The AFL Grand Final is held annually on or near the last Saturday afternoon in September. Each year, pre-match entertainment is provided by musicians from past and present.
Australian rules football, also called Australian football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts, or between a central and outer post.
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Founded in 1892 in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before joining seven other teams in 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL), known today as the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally based at Victoria Park, Collingwood now plays home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has its headquarters and training facilities at Olympic Park Oval and the AIA Centre.
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Edward Joseph McGuireAM is an Australian television presenter, journalist and Australian Football League commentator. He is also an occasional Herald Sun newspaper columnist. He hosts Channel Nine’s Millionaire Hot Seat, Wednesday night episodes of Footy Classified, and Network 10’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football League. The club plays its home games at Optus Stadium and has its headquarters at Lathlain Park. The West Australian Football Commission wholly owns the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club, the AFL's other Western Australian team.
Michael Long is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent who became a spokesperson for Indigenous rights and against racism in sport in Australia.
The Australian Football International Cup is a triennial international tournament in Australian rules football. It is the biggest international tournament in the sport that is open to all nations. More than 26 nations have participated and the competition has expanded into multiple pools and both men and women's divisions. At the time of the last tournament in 2017, the sport had a record 170,744 registered players outside Australia growing at a rate of 25 per cent per annum.
Junction Oval is a historic sports ground in the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
In Australian rules football, a player can take a mark by catching the ball from a kick, which earns protection from tackles. In the Australian Football League (AFL), the mark subjectively judged the best in each season is named Mark of the Year.
The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. Prior to 1990 it was known as the VFL Grand Final, and renamed due to the national expansion of the competition. Played at the end of the finals series, the game has been held annually since 1898, except in 1924. It is traditionally staged on the afternoon of the last Saturday in September, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. As the premier match of the AFL season, it attracts one of the largest audiences in Australian sport, regularly attracting a crowd of more than 100,000 and a television audience of millions.
Women's Australian rules football, is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game.
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent and only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian football organisations.
Basil Anthony Zempilas is an Australian television and radio presenter, sports commentator and politician based in Perth, Western Australia. Zempilas presented sport until 2022 on Seven News Perth, Monday to Thursday and from January 2014 until 11 December 2020 co-hosted Perth radio station 6PR's breakfast program with Steve Mills. He is also a member of the Seven Network's AFL football commentary team. Zempilas has commentated on the Olympics and several other major sporting events, was formerly with radio station 92.9 in Perth and has previously been a co-host of Weekend Sunrise. In 2020, Zempilas was elected Lord Mayor of Perth.
The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Australian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 2006 AFL season. The match, attended by 97,431 spectators, was won by West Coast by a margin of one point, marking the club's third premiership victory.
The Australian Football League finals series, more generally known as the AFL finals, and known from 1897 until 1989 as the Victorian Football League finals series or VFL finals, is a playoff tournament held at the end of each AFL season to determine the premier. The top eight teams qualify for the finals based on the home-and-away season results, and finals matches are played over four weeks under the conventions of the AFL final eight system, culminating in the AFL Grand Final. The finals series is traditionally held throughout September.
The 2008 Australian Football International Cup was the third time the Australian Football International Cup, an international Australian rules football competition, has been contested.
The 1998 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Crows and the North Melbourne Kangaroos, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1998. It was the 102nd annual grand final of the Australian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1998 AFL season. The match, attended by 94,431 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 35 points. This was the second consecutive premiership for the Crows.
The AFL Grand Final, which is the final premiership deciding match each season in the Australian Football League (AFL), has been played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, every year since 1902, except on seven occasions when the ground was unavailable or because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the case of the 2020 AFL Grand Final; and it is presently contracted to be played there until 2059. Despite the long-term stability in its location, and its natural fit as the largest capacity stadium in both Melbourne and Australia, the ongoing use of the Melbourne Cricket Ground has been controversial throughout its history.
The 2021 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, on Saturday 25 September 2021. It was the 126th annual grand final of the Australian Football League (AFL), staged to determine the premiers of the 2021 AFL season. As the top-placed side on the ladder at the end of the 2021 home-and-away season, Melbourne finished minor premiers; conversely, the Western Bulldogs faded in the final four home-and-away games to finish 5th, thus needing to win all of their finals games to qualify for the grand final.
The 2023 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, 30 September 2023. It was the 128th annual grand final of the Australian Football League (AFL), staged to determine the premiers for the 2023 AFL season. The match, attended by a capacity crowd of 100,024 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of four points, marking the club's sixteenth VFL/AFL premiership and tying the record held jointly by Carlton and Essendon. Collingwood's Bobby Hill won the Norm Smith Medal as the player judged best on ground.