Grand final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a
History
The Anglo-Norman term "grand" to describe a sporting event, documented in England as "grand match" in 1836,[1] was used in Australia from the 1850s. A steeplechase in England has been called the "Grand National Steeple Chase" ("Grand National" alone for short) since at least 1839.[1]
Use of the term in Australian Football dates back to the first organised and widely publicised match between
In 1859, a "grand football match" was advertised in
In
The earliest known event described as "grand" in Sydney was a cricket match in 1862.[4]
In the 1871
Initially, a football premiership final appeared to be called a "grand final" only when the losers of a final were the minor premiers and they exercised the "right to challenge" the winners to a second premiership decider.[5]
Victorian Football Association
In the Victorian Football Association, which was Victoria's top level of senior football from 1877 until 1896, the premiership was typically awarded solely on the basis of the rostered premiership matches (known today as the home-and-away season). However, the VFA's rules stipulated that where two or more teams finished equal on premiership points, a playoff match or matches would be scheduled amongst those teams to decide the premiership.
This was required in 1896, when South Melbourne and Collingwood finished level on top of the ladder with records of 14 wins and one draw. The playoff match between them, which is retrospectively treated as Victoria's first Grand Final (it was actually the first match referred to as such), saw Collingwood defeat South Melbourne by 6.9 – 5.10 to win the club's first ever premiership. [6]
While there had been one previous premiership playoff match during this time in the VFA, between Melbourne and Geelong in 1878, this match did not break a tie at the top of the ladder, as Geelong had a superior win–loss record to Melbourne: the match was organised to resolve a dispute between the two clubs.[6]
Victorian Football League and Australian Football League
In 1897, when eight teams broke away from the
In 1931, the
South Australian Football Association
Prior to 1889, the
In 1889,
In 1894, Norwood and South Adelaide finished with a 13–5 record from their 18 matches. The play-off match was fixed for October 6, and despite a provision for 20 minute periods of extra time in the event of a draw at full time, the match was abandoned due to darkness with the scores level at 4.8 apiece.
The SAFA fixed a replay for October 10, Labor Day: this was the first of seven grand final replays in elite Australian football history. Norwood won the replay 4.7 to South Adelaide 3.5, with Anthony "Bos" Daly kicking the winning goal as the final bell rang.[9]
New South Wales Rugby Football League
The
By the 1930s, the NSWRFL adopted the term "grand final" to describe the premiership decider.[10] Up until 1954 a 'grand final' match was only held if the
The tradition is maintained by the present-day NRL National Rugby League.
Europe
The term "Grand Final" was introduced to Europe in 1995[
Starting in
Philippines
In the Philippines, the term "grand finals" (pluralized) usually refer to a final of TV series competition. Notable series that had a "grand finals" are The Voice of the Philippines[13] and Idol Philippines.[14] It was used as early as 1994 for the Battle of the Brains quiz show.[15]
List of current notable competitions with grand finals
Sport
Grand Finals in television
The Grand Finals are also adopted in numerous reality television and even game shows. In reality television, a number of selected finalists after surviving a pre-determined number of elimination rounds moved on to compete in the finals. Some shows, such as the earlier seasons of The Voice (notably the first two American seasons) and Project SuperStar, adopted a group-type format with an equal number of finalists from each group eliminated and advancing each show until one such finalist remain, at this point these finalists compete head-to-head for the champion. Taiwanese show One Million Star (and its sequel successor Chinese Million Star) uses a cumulative point system and the scores are progressively added until at one point the contestant with a lower score is eliminated; in the final round, these scores are converted as a percent weightage and the champion is decided based on the weighed scores.
In game shows, notably Jeopardy! (such as Tournament of Champions and The Greatest of All Time), these finalists compete in a two-legged round, based on the combined scores from both games, to determine the winner. From 1996 to 1998, Wheel of Fortune have a Friday Finals system where the three top-scoring contestants from the first four episodes that week returned again on a Friday for one more game; the winner in that episode will play for an extra prize package (in addition to the current prize the contestant chose) during the bonus round.
Grand final replays
A grand final replay is a method of deciding the winner of a competition when a grand final is drawn by replaying the entire match the following week, rather than playing overtime or extra time on the same day. It is commonly used in Australian rules football and most notably in the Australian Football League, where it has been used three times, most recently in 2010, however the AFL decided that replays will no longer decide grand finals that end as a draw, rather replacing it with extra time.
Grand final breakfast
Most sports leagues in Australia have a grand final breakfast to mark the beginning to grand final day. It is a social highlight on the Australian sporting calendar. Watching the event is a ritual for many footy fans and the function plays a huge role in the pre match build up for the grand final. The North Melbourne Football Club host the North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast and the National Rugby League host the NRL Grand Final Breakfast at Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour normally.
See also
Footnotes
- Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
References
- ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary 2nd. ed, grand (9A)
- ^ Melbourne Morning Herald. 7 August 1858
- ^ "Classified Advertising". Courier. 15 March 1859.
- ^ "Rugby League History - RL1908.com". Archived from the original on 11 May 2006.
- ^ "Football: Rugby League Final". The Argus. Australia. 7 September 1923. p. 4. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
- ^ a b Observer (28 September 1896). "Football Notes". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
- Evening Journal. Vol. XXI, no. 5955 (SECOND ed.). Adelaide. 4 October 1889. p. 1. Retrieved 3 February 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "THE FIGHT FOR THE PREMIERSHIP". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 7 October 1889. p. 6. Retrieved 12 August 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- South Australian Chronicle. Adelaide. 13 October 1894. p. 15. Retrieved 12 August 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "RUGBY LEAGUE: Grand Final". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. 8 September 1931. p. 13. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
- ^ "The start of a grand tradition". The Sun-Herald. 1 March 1987. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "Final Homepage". Celtic Rugby Limited. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ "WATCH: 'Voice Teens PH' Grand Finals performances". RAPPLER. 29 July 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ "Recap: 'Idol Philippines' grand finals". RAPPLER. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ Grana, Rhia (21 May 2021). "Back to 'Battle of the Brains': Host David Celdran spills everything he recalls of the '90s quiz show". ABS-CBN News Channel.
External links
- FullPointsFooty – The First Grand Final
- rl1908 The "Grand Final" Archived 11 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine