Michael McGuire: AFL Grand Final belongs at MCG, no matter who plays

THE game’s biggest day needs tradition and soul, and that comes from playing at the best stadium. The only other thing that matters is that the Magpies don’t win, writes Michael McGuire.

AT the risk of coming across as some kind of Victorian sympathiser, it’s entirely reasonable that the grand final is always played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

I understand the arguments against it. Even have some sympathy for them.

It gives Victorian teams too big an advantage at the expense of non-Victorian teams. Collingwood has played at the MCG 16 times this year, while the Eagles have been there just the twice.

Still, on one of those visits they smashed the Magpies by 35 points in round 17, so the ground shouldn’t hold too many fears for them.

But the reason the grand final should always be held at the MCG is the game needs the tradition and soul you get just by playing the match at Australia’s biggest and best stadium.

Collingwood was smashed by the West Coast Eagles in the round 17 match at the MCG in July. Picture: AAP

Going back to the days of the VFL, every grand final since 1902, except in 1991, has been played at the MCG.

It means every player, every coach and every fan will have grown up with that tradition. That expectation is imbued somewhere in their core belief of what football is all about.

The last Saturday in September is grand final day at the MCG.

It’s the pinnacle of the sport.

For the same reason, the game should always be played in the afternoon.

Perhaps it’s just sentimentality.

Nostalgia even.

But the thought of the game being played anywhere else leaves me cold.

Some have raised the idea the grand final could be moved around the country like the Americans do with the Super Bowl. But let’s face it — we shouldn’t be looking to the US for guidance on sport, American football being one of the most tedious sports ever created.

It has all the appeal of watching a giant bureaucracy in action.

Multitudes of people who like to have lots of meetings before sparking briefly into action, then settling down for a few more meetings.

Others believe the higher-ranked team should host the game, but not knowing what venue would host the grand final until a week before would create many organisational difficulties given the scale of the event.

The Richmond Tigers had a decisive win over the Adelaide Crows at last year’s Grand Final. Many fans believe non-Victorian teams face a disadvantage by having to play at the MCG. Picture: AAP

I have been lucky enough to have been to five grand finals.

I have seen my team, the Swans, win them and lose them.

Being at the MCG with 100,000 people is an integral part of the experience. The noise when the ball is bounced to start the game rattles your fillings.

I love watching footy at Adelaide Oval. I love watching it at the SCG.

But watching an AFL grand final at either venue would just not be the same.

There is another reason it needs to remain at the MCG. It goes back to that idea of tradition and soul.

The game needs both more than ever because the organisation that runs the show, the AFL, is badly out of touch with the people who watch and love it.

It says something about the resilience and fundamental quality of the game that people still love it, despite the ineptness of those in head office.

The Eagles and Magpies played the second qualifying final match at Optus Stadium in Perth. They’ll meet again for the Grand Final at the MCG, as tradition dictates. Picture: Getty

Whether it’s the constant discussion of rule changes, ridiculous thought bubbles such as trialling rule changes in dead rubbers, AFLX, justifying cutting the AFLW by comparing it to the soccer World Cup, the waste of money on the Gold Coast, the weird fixturing, score-review mistakes or the pre-finals bye. The game’s administration appears hopelessly out of its depth. It’s had a shocking year.

As a result the game feels like it is drifting ever further away from the average fan.

That it is constantly being fiddled with and changed and not for the better.

Amid all that, staging the grand final at the MCG feels like an anchor to the season.

A nod to the past and the great traditions the modern game has been built upon.

If we lose that anchor footy will feel just that little more adrift.

Having said all that, what the game needs more than anything after a month of disappointing football is a cracking grand final.

And one that hopefully ends with an Eagles’ premiership.

Michael McGuire is a columnist for The Adelaide Advertiser.

@mcguiremi