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Opinion
The 2020 grand final promises to deliver much but is couched in the most unfamiliar of circumstances.
For as long as anyone now alive has known, the AFL or VFL grand final has been played in the familiar surroundings of the MCG – except for that one year in 1991 when the Hawks triumphed at Waverley. It’s standard to expect 100,000 fans of the great game in attendance, sometimes their day ending in tears and sometimes in celebrations lasting days if not weeks.
But this year the showdown between the league’s best and most worthy will take place at the Gabba in Queensland, formerly known as the site of many great cricketing contests.
It has been a remarkable year, and not always in a good way. COVID-19 has decimated Victoria’s ability to have their normal score of matches, and players have been living in hubs bereft of their families.
Saturday night brings an end to it all, and as usual we are all excited but also a little bit sad that the footballing year is over once again until season 2021.
The teams that meet in Saturday’s decider have much to play for beyond grand final spoils alone.
Richmond will be vying to be called one of the greatest dynasties of our time, having conquered the league in 2017 ad 2019.
Geelong, on the other hand, have not been to the great dance since 2011 and will be attempting to win in large part for Patrick Dangerfield, who has never tasted that ultimate success despite carving out a legendary career, and for club stalwarts Gary Ablett, playing his 358th and final game, and Joel Selwood, who became captain in 2012 and has not yet led a grand final side, falling at the preliminary finals four times.
Whoever wins, this is for sure: we will never again see a season like 2020’s COVID year, a hope shared by even those who do not follow football.
COVID has changed every aspect of our lives in Victoria. We can’t shop, there are no public events and we can’t even go to the pub, sink a few and watch the game. The football matches that were played in Victoria had severe restrictions on them, with almost no crowds allowed and annoying fake crowd noises and cheers on TV – and I think everybody will be glad to see an end to them.
But while our health has been protected, things such as the economy, and football players wages have taken a hit. Players have not only been paid less, but they have been forced to tear themselves away from Melbourne’s winter to live in sunny Queensland with only a fine splatter of family members within reach.
Gary Ablett, in order to see his sick son, had to opt out of the ‘bubble’ and miss ten weeks of the game. He will not be missing on Saturday, though, as he seeks to add a Norm Smith Medal to his haul, completing an almost perfect set of awards.
(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
When Geelong and Richmond last played each other in a grand final, some 53 years ago, both sides played free-flowing, high-scoring football and the legendary Tommy Hafey’s well-marshalled Tigers got over the line by nine points.
But 2020 promises a much different game. It has been the lowest-scoring season anyone can remember, and the game has been reduced to an all-out scrap, with large numbers of players around the ball creating a pressure frenzy.
Almost undoubtedly next year there will be steps taken to increase the flow of play and scoring, so this grand final might be the last we see of true pressure-cooker football that at least let’s you know that every goal and every point is hard-fought and well earnt.
Love it or hate it, that’s what football was in 2020, and if rule changes are put in place over the preseason, this will be the last time you have a chance to see it.
Will Dustin Martin win Norm Smith No. 3? If Richmond wins, it seems almost a foregone conclusion, so important is he to the Tigers. Dusty won the Normy for best afield in both of the Tigers’ recent premierships, in 2017 and 2019, and is always a force to contain in the matches that matter, being the driving force in many Tigers finals victories.
There is even the stat whereby if Dusty kicks a goal, Richmond are almost unbeatable in finals encounters. As both one of the premier midfielders in the competition and an elite forward when he moves down the ground, Martin presents a problem that opposition sides have struggled to deal with for more than five years. Even just dulling his influence a little has been seen as a victory.
(Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
But Geelong have their own answer to Dusty, and the smart money will be on Patrick Dangerfield to win honours for best on ground should the Cats triumph. Dangerfield, like Dusty, can swing the game, creating or kicking goals in the forward line or bursting forth from the midfield and delivering with impeccable touch. Dangerfield, if anything, has more to play for than Martin, as he has not yet got a premiership medal to go with his Brownlow, nine All Australian selections and four best and fairest awards.
Along with his perhaps less adulated teammates, Danger wants nothing more than to be toasting victory early Sunday morning before flying back to the Cattery and toasting it all over again.
Who else could be the difference? Tommy Hawkins has the ability to take over the game when he is on song, and so too do Tigers duo Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt. Their presence around the goals could be a deciding factor. It is Hawkins, though, who has dominated this season, and David Astbury will have an important role in subduing him.
Captains Joel Selwood and Trent Cotchin will be the heart and soul of their respective sides, as they have been for a number of years. The little master, Gary Ablett, needs only a few touches to turn a game, as he proved against the Lions in the preliminary final, when he had only four touches in the third term and delivered 2.1 and the winning momentum for the Cats.
I suggest also that the influence of Dion Prestia, Nick Vlastuin and Cameron Guthrie and Sam Menegola may prove important, with impactful midfielders always being a factor in the most important games. Bachar Houli and Zach Tuohy will be looking to provide drive from the back half, and their efforts will not go unheralded.
There are many others too who could impact the game in such a way to deliver victory, and if they do so on the final day in October, they will be adored forever by their respective fans.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
Let’s fast forward now to Saturday evening as the teams line up nervously and the Australian anthem is sung. Some will be noiselessly singing along, the more pumped among them belting it out, but all will be ready for one of the most important games of their careers.
Whether it is your first couple of seasons, like it is for Jordan Clarke and Sam Simpson, or whether it is your 20th year in the league, like it is for the little master Ablett, who was drafted in the super draft of 2001, grand finals are matches to remember. More than in any other type of match, you have the chance to carve out a legacy.
Before the bounce we will see emotions run high. Perhaps Tom Lynch will find his way to his sixth fine of the season. But once the whistle blows, it’ll be game on and we will see the champions of our game swarming after the ball and punishing each other should they be lucky enough to get it.
It will be hard-fought, and only the toughest will survive. The most courageous thrive.
Football – nothing wets the lips like a grand final, and I for one cannot wait.
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