AFL GF Day: The best day of the year

Kids have Christmas, shopaholics have Boxing Day, alcoholics have St Patrick’s Day, pirate obsessives have Talk Like a Pirate Day, and AFL fans have Grand Final Day. In fact most Australians love a good Grand Final party. AFL, NRL, A-League, whatever!

A good Grand Final party is as Australian as Bob Hawke, Paul Hogan, and David Boon facing off in a competition at the Wonglepong pub to see who can skull a beer the quickest while riding a kangaroo.

On a personal level, there are sports I like more than AFL, but there is no annual sporting event that gets me more excited than the AFL Grand Final.

In fact, it’s my favourite day of the year.

It’s not just one thing; it’s everything about the day that I enjoy.

Grand Final day has the anticipation of seeing sporting history unfold, the ferocious first quarter, and a few drinks with my mates.

The day also has sporting dreams coming to fruition as well as laughing at incompetent commentators out of their depth (this year it could be a Battle Royale between Malcolm Blight and Robert Walls).

Even the traditional kick-to-kick at half time going a little bit too long and thus causing everyone to miss the start of the third quarter gets me excited.

Essentially, the day is a great party and I get to watch sport too.

In honour of this Saturday, and because lists are fun, here are my personal top six favourite AFL Grand Final Day parties:

1992. My First AFL GF Party.
I was 12 years old. We had fairy bread. The West Coast Eagles beat Geelong. As we lived in Western Australia my friend’s and I were ecstatic (though in 1995 I would become a Dockers man).

Afterwards we kicked the footy around for hours on end. I believe we said “Matera sets sail for home” and “Like a cork in the ocean” 457 times… Each.

1997. A couple of cheeky beers AFL GF Party.
It was year 12 of school. That season my schoolmates and I had organised our first footy tipping competition. The proceeds went towards a nice little tea party.

The Crows beat the Saints but we missed the main part of their comeback at the start of the third quarter because we’d gone playing kick-to-kick at half-time (and so the tradition began)

2004. The AFL GF Party to end all AFL GF Parties.
It was the first all interstate Grand Final and a good 40 people attended a party at my mate Ando’s place. However, I think in my head that number goes up every year by at least two or three.

There was much revelry and joy on the day as well as several stories my friends and I still recall with great gusto.

The one’s I can tell include Ando’s dog Chief eating a whole kilo of raw sausages he “snagged” off the side of the BBQ, Ando clearing the room during the second quarter with a bout of flatulence so bad you would think he had a garbage dump covered in rotting fish and burnt hair up his bum, and me going to a gig that night and hooking up with a beautiful girl.

Also, we will still rib our friend Blue for his comment during the game that “West Coast should get rid of Ben Cousins as he is rubbish”.

Cousins won the Brownlow the very next season (though in the end maybe he was right?).

The footy wasn’t bad either as the Power ended Brisbane’s run of Premierships.

Oh, and we missed the start of the third quarter.

2006. The too close for comfort AFL GF Party.
On a four month trip around the world I visited my mate Julian in the UK to watch the Grand Final. After a night out at the local curry house the night before, we rocked up to his friend’s place stinking of vindaloo to watch the game on Sky Sports at some un-Godly hour of the morning.

There was lots of tension in the room. Not least of all was my concern around the fact that Julian’s friend stayed in his underwear the whole game and was wearing boxer shorts so small that something was bound to pop out at any second. It was like a car crash waiting to happen.

Although I was disappointed that the Dockers had fallen short the week before, this was my favourite Grand Final game ever as West Coast defeated Sydney by one point.

2008. The bigger is better AFL GF Party.
Hawthorn defeated Geelong in a classic Grand Final. My friend Pete has a mini-cinema sized screen in his front room and beer on tap. Enough said.

2010. The Australia vs Collingwood GF Party.
Last year I went on a trip to Kalbarri with my girlfriend and some of her friends. Kalbarri is about six and a half hours north of Perth.

We set off on the morning of the Grand Final but unfortunately we thought Kalbarri was only five hours north of Perth and missed most of the first half.

The fact I didn’t use Google Maps to find this out will forever be one of my life’s biggest regrets. Just behind the time I decided to watch Highlander 2.

We got to the local pub in time for the second half of the game and the atmosphere was amazing. I’ve never seen such a big percentage of people cheering on a team they normally wouldn’t give two hoots about. Or more to the point, they were rooting against a team they despise.

Almost everyone was behind St Kilda. It appears that Australia is united in its disdain for Collingwood.

In the end the game was an unbelievable draw. The crowd stumbled out of the pub so confused about how to feel you would think they had just found out that Scarlett Johansson was really a man.

So there you have it, my favourite Grand Final days. This Saturday I’ll be at a mate’s place and I’m sure it’ll be another cracker.

Although I’ve been to the MCG several times, I’ve never been at the ground on the last Saturday in September (or the first Saturday in October as it happens to be this year). My hope is that one day soon I get to go there to watch the Fremantle Dockers capture a flag.

That may be a dream but dreams are what AFL Grand Final Day is all about, fans and players alike.