AFL Grand Final 2020: Geelong and Richmond team news, entertainment, schedule, start time
Don’t miss a thing from the historic night Grand Final at the Gabba. We’ve got you covered with a host of expert commentators in the lead-up and all the details on the pre-match entertainment.
Richmond
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The AFL Grand Final is almost upon us and we have arranged an incredible line-up to take you through the day.
At 3pm join Jon Ralph to talk all things trade related before a pre-Grand Final live video chat with Robbo and Robbo - Mark and Mitch Robinson - at 5pm. They will take your questions ahead of the bounce.
At 6pm Mick McGuane sits down with us to answer all your burning questions and he will stick around to blog the AFL Grand Final right through to the siren.
Finally, Mitch re-joins us at the halftime break to analyse both Richmond and Geelong and take your questions.
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Catch Fox Footy’s Grand Final Week coverage on Kayo. Stream all the latest news and insight right up until first bounce plus half-time and full-time analysis from the Fox Footy commentary team. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
AFL GRAND FINAL STARTS AT 7:30PM AEDT
ENTERTAINMENT
Here is the full schedule for the 20202 AFL Grand Final at the Gabba. All times are QLD* for VIC add one hour.
Your Grand Final night running sheet ... #aflfinals pic.twitter.com/UQKWsUq3TD
— Sam Landsberger 🗯 (@SamLandsberger) October 22, 2020
CATS KNOW TIGERS WELL - BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH?
Chris Scott says plotting Richmond’s Grand Final downfall has been “pretty easy” as Geelong shoots to farewell retiring legend Gary Ablett with a fairy tale third premiership.
Ablett’s last flag came 11 years ago, when a 21-year-old Joel Selwood huddled his seasoned teammates in the MCG rooms and revved them up after a sluggish first half against St Kilda.
Commentators Robert Walls and Malcolm Blight tore shreds off Steve Johnson (zero disposals) at halftime while Paul Chapman, who ended up winning the Norm Smith, as well as Travis Varcoe, Cam Mooney and even Ablett were also in their sights.
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Richmond set to lock in dual-premiership hero Marlion Pickett on new contract
Selwood’s speech foreshadowed the leader he would become and he will captain the Cats for the 200th time in his fifth Grand Final.
The Cats have a 1-5 record against Richmond since the 2017 finals, and that sole win came largely against the Tigers’ VFL team last year.
But Scott said they knew exactly how to beat coach Damien Hardwick’s team – it was just a matter of executing.
“We’re aware our system has to stand up against them, and we’ve got a degree of confidence that’s the case,” Scott said.
“But the execution piece is so much harder than the planning.
“Working out what to do is pretty easy, actually being able to execute it against the best in a pressurised situation is much, much harder.”
Scott said “great teams in history” were always transparent, but that didn’t make them any easier to stop.
The Tigers have zeroed in on Geelong’s contested ball dominance after Scott’s team monstered Collingwood and Brisbane in finals victories.
The Cats are ranked No.1 in differentials for contested possession (+10.8), post-clearance contested possession (+6.8), groundball (+12.2), looseball (+8.4) and No.2 for clearances (+4.5).
But Richmond’s onball numbers have jumped through the roof in October.
Scott nobly sacrificed his pay packet when COVID-19 hit so that he could keep his assistants and, after 111 days on the road, stability has helped.
“I didn’t want to talk about it at all then (salary sacrifice), and I don’t really want to now,” Scott said.
“(But) what I’m proud of is the fact that our club has been able to keep together the bulk of our coaching group, both inside the hub and into next year as well.
“That’s taken great commitment and investment in the team and the club by a whole range of people. I’m really proud of that.
“Back in March the challenge was there for everyone to see and I think even Gill (McLachlan) said that the teams that were the most agile and the ones that embrace the situation were probably going to be the ones that played the longest.”
Scott was worried that dual best-and-fairest runner-up Tim Kelly would leave a big hole in the midfield when he joined West Coast.
But internal growth from power runners Cam Guthrie and Sam Menegola filled that gap and Kelly’s cash can now be spent on free agent Jeremy Cameron, who will officially join next month on a contract worth $850,000 per season.
Selwood underwent finger surgery just three weeks ago however has not missed a final.
“We got lucky to be honest. We came back from Adelaide and were lucky enough that there was a surgeon available to do the surgery,” he said.
“It was an easy tidy-up job.”
BLOCKBUSTER BATTLE AWAITS
– Reece Homfray
Richmond and Geelong have met in a preliminary and qualifying final in the past three years and now rival coaches Damien Hardwick and Chris Scott say the footy world is getting the grand final it had to have.
The Tigers and the Cats will meet in their first grand final since 1967 when they clash at the Gabba on Saturday, with Richmond closing in on an official dynasty and Geelong eyeing a fairytale finish to Gary Ablett Jr’s career.
Hardwick said he had allowed himself a moment to dream of a third flag in four years, but not at the expense of taking his eye off the ball.
“You can sit there and dream as much as you like, but the fact of the matter is you have to do a hell of a lot of work to get there, we give ourselves an opportunity and we’re excited,” he said.
“Whoever’s system stands up the longest will come away with the thing (premiership cup) in front of us, but I think from an overall perspective it’s going to be a great game of footy.
“Two pretty good sides that have been playing a great brand of footy for a long period of time, they’ve (Geelong) been a yardstick along with our football club for a number of years and I think it’s about time we played off in a grand final.”
Scott declared Richmond had been the benchmark of the competition, but clarified questions regarding his previous comments that the gap between them and the rest wasn’t as great as other top teams in recent memory.
“The competition is getting more even year on year, by design, the AFL has set it up that way. I think it’s very clear we’re coming into an era where the gap between the very best team and very worst team is smaller than it’s ever been,” he said.
“I’ve said over and over again, they’ve clearly been the best side of the past three or four years ... but the idea that only three or four teams could win it, which was where the competition used to be, is just crazy and I think that’s good for the game.
“We haven’t been arrogant enough to think we have everyone else covered bar Richmond, it’s really difficult to get to this stage in the first place, but I guess in the back of our mind it’s been really clear that Richmond have been the best team and to win a premiership you’re more than likely going to have to beat them.”
Asked whether Ablett’s swansong was a motivating factor for the Cats, captain Joel Selwood said “very small”.
“And that’s no disrespect to him, but Gaz came out at the start of the year and allowed everyone in the football world to know this is (his last season) and hopefully I speak for everyone that we’ve celebrated him the right way,” Selwood said.
“It would be lovely to see him up there receiving a medal at the end of the day, but I’m sure Trent’s (Cotchin) going to say different.”
To which Cotchin replied: “I like Gaz, but not that much though”.
Both teams all but confirmed they would go into the grand final unchanged from their preliminary final wins.
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Originally published as AFL Grand Final 2020: Geelong and Richmond team news, entertainment, schedule, start time