The model of the grand final is dead. For too long the contrived edifice of the grand final – supposedly the showpiece of the sporting year in many codes – has taken away from the core product.
It is now merely a contrived business-minded way of capitalising on the spectacle of the event, as apposed to being about the pure sport we all enjoy.
Sure, I have grown to enjoy the big build-up and the week-long celebration of the two ‘best’ teams in the country getting ready to battle it out.
However often the teams competing in the final do not represent a season of dominance, which should be the point. Take the 2014 NRL grand final: the teams competing finished the season third (South Sydney Rabbitohs) and seventh (Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs).
The Bulldogs finished with a season record of 13 games won and 11 lost. After a decidedly average season, they clearly aren’t the second-best team in the competition.
Mediocrity is not only endorsed but rewarded by the NRL, with the ‘showpiece’ model seemingly more about maximising profits rather than letting the best play out a season with highs, lows and tension throughout.
This in turn harms the competition and its pure aspect which has lead to apathy during the year and a dilution of the product in general.
The model allows far too many meaningless and dead-rubber games and allows teams, like Canterbury, to be poor throughout the season with the knowledge that they may scrape into the finals on the back of other equally poor and inconsistent teams.
This alone must give rise to fans asking what they are paying top dollar for? Are fans expected to pay full price for a season ticket for a team who go out to play a match knowing full well that they are in no danger losing a playoff spot if they underperform?
The New England Patriots went 18-0 leading into Superbowl XLII (in 2008) and lost to the New York Giants, who had a 10-6 record throughout the year. Which team deserved the trophy more, the lads who pulled a rabbit out of the hat in one game, or the team that went out week after week and showed consistency, application and dedication to be the best for the entire year?
The English Premier League is one of the greatest competitions in sport. The subplots that exist, the transfer squabbles, relegation battles, intense competition for each and every point. It forces you to tune in week after week. One pours over stats to work out whether or not your team will survive relegation, or make the treasured Champions League spot!
Then, organically, it all comes down to the famous final day. Who remembers Manchester City’s famous win in 2012 with literally seconds remaining ahead of the AFL, NRL or Super Rugby grand final of the same year?
Instead of creating the hype through a series of slickly produced vignettes and Phil Gould speeches, a season of turmoil for some and pleasure for others should simply speak for itself.
However if anyone would still prefer to sit through Shannon Noll or Meatloaf butcher songs and make people cringe in front of their television sets, by all means keep the grand final as it is.
John Gorrie
Roar Rookie
Thanks for commenting on this waste of time!
daniel p
Guest
Nailed it! The grand final week build up is great. Also the summer break so that come March we are bouncing off the walls for our rugby league to start again. Also drop the hyperbole such as "the grand final is dead", maybe in your opinion but definitely not the clear majority of fans.
pete bloor
Guest
I like the final concept but more because it is more interesting and exciting the best team not always winning is part of sport. I think the "mentally toughest" thing is BS but if it floats your boat.
pete bloor
Guest
If the best team always won every sporting match then the super bowl winner would be undefeated every single year and every other sport would be crowned with an undefeated champion. The outcome of every match is variable as the millions of decisions and events have probable not certain outcomes influenced by things inside and outside your control including the fact human beings are not machines.
turbodewd
Guest
Philipp, the best team will win the SUper Bowl anyway. Soft schedules dont make a team better, it actually makes them worse.
Ken
Guest
AFL certainly wins in crowds - they get exceptional results there. Ratings and subsequently TV Rights (now that the NRL is no longer constrained by media ownership) are basically identical.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
It's only because the playoffs in EPL etc are those cups they qualify for. So they already get a finals series. It would be like the NRL and ESL saying that whomever finishes top of the table wins the premiership (well the minor one that is already avialable), but the teams that finish in the top 8 in both comps now qualify for the World Club Championship and a new series kicks off.
Madrid john
Roar Rookie
It might grate, but so does meaningless games at the end of the season when Real Madrid or Barcelona have allready celebrated their league win and play the final few rounds out with zero interest. Sure it doesn't happen every year, but those seasons when it does is, not fun. Gran finals are not fair, but when was sport ever fair? That is part of the magic. Sport is tragic. Great players get injured just before world cups. Weak teams shock great teams. Finally, though Souths finished 3rd in the ladder in 2014, do you not think they were the best team of last year?
Brian
Guest
League has its GF & SOO and Internationals and yet despite more then half our population living in NSW & QLD it consistently loses to the AFL in crowds & TV Rights. League has so many "events" it diminishes the weekly round.
