2021 AFL Grand Final
2021 AFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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Date | 25 September 2021, 5:15pm AWST | |||||||||||||||
Stadium | Nathan Fyfe
(analyst)Nic Naitanui (analyst) | |||||||||||||||
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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 match was played at Optus Stadium in Perth because an ongoing
Melbourne won the match by a 74-point margin, defeating the Western Bulldogs 21.14 (140) to 10.6 (66). Christian Petracca won the Norm Smith Medal. The win was Melbourne's first premiership since 1964.
Background
Host selection process
For the second consecutive season, the
On 16 August, the league brought the finals one week forward, dropping the conventional pre-finals bye from the fixture; this provided flexibility for a number of COVID-impacted finals scenarios, and in particular allowed enough time for a mid-finals bye which would allow clubs to serve Western Australia's quarantine requirements without impacting the grand final date.[6]
While the Melbourne Cricket Ground remained the default host of the game if it was possible, the State Governments of Western Australia and
The change of venue required the permission of the
Other impacts
The start time for the game was 5:15 pm AWST / 7:15 pm AEST,[13] making it the first grand final played in the local twilight timeslot and second consecutive grand final in the east-coast night timeslot. The league opted for this over the traditional and originally scheduled start time of 2:30 pm AEST because this would have resulted in an impractically early local start time of 12:30 pm AWST.[14]
At the time of the announcement,
The AFL elected not to host a full-scale
Qualification
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
The Western Bulldogs, for their part, spent much of their season in a battle with Melbourne for the minor premiership; however, after losing its last three home-and-away games, the Bulldogs slipped to fifth place on the ladder, with a record of 15–7. The club then showed strong form in the finals, defeating Essendon in the elimination final by 49 points, Brisbane Lions by one point in the semi-final, and Port Adelaide by 71 points in the preliminary final to qualify.[22] It was the Bulldogs' first grand final berth since its victory in the 2016 decider.
The match was the second grand final between the two clubs; they had previously contested the
The two sides faced each other twice during 2021: Melbourne winning by 28 points at Marvel Stadium in Round 11, and the Bulldogs winning by 20 points at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Round 19. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns in Victoria being in place at the time on both occasions, both of these matches were played behind closed doors.
Teams
-
The Western Bulldogs players running through their banner. The last line reads: "Yield to none", which was the Bulldogs' finals slogan and an English translation of their club motto.
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The Melbourne players running through their banner.
The Western Bulldogs made two changes to its starting 22 from the preliminary final: Cody Weightman and Alex Keath returned from injury, while Laitham Vandermeer and Ryan Gardner were omitted. Melbourne's starting 22 was unchanged. The teams' medical substitutes were not announced until immediately prior to the match.[27] James Jordon was the medical sub for Melbourne, and Vandermeer (despite being omitted from the main 22) was selected as the Bulldogs' medical sub. The medical sub of the winning team (Jordon) was awarded a premiership medallion despite not being activated.[28][29]
Both clubs wore their regular home guernseys, with the Western Bulldogs wearing white shorts as the lower-seeded club.[30]
Melbourne
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Western Bulldogs
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- Umpires
The umpiring panel—comprising three field umpires, four boundary umpires, two goal umpires, and an emergency in each position—is given below.[31]
Position | Emergency | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Field: | 8 Brett Rosebury (9) | 9 Matt Stevic (9) | 32 Jacob Mollison (1) | 21 Simon Meredith (6) | |
Boundary: | Michael Marantelli (5) | Christopher Gordon (5) | Matthew Konetschka (4) | Michael Barlow (1) | Ben MacDonald |
Goal: | Steven Axon (3) | Stephen Williams (2) | Sam Walsh |
Numbers in brackets represent the number of grand finals umpired, including 2021.
Entertainment
The entertainment for the 2021 AFL Grand Final heavily featured artists from Western Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions. The
At half-time, Birds of Tokyo and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra performed "Lanterns", a cover of Silverchair's "Straight Lines", and "Unbreakable".[33]
Match summary
There were no late changes for either team.[34]
First quarter
After a few early misses by Melbourne early in the first quarter, the first goal was scored by Melbourne's Christian Petracca from the 50-metre (160 ft) arc from about a 40-degree angle. Cody Weightman collided with a goal post after attempting a mark near the goal line. A fumble by the Bulldogs' Bailey Williams in Melbourne's forward half allowed Charlie Spargo to pick up the ball and score a goal – Melbourne's third overall. Williams would then drop a mark and give another goal to Bayley Fritsch two minutes later. The quarter ended with Melbourne 21 points ahead, having scored four goals to the Western Bulldogs' one.[35][36]
Second quarter
The momentum of the game shifted to the Bulldogs in the second quarter. Adam Treloar started off by kicking back-to-back goals. Just after that, Aaron Naughton kicked the Bulldogs' third goal in four minutes. Melbourne's Max Gawn scored what he initially thought to be a goal, but the goal umpire deemed it a behind as it had passed over the goal post. Ultimately, the Bulldogs scored six goals to one in the second quarter to take an eight-point lead at the main change, including two goals from Marcus Bontempelli.[35][36]
Third quarter
The Bulldogs continued their good streak through the first half of the third quarter. Jason Johannisen took an impressive mark next to the goal posts, resulting in a goal to extend the lead for the Bulldogs. Bontempelli slotted his third goal with a snap shot from 35 metres out to extend their lead to 19 points and firming up his Norm Smith Medal chances in the process.[37] However, the momentum shifted again, this time towards the Demons. Fritsch kicked back-to-back goals, and Ben Brown kicked another, bringing them within one point. Melbourne players Angus Brayshaw, Petracca, Tom Sparrow and Clayton Oliver each scored goals, giving Melbourne a four-goal lead at three quarter time.[35][36]
Final quarter
Melbourne ran away with the win, kicking nine goals in the final quarter compared to the Bulldogs' one. Fritsch added multiple goals to bring his tally to six; it was the first time a player had scored six goals or more in a grand final since
Post-match
The victory was Melbourne's first VFL/AFL premiership in 57 years, ending the longest active premiership drought of any team in the competition. The television broadcast showed reactions from many interstate Melbourne supporters who were precluded from attending the match due to COVID-19 restrictions, including former Melbourne Coach Neale Daniher, who was seen draping his scarf over a TV in celebration of Melbourne's long-awaited premiership.[39][40] The Bulldogs statistically led Melbourne with the total number of kicks (207–206), handballs (172–160), and marks (76–68), but the Demons had six more free kicks (19–13); however, the Demons had 15 more inside-50s (64–49), including 13 more marks inside 50 (17–4), and 11 more clearances (44–33).[41][42] The premiership cup was awarded by Melbourne Hall of Fame member and Melbourne Team of the Century member Garry Lyon.[43] Master of ceremonies Basil Zempilas received criticism for failing to allow Melbourne premiership coach Simon Goodwin to speak after the win.[44]
Due to Optus Stadium's extensive corporate facilities, the AFL generated A$40 million from hosting the AFL Grand Final in Perth.[45]
Norm Smith Medal
With a record-equalling grand final possession tally of 39 (shared with Simon Black in 2003)[46]—and despite six goals from Fritsch—Petracca secured the medal after unanimously being judged best afield by an expert panel chaired by Luke Hodge. The possession tally was initially reported as 40, which would have broken the grand final record, but this was revised after the match to 39.[47] Andrew Embley awarded the medal to Petracca; somewhat controversially, however, Zempilas announced the Norm Smith Medal winner before Embley had the chance, receiving further criticism.[44][48] The votes were as follows:
Position | Player | Club | Total Votes | Vote Summary |
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1 (winner) | Christian Petracca | Melbourne | 15 | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
2 | Bayley Fritsch | Melbourne | 10 | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
3 | Clayton Oliver | Melbourne | 3 | 1, 1, 1 |
4 | Christian Salem | Melbourne | 1 | 1 |
5 | Caleb Daniel | Western Bulldogs | 1 | 1 |
Voter | Role | 3 Votes | 2 Votes | 1 Vote |
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Luke Hodge | Channel 7 | Christian Petracca | Bayley Fritsch | Clayton Oliver |
Harry Taylor | ABC | Christian Petracca | Bayley Fritsch | Christian Salem |
Tania Armstrong | Triple M | Christian Petracca | Bayley Fritsch | Clayton Oliver |
Callum Twomey | AFL Media | Christian Petracca | Bayley Fritsch | Caleb Daniel |
Andrew Krakouer | NIRS | Christian Petracca | Bayley Fritsch | Clayton Oliver |
Scoreboard
Grand final | |||||
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Saturday, 25 September (5:15 pm) | Melbourne | def. | Western Bulldogs | Optus Stadium (crowd: 61,118) | Report |
4.5 (29) 5.9 (39) 12.11 (83) 21.14 (140) |
Q1 Q2 Q3 Final |
1.2 (8) 7.5 (47) 9.5 (59) 10.6 (66) |
Umpires: Rosebury, Stevic, Mollison Norm Smith Medal: Christian Petracca Television broadcast: Seven Network National anthem: Amy Manford | ||
Fritsch 6 B. Brown 3 Petracca, McDonald 2 Neal-Bullen, Salem, Spargo, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Oliver, Langdon, Jackson 1 |
Goals | Bontempelli, Treloar 3 R. Smith, Naughton, Hunter, Johannisen 1 | |||
Petracca, Fritsch, Oliver, Brayshaw, Salem, Gawn, Jackson, Langdon, Viney, Neal-Bullen | Best | Bontempelli, Daniel, B. Smith, Treloar, Macrae, Liberatore, Dale | |||
Nil | Injuries | Nil | |||
Nil | Reports | Nil | |||
Media coverage
Per the AFL TV rights, the Seven Network had the exclusive broadcast rights within Australia, with Fox Footy showing the replay of the match after the game despite broadcasting its own pre-game, half-time and post-game coverage.
Once streaming services were factored in, the match had an average national viewership of 4.11 million.[49][50][51] It is the fourth most-watched VFL/AFL game in history, and it was the most-watched grand final since 2005, which averaged a national audience of 4.449 million.[52][53][54]
Due to quarantine requirements for Victorian residents to enter Western Australia, Seven Network commentators James Brayshaw, Brian Taylor and Daisy Pearce, and Fox Footy's Garry Lyon and Kath Loughnan, all quarantined for two weeks in the lead-up to the match. For Taylor, this was his fifth AFL Grand Final he called on commercial television, while for Brayshaw, it was his first, having been promoted to Seven's Friday night AFL commentary team at the beginning of the season when Bruce McAvaney scaled back his duties with the network.[55][56]
Radio coverage
Station | Region | Play-by-play commentators | Special comments | Boundary riders |
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Triple M | National | Mark Howard, Luke Darcy | Jason Dunstall, Wayne Carey, Nathan Brown, Ash Chua (statistician) | Tom Browne |
Triple M | Perth, Western Australia | Dennis Cometti, Lachy Reid | Andrew Embley, Xavier Ellis, Mark Cometti (statistician) | Tania Armstrong |
6PR | Perth, Western Australia | Adam Papalia, Karl Langdon | Will Schofield, Lee Spurr | Mitch Turner |
3AW | Victoria
|
Tim Lane, Tony Leonard | Leigh Matthews, Jimmy Bartel, Matthew Lloyd | Paddy Sweeney |
ABC Radio | National | Clint Wheeldon, Ben Cameron | Harry Taylor, Sharrod Wellingham, Kara Antonio | Bridget Lacy |
SEN Radio | Melbourne, Victoria Adelaide, South Australia |
Gerard Whateley, Anthony Hudson | Jordan Lewis, Kane Cornes, Gerard Healy | N/A |
AFL Nation
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National | Andy Maher
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Adam Cooney, Nick Dal Santo | N/A |
NIRS | National | Glenn Mitchell, Jacob Landsmeer | Andrew Krakouer | N/A |
K Rock | Geelong, Victoria | Tom King, Ben Casanelia | Mark Neeld | N/A |
See also
- 1954 VFL Grand Final
- 2021 AFL Women's Grand Final
- 2021 AFL Season
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