AFL Grand Final: Friday public holiday here to stay

Victoria’s newest public holiday continues to polarise footy fans and business owners, but the Grand Final eve day off is locked in for the long term.

Patrick Cripps was king of the kids at the footy festival site. Picture: David Crosling

The Grand Final eve public holiday is locked in for the long term, sport and major events minister Martin Pakula says.

“From the perspective of this government, it is now a permanent feature of our public holiday calendar,” he said.

Mr Pakula made the commitment at the launch of the footy festival fan site outside the MCG on Wednesday morning.

He said long-running opposition of business groups to the holiday had to be weighed against finding the right balance for workers.

Abdulrauf, 6, and Zahariyya, 5, inspect the MCG ahead of the big game.

“I don’t think people should begrudge hardworking Victorians a day off to enjoy the Grand Final,” he said.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said hundreds of thousands of people were expected to attend the free footy festival site to make the most of children’s play areas, live music and food and drink trucks.

Mr McLachlan declared the Grand Final as “the biggest day on the Australian sporting calendar”.

He said he expected Richmond’s enormous supporter base would create a big build-up to the game, but he was also expecting a strong turnout from Giants fans.

Had Collingwood qualified to face off against the Tigers, the hype would have been on “a scale we haven’t seen before”, he said.

Patrick Cripps got to demonstrate his marking skills at the “speccy pit”. Picture: David Crosling

“It would have been a very, very big event. But it’s still going to be massive. Richmond are big, there are going to be supporters coming down from Canberra and from Sydney, there will be 150,000 to 200,000 people here on Friday and it will be amazing,” Mr McLachlan said.

“It’s not just Richmond or GWS supporters, this is a free event for all Melburnians on holiday.”

Mr Pakula said the Grand Final helped pump “hundreds of millions” of dollars into the economy.

“We’ll see thousands of people coming down filling up our restaurants and filling up our hotels and delivering a great benefit to the Victorian economy.”

The state government contribution to the footy festival was a commercial in confidence deal, he said.

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“It’s a modest amount, but it’s one that leverages off the Grand Final public holiday and ensures a good festival is a great festival.”

The festival includes a range of events and play areas for children, including the MILO Kids Zone and Taste of Football, AFLW Slide, Slime Dome, Toyota Dunkinator, MILO inflatable obstacle course, NAB Mini Legends Speccy Pit and Woolworths playground.

The Herald Sun blimp will be flying overhead on Friday and Saturday.

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