AFL grand final 2021: Melbourne ends 57-year premiership drought with smashing of Western Bulldogs
Max Gawn led the premiership party, and there could be a lot more to come. Here's why Melbourne will be footy's next powerhouse.
Max Gawn’s bright red footy boots dangled below Adam Tomlinson’s shoulders as the centre of attention on a heaving dancefloor.
Melbourne’s first premiership captain since Ron Barassi clasped a bottle of champagne in his left hand and fist-pumped to the beat with his right hand.
Fittingly, Fisher’s ‘Losing It’ smash hit – a song where the only lyrics are “I’m losing it” – blared at the swanky Market Grounds pub in Kings Square.
SCROLL DOWN TO RECAP THE DEMONS' AMAZING GRAND FINAL WIN
Grand Final jumper on and gold medal glistening, Gawn gazed down at the revellers who were overawed at their proximity to greatness.
Gawn has become known as the AFL’s stepladder after Liam Ryan, Mitch Georgiades and Cody Weightman pulled down screamers from his shoulders.
But the roles were reversed as it approached 2am in Perth after Max’s men had led Melbourne to the top of the world.
The playlist for the Dees’ first premiership party since 1964 was long and largely sung out of tune.
Angus Brayshaw’s voice started to break before his first beer. The Demons belted out Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and The Killers’ Mr Brightside in the rooms and, intriguingly, Freed from Desire on the grass.
That was the track Western Bulldogs players partied to their preliminary final win.
Coach Simon Goodwin – iPhone on video mode in hand – skirted around the mini mosh pit of players who bounced up and down to Sandstorm towards the end of the night.
The 44-year-old who lay in his hotel bed crying in the afternoon before the game was keen to capture the historic celebrations.
Living room parties lit up Victoria as the MCG landlord lit up Perth.
But perhaps supporters should look forward to witnessing another one in years to come.
From 1955-1964 the Demons delivered six flags before their 57-year dry spell, which ended on Saturday night.
President Kate Roffey declared the drought-breaker should give birth to a brand new dynasty.
“We’ll be there challenging for premierships for the next decade because we have players in their early 20s who are just phenomenal,” Roffey said.
“We’re always one of the youngest two or three teams every week.”
This century’s super powers haven’t been hard to spot.
The four clubs who have marched to three flags all started September with gusto – just look at their finals percentages from the three games that delivered their first cup.
Richmond 302 per cent (2017), Geelong 227.1 per cent (2007), Brisbane Lions 161.1 per cent (2001) and Hawthorn 135.2 per cent (2013).
Melbourne’s 213.1 per cent in 2021 sits comfortably in the middle and Jack Riewoldt has long likened these Dees to his team.
Riewoldt reckons Steven May is their Alex Rance, Jake Lever is their Nick Vlastuin and both the gamestyles and bubbly bunch of blokes have the hallmarks of Richmond in 2017.
The Demons ran 23k further than the Dogs, testament to outgoing fitness boss Darren Burgess.
Four of the game’s top five runners were Dees Alex Neal-Bullen (16.5km), Ed Langdon (16.2km), Christian Salem (14.5km) and Jake Lever (14.4km).
Inspired by Neale Daniher’s “When all is said and done, more is said than done” quote in the changerooms, the Demons were never going to stop working.
Yet in 2019 this same team placed 17th. Gawn and Goodwin have guided them from hell to heaven in just 42 games since.
Only Ben Brown’s switch from last year’s wooden-spooner to this year’s premier tops that.
Really, the dark times occurred long before the 2019 crash.
“My first year we won two games. My first game we got beaten by (79) points, my second game (148) points,” onballer Jack Viney said.
“We were coming off the field and had supporters throwing scarves at us.
“We were the laughing stock of the competition and we’ve just won a premiership for the first time in God knows how long.”
Sixteen months later coaching saviour Paul Roos doubted whether their mental scars would ever fade.
“The mistakes were extraordinary. Extraordinary,” Roos said after another embarrassing loss.
“If you can’t handball five metres to a teammate it’s impossible to move the ball.
“There’s clearly some that might not be able to get over what’s happened here in the past. So they’re the determinations you’ve got to make over the next four weeks.”
Only Tom McDonald, Viney, Gawn and of course Nathan Jones, who knocked the top off many Peronis from his living room, remain from that mess.
In 2012-14 Jones played 65 games for 10 wins. Compare that to teenager Jake Bowey, who has never tasted defeat.
The teenager who took Jayden Hunt’s place is 7-0 and one of 151 premiership players at a club founded 163 years ago.
The Three Cs – Christian Petracca, Christian Salem and Clayton Oliver – made a premiership pact to meet in the centre on the siren.
The best mates who have travelled Europe and America together have now taken Melbourne to the promised land.
The Three Cs also signed Big Cs this year – contracts. Oliver is locked in until 2023, Salem until 2026 and Petracca until 2029.
If Roffey is right you wonder what Petracca – Melbourne’s maiden Norm Smith Medallist – might’ve achieved when that deal expires and he is 33.
Petracca played the last 10 minutes with a wide smile that saw Steven May scream: “F***** focus”.
May grimaced in the second quarter after playing with a significant hamstring tear he didn’t even know about.
It was only after the 74-point win that Dees doctor Laura Lallenec told May how bad his scan had been
Melbourne Demons enjoy AFL Grand Final celebrations, champagne and dancing
Eight Dees are yet to blow out 22 birthday candles while Luke Jackson joined Joel Selwood as the only players to pair a premiership with a Rising Star Award.
“It’s his birthday (on Wednesday) so I reckon I don’t have to buy him anything,” mum Mel Jackson said from over the fence.
