Steve Price: The AFL grand final must stay at MCG, with only vaccinated fans allowed
Keeping the AFL grand final in Melbourne, with only vaccinated fans allowed a seat at the game, is the shot in the arm we need.
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Embarrassingly, vision of me attempting to dance in a corporate marquee back on Derby Day 2019 was leaked to The Project on Network Ten.
Dressed for a day at the races and having enthusiastically consumed the free-flowing booze, it wasn’t my finest moment. Not drunk but out of character and dancing in public I’ve seen replays of that vision dozens of times, thanks to my mates on the desk.
Phone vision of me crying after the 2019 Richmond grand final win over the Adelaide Crows has also made it to air. They were tears of happiness not having won the premiership since 1980 — tears of happiness and relief.
Now, I’m more likely to be emotional over the fact Melbourne — once one of the world’s great sporting events cities — may never reach those heights again.
Melbourne and I think Melburnians – many of you, I’m sure – will agree it’s time to fight back.
Since when does this great city just lamely hand over grand finals and global events, such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix and Moto GP?
Where has our fight for the best events gone? It once wasn’t so easy for interstate rivals to steal things from us.
Let’s start with the AFL grand final, normally due to be played on the last Saturday in September. That’s five weeks away, and as we have seen with this Covid pandemic, that’s an age.
The AFL itself has confessed it’s willing to push the jewel in the AFL crown out to a date in October so the big game could actually be as far away as six or seven weeks.
Why we need to back ourselves into a corner over dates is beyond me. Keep the date flexible and keep the game here regardless of when it’s played.
What Victoria and Victorians should be demanding, loudly, is that this game stays here in our State and it should be played at the MCG.
Queensland pinched the 2020 grand final from us last year off the back of the games and teams being based there. Richmond and Geelong fans were robbed of seeing their teams play off for the flag.
That was heartbreaking for many and shouldn’t be allowed to happen again this season.
I don’t get why all the discussion centres around moving the great day to Optus Stadium in Perth. Adelaide Oval is more palatable but let’s start the debate by agreeing to play at the home of football, our MCG.
The West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and his closed-door state government take great joy in having pot shots at Melbourne at every opportunity. They should be punished, not rewarded.
This bloke is likely, at the last moment and on the back of minimal Covid disruption, to junk the AFL’s plans and big-note himself by stopping the game going ahead anyway.
Victoria needs to stop selling its sporting soul and a good starting point is the grand final. WA, depending on results this weekend, might not even have a side in the eight.
The Lions and Swans will have to suck it up, as will GWS if it makes it through.
The Gabba had the game last year and Sydney is a Covid war zone, to be avoided at all costs.
Port Power might have a slightly better case to argue but given SA Premier Steven Marshall shut his state down off the back of one case, and last year blamed a pizza box for a breakout, you couldn’t trust him.
But it’s time to stop giving away our major events and Sports Minister Martin Pakula needs to start doing his job.
His ministerial duties include both sport and major events, so it’s his responsibility to keep the grand final here in Melbourne. After that, he needs to start working on the Australian Open tennis.
Who could think of a better way to drive the vaccination rates of football-mad Victorians than to announce the 2021 grand final will be played at the MCG in front of a fully and partially vaccinated crowd.
No jab, no seat. Simple! And a vaccination promoter’s dream as supporters of all the Melbourne-based teams still in with the chance of a grand final berth rush out to get vaccinated.
With five weeks this weekend, or six or seven if delayed, there is ample time to secure your grand final ticket and for your jab to kick in.
It would take a leap of faith from the Andrews government but what a shot in the arm – forgive the pun – it would be for Victorians, weary and downtrodden from months of lockdown.
The AFL and the government should embrace Eddie McGuire’s idea of fencing off the Jolimont precinct surrounding the MCG from Punt Rd and Batman Ave up into the park, extending to the railway bridge leading to Wellington Parade.
It’s been done before during the Commonwealth Games and is done annually at Albert Park.
Seize the moment, give people hope and something to aim for.
Make Victorians and Melbourne proud of our sporting reputation and push back against the nanny state and its unwillingness to burst out of this Covid fog.
Critics will argue it’s not worth the risk and that it’s too soon for such a bold punt.
But we need to ignore that negativity.
We are talking about an AFL playing cohort that’s been mollycoddled to within an inch of lives, in Covid bubbles.
We are talking about at least one-shot vaccinated spectators wearing masks, entering a sterile area to attend a daytime event held out in the open.
Melbourne needs to fight not just Covid, it needs to fight for its major events reputation. Using vaccination as it’s weapon, it needs to put its hands on the grand final for a start, then move on to a vaccinated party called the Spring Racing Carnival before embracing the only grand slam tennis tournament played on this side of the world.
I want to be able to embarrass myself on the dance floor once again and celebrate what life once was in this great city.
LIKES
• The Tokyo Paralympics starting next Tuesday to put a smile on our faces.
• Tributes that poured in for the late colleague of mine Ernie Sigley; a great performer.
• Bachar Houli retiring in his own humble way after a brilliant career on the Tigers backline.
• Our Olympic swimmers finally out of the Howard Springs detention centre and home with family.
DISLIKES
• Crazy Covid decisions like closing Melbourne’s playgrounds again and putting the mental health of parents and children at risk.
• ADF veterans who served in Afghanistan for more than 20 years watching as their Afghani minders struggle to get out.
• Covid starting to attack young children and alarming numbers in health care.
• Taxi drivers and Uber drivers working unvaccinated because they don’t want to have the Astra Zeneca jab.
Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app.
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