Geelong great Jimmy Bartel slams three-match AFL Grand Final series idea as ‘dumb’

GEELONG great Jimmy Bartel says the push for a three-match AFL Grand Final series to make the contest more fair even for interstate clubs is a “dumb” idea.

Jimmy Bartel. 2007 Grand Final. Geelong v Port Adelaide. MCG.

GEELONG great Jimmy Bartel says the push for a three-match AFL Grand Final series is a “dumb” idea.

Sydney is reportedly pushing for the Grand Final to be played over three matches at different venues to make the contest more even for interstate clubs.

The Grand Final will be played at the MCG until at least 2057, but the door has reportedly been left open for changes.

But the Brownlow Medallist says he is “baffled” by the idea.

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Jimmy Bartel. 2007 Grand Final. Geelong v Port Adelaide. MCG.

“How does it fit into the football calendar?” Bartel asked on Macquarie Sports Radio.

“The attrition rate of players — If you’re a supporter, you’re going, ‘am I going to see the best play here in game two or three?’. Everyone gets a turn.

“It’s one of the more ridiculous ideas I’ve heard.

“Our game is not suited for a best of three. We play a two-hour game that’s a physical contact game, we have players struggling to get up each week during a footy season but you want to get them up for three grand finals?

“Do we have … three Grand Final parades?”

The three-time premiership player said he understood the argument for fairness, but it was simply not a reality.

“I’m all for fairness and evenness but it never exists in our game and as soon as we actually understand that everything in our game is not fair, you can move on, you can deal with it,” he said.

“It’s just the nature of the competition, it’s not a fair competition, the draw says that, location says that, different-sized grounds say that, supporter bases say that.”

Could Dermott Brereton have played a week after being taken out by Geelong’s Mark Yeates in the 1989 Grand Final.

Bartel pointed to the bloodbath between Hawthorn and Geelong in 1989 and the drawn Grand Final between St Kilda and Collingwood as examples of how difficult it would be for players to get up for a three-game series.

“Imagine the 1989 grand final, we had Dipper (Hawk Robert DiPierdomenico) with collapsed lungs, we had (Hawthorn’s) Dermott (Brereton) with broken ribs, we had players who were just out on their feet,” he said.

“You saw how hard it was in the Grand Final draw in 2010 — they could barely get up a lot of those players.

“I’m baffled at the idea.”

West Coast star Jeremy McGovern suffered cracked ribs and internal bleeding during this year’s thrilling Grand Final between the Eagles and Collingwood and would have been long odds to line up for two more games.

Only nine times in 120 years of history has the Grand Final been played at a venue other than the MCG, with three draws requiring replays.

Originally published as Geelong great Jimmy Bartel slams three-match AFL Grand Final series idea as ‘dumb’