Jackson was the present Melbourne unwrapped for its crash-landing in 2019.
The 199cm ex-basketballer who plays like a midfielder from the ruck was a bold choice at No.3 in the draft.
Petracca said Gawn’s advice to Goodwin that a hot Jackson should stay in the ruck during the premiership quarter onslaught pointed to the “new” Melbourne.
“Two or three years ago that wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
“To have that cultural switch now is the reason why we’ve got medals around our neck.”
Melbourne hit the bullseye with seven prized picks in the 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 drafts.
But how is this for astute recruiting? In 2017 the Dees peeled off three premiership players in the second round, taking Charlie Spargo at 29, Bayley Fritsch at 31 and Harry Petty at 37.
The pick received for Jack Watts was used on Fritsch, who was bounced from the 2018 preliminary final team.
But his electricity sparked this premiership party as the Coldstream kid kicked the first Grand Final bag of six since Adelaide’s Darren Jarman (1997).
After that 2018 prelim pantsing, Angus Brayshaw used mum Debra’s Melbourne scarf to wipe away his tears.
Brayshaw’s tardy arrival at a meeting before the captain’s run resulted in everyone having to plank for two minutes.
Jake Lever promised stylish sweeper Christian Salem access to his thick moustache if they ever won a flag.
The interceptor expecting a couple of racing stripes to be shaved in.
But the serious stuff will start again soon enough.
“This is the start for our footy club,” Goodwin warned.
“We’ll hit pre-season with the respect and work that’s required to stay here. It's not the end of anything."
The nine-minute blitz that ended 57-year drought
He didn't get a statistic for it but when the 2021 Grand Final is forensically analysed in years to come the Melbourne faithful will talk about the Jack Viney moment.
With his team under siege from an inspired Western Bulldogs midway through the third quarter, the former Demons captain decided to change the narrative.
Instead of going into his shell like most of his teammates had seemed to have done, Viney went on the attack at a stoppage on the wing.
He charged through with serious physical intent, bouncing off a couple of Dogs, forcing the ball Melbourne's way and into the hands of his teammate James Harmes.
Harmes then delivered the perfect pass to a leading Bailey Fritsch who nailed his third goal for the night to halt five consecutive goals by the Dogs.
Thirty seconds later the game swung dramatically after superstars Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca combined to get the centre clearance to Fritsch who attempted a hanger before recovering to dribble through another goal.
Watch Fox Footy’s massive line-up of Grand Final week coverage on Kayo including live pre-game, halftime and post-game coverage with full analysis from the best team in the business. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free >
Suddenly the momentum had completely switched and it had all started with Viney's decision at that stoppage.
Melbourne kicked the next five goals of the third quarter, including three in a remarkable final 50 seconds of the term.
One of those came from Petracca who produced the goal-of-the-night with a brilliant dribble number from the boundary line.
This nine-minute blitz broke the hearts of the Dogs who raised the white flag early in the final term after full-forward Ben Brown and Fritsch kicked goals inside the opening two minutes.
After that party time kicked in as the team who'd lost their way over the past couple of years, showed why they'd been the best in the competition all season.
A nine-goal to one final term was the perfect way for long-suffering Demon fans to celebrate the end of the club's 57-year drought.
And in time they will go back and watch over and over again the moment Jack Viney changed the complexion of the 2021 Grand Final.
FORWARD PATIENCE
THREE months ago Brown was struggling to get a kick in the VFL.
The big-name recruit was looking every bit a bust and a shadow of the star forward he was at North Melbourne.
Young gun Sam Weideman was given a chance to make the goal square his own but when he didn't take the chance Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin went back to Brown.
This faith was rewarded throughout the finals series given Brown straightened up the Demons and more importantly freed up Fritsch to do his thing.
The combination put nine goals on the Bulldogs in a match-winning one-two punch set-up that not that long ago looked unlikely to be happening.
STATEMENT TIME
ADAM Treloar has found himself as one of the main talking points throughout the finals series.
An off night in the semi-final against Brisbane saw him under the spotlight but he responded in the preliminary final with total class.
And if there were any doubters remaining, the former Magpie single handedly turned the momentum of the grand final in the opening five minutes of the second quarter.
Two identical snap goals kick-started the Dogs and he then engineered a centre clearance which finished with an Aaron Naughton goal.
It was then Bontempelli's turn to put his hand up with the Brownlow Medal runner-up owning the second half of the term.
Two big contested marks deep forward resulted in two goals to give his side an extraordinary eight-point half-time lead.
DREAM START
A SWIM at the beach followed by a pot and a parmie was Goodwin's way to escape the pressure of the lead-up on Thursday.
He would have played the opening of the game over and over in his head during this alone time and everything he wished for came true in the first quarter.
The Demons three key playmakers - Oliver, Petracca and Salem - were in everything and orchestrated the 21-point advantage.
Oliver led all-comers with 13 possessions while Petracca had 10 touches and the opening goal (a one-step bullet from 50 metres). Salem had nine touches and was doing as he pleased across half-back.
By contrast it was a forgettable opening for Dogs defender Bailey Williams who coughed up two goals with basic skill errors.
RECAP THE MATCH IN OUR BLOG BELOW
Originally published as AFL grand final 2021: Melbourne ends 57-year premiership drought with smashing of Western Bulldogs
Updates
AFL confirms worst kept secret about 2025
After experimenting in recent years, the AFL will make a permanent change to the fixture as part of a massive new TV deal.
AFL’s round 1-16 Thursday night blockbusters revealed
The AFL has answered the calls of footy fans by scheduling Thursday night football in almost every round for 2025. See which games are scheduled for the first 16 rounds.