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
As an alternate system a top 4 round-robin system would work well. They would play each other once over a 3 week period. The higher placed team would receive a home ground advantage in each match, so that fans would know where their team is playing at the conclusion of round 26. The top 2 placed teams after this round-robin would meet in the GF in week 4. Points differential could often play a big part in these finals, so teams would most likely give 100% for the full 80 minutes in each game.
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
I like the idea of a top 6 finals series spread over 4 weeks with a total of 6 games played Week One 3 plays 6 in a knockout. 4 plays 5 in a knockout Week Two 1 and 2 play each other with the winner going straight into the Grand Final. The winner also receives a rest in Week Three. The winners of 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5 battle each other to see who will play the loser of 1 vs 2 in Week Three. With this system at least one of the top two teams during the course of the year is guaranteed a spot in the big one.
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
They obviously were. They were the team that didn't choke when it mattered most.
Troy Whittaker
Roar Rookie
Agree 100%! The team that is most consistent deserves to be rewarded for that. Otherwise the incentive for a fantastic 26 weeks of regular season football isn't that great, and fans lose interest until finals time.
Me Too
Guest
This 'contrived' cup final idea is actually older than the idea of a league champion by some way. The first football 'league' was in south australia in 1877, followed months later by the VFA - both had a final to determine the champion. The english league began in 1888, 17 years after their own FA Cup began. Earlier still was the Australian rules football Caledonian Cup. The world's biggest tournaments of any type end with a grand final to determine one champion - not the one that has been able to beat most consistently the rank and file over the course of a season, but the one able to prove themselves able to make it to, and win, on the biggest stage in that sport.
sheek
Roar Guru
I like the grand final concept. Where a team finishes during the regular season doesn't always reflect their true status. There are always injuries to contend with, & rep honours will pull players out of a strong team. Come finals time, the idea is, barring unforeseen injuries, the best players are available for each team, & the mentally toughest will prevail when it counts. In this respect, the grand final concept mimics world cups. The pools are the regular season, while the knockouts are the finals play-offs. You need to be mentally tough as well as a brilliant team to go all the way. Consequently, the idea of end of season play-offs appeals to me.
Philipp
Roar Rookie
The reason why the European Football Leagues dont have a grand final is not because its unfair, its because there are other things to achieve. In Germany Bayern Munich secured the title 4 or 5 rounds early, but there was still the battle against regulation and the battle for spots in the European Competitions. So even after the Bundesliga was decided, there were still a lot of meaningful games with a lot at stake for the Clubs. The NRL has neither relegation nor is there an international competition like the Champions League to qualify for, therefore the NRL needs Playoffs to maintain the Interest in the later Rounds. The NFL is a bad example, because they dont play every team, so some teams have an easier Schedule than others. Same thing although not as extreme applies to the NRL. Teams with many origin players would also be disadvantaged.
Philipp
Roar Rookie
Absolutely agree
Greavesy
Guest
I guess we could use the soccer model and whoever offers the biggest bribe wins.. But in all honesty, the NRL doesn't have a promotion/relegation system or champions league qualification, so if a team skips out to a 4 or 5 match lead at the top of the table, there are no sub-plots to keep the fans interested. State Of Origin taking the best players out of the comp for a couple of months also means that the best team doesn't necessarily win the minor premiership each year. Plus the fact that teams don't play everyone twice means that there has to be a finals series. To suggest we award the trophy to first past the post is ridiculous, Grand Finals are amazing, so many great memories have been created during these matches. Besides, if a team has been so dominant all season, surely one more game to win can't be too hard..
AR
Guest
"You’re constantly using that quote like Ange like his voice carries extra weight and/or speaks for the entire football community." So Ange Postecoglou - former NSL player, Socceroo, ALeague Coach and now Head Coach of the Socceroos - his opinion doesn't carry extra weight? Seriously?
spruce moose
Guest
I remember the 2012 AFL grand final. I support neither team but it was a classic. "One from the top drawer" I believe Dennis Cometti said. I also remember Watford v Leicester in 2013 in the Championship play one of the all time greatest play off games ever. (people, watch it on youtube. its ridiculous). You can't not have a finals series unless you have a perfect home and away fixture. Until we get one, finals stay. And stay they should. It's the perfect examination of a team able to play under extreme pressure. Finally, state of origins existance is vitally important that we have finals. Without finals, the team that emerges through state of origin unscathed will generally win. There will not be a coach alive that would want his players in origin if it compromised whether they would win matches and thus the premiership.