australian and international stars have performed or appeared as pre-match entertainment at the grand final. The game has often been criticised for poor pre-game entertainment; in particular, performances by Angry Anderson in 1991(half time entertainment) and Meat Loaf in 2011 have been singled out as poor performances by the entertainers involved.^[20][21]

Each team's club song is performed live as part of the pre-match entertainment (with the recorded version also played as the team enters the field). For a time, many or all of a selection of traditional football and Australian songs (Up There Cazaly, One Day in September, That's the Thing About Football, Holy Grail and Waltzing Matilda) were performed each year, although this has fallen out of favour.

Advance Australia Fair is performed when teams and the umpires are on the field, and lined up on the wing.

Halftime and post-match entertainment

In addition to having pre-match entertainment, the AFL grand final has also included half-time and post-match entertainment. The post-match entertainment that follows the grand final takes place after the presentations and player celebrations have concluded, and unlike the main match, is free and open to the general public, with anybody invited to attend, regardless of whether they attended the match or not.^[22] Since 2012, the post-match shows are sponsored by Virgin Australia, with the post-match shown named the Virgin Australia Premiership Party as a result.^[23] The post-match entertainment has been provided by Paul Kelly and The Temper Trap (2012), Hunters and Collectors and Birds of Tokyo (2013), Ed Sheeran and Sir Tom Jones (2014), Chris Issak, Ellie Goulding and Ryan Adams (2015), Vance Joy, Sting and The Living End (2016), The Killers (2017), Black Eyed Peas and Jimmy Barnes (2018).^[24]

Half-time entertainment has been absent since the 2014 AFL Grand Final, with the entertainment occurring pre-match.

Sprint race

The 2015 Grand Final sprint as the competitors cross the finish line. Majak Daw of North Melbourne was the winner.

Since 1977 a running race has taken place on grand final day between various players who are not taking part in the game. In 1977–78 it was a long-distance race run over a mile with each league club able to nominate up to two entrants. In 1979 the race was changed to a 100 m sprint with one player per club taking part.^[25]

Between 1979–87 the two clubs participating in the grand final had the option of providing one of their players who missed selection in the match, but generally chose not to do so, meaning the sprint was usually contested by a field of 10 players during this era.

The race was not held from 1988 to 2001 but was reintroduced in 2002 (along with a goalkicking contest, which only lasted one year). With the number of league clubs having grown to 16 during the break in competition, a new format was adopted with the players now split into two groups of eight for the heats (held before the grand final), with the top four from each heat advancing to the final (held at half-time of the grand final). In recent years a handicapping system has also been introduced; however this has not been used since the 2013 grand final.

Norm Smith Medal

Luke Hodge, 2008 and 2014 Norm Smith medalist. Hodge is one of just three players to have won multiple Norm Smith medals, along with Gary Ayres and Andrew McLeod.

The Norm Smith Medal is presented to the player judged as best on the ground during the grand final by a panel of experts. The award is named in honour of Melbourne premiership player and coach Norm Smith, who died in 1973. It was first awarded in 1979, to Carlton's Wayne Harmes, a great nephew of Smith. In time the award has come to carry great prestige as an individual prize.

Other awards

The coach of the winning team receives the Jock McHale Medal, named in honour of Collingwood coach Jock McHale who holds the record of winning eight premierships as coach. The medal was first awarded in 2001, and was retrospectively awarded to all premiership-winning coaches starting from 1950, the first season after McHale's retirement from coaching.

The leading goalkicker or goalkickers in the grand final receive the Jack Collins Medal, named after Jack Collins who kicked seven goals in Footscray's grand final victory in 1954. The award was first presented by the AFL Premiership Players' Club in 2010,^[27] and was also awarded retrospectively to leading goalkickers from previous grand finals.^[28]

Attendance

The event has been sold out every year for decades and once drew a crowd of 121,696 spectators for Collingwood vs Carlton in 1970, primarily due to the presence of standing room (areas of the stadium without seats). However attendances have wavered due to redevelopment and reduced capacity of the main venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground; being favoured by increased seating of approximately 110,000.^[29] AFL members and nominated members of the participating clubs are given first rights to tickets, as are Melbourne Cricket Club members.

Television broadcast

The grand final is traditionally one of the most-watched television events of the year in Australia. Since the introduction of the current OzTAM ratings system in 2001,^[39] the grand final match segment of the broadcast has been the highest-rated program of the year four times, as of 2017, across metropolitan audiences (2007, 2014, 2015 and 2017);^{[30][35][36][38]} metropolitan audiences encompass the five major capital cities in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth), with regional audiences measured as a separate figure.^[40] Additionally, the post-game presentations segment was the most-watched Australian television broadcast in 2016, with the actual match ranking second.^[37]

The 2005 AFL Grand Final was watched by a television audience of more than 3.3 million people across five of Australia's most highly populated cities, including 1.2 million in Melbourne and 991,000 in Sydney.^[41] The worldwide audience has grown substantially to a potential 170 million viewers from 72 countries, although the actual audience is likely to be around 30 million.^[42]

In the past (2007–2011) AFL domestic broadcast arrangement, Network Ten and the Seven Network had exclusive hosting rights for the decider with the 2007, 2009 and 2011 AFL Grand Final on Network Ten and the 2008 and 2010 deciders on the Seven Network. In the event of a grand final replay, the network that televised the first match would also broadcast the second match.

With the new television broadcasting deal announced in April 2011, the Seven Network have exclusive rights to televising the AFL grand final for the next five years (i.e. 2012–2016).