The Brisbane Lions’ 2023 grand final week experience, which left the club’s football staff exhausted, the families of some coaches and staff unable to afford the cost of attending the game, coach Chris Fagan “poked and prodded”, and Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale the target of constant abuse during the grand final eve parade, has provoked the AFL to make a series of practical and policy changes in the lead-up to the 2024 premiership play-off.
With Sydney favourites to reach their fifth grand final under coach John Longmire, the AFL Commission is expected to cover the costs for non-Victorian grand final teams to spend the week in Melbourne leading up to the last Saturday in September if they choose and make way for additional soft-cap funding to allow the families of players, coaches and football staff to travel to Victoria for the game.
Dejected Brisbane Lions players after last year’s grand final loss.Credit: Paul Rovere
The AFL will also look to extend the training availability of the MCG during grand final week. The changes are among those expected to come following a lengthy document presented to the AFL by Fagan, seen by this masthead, and the other seven non-Victorian coaches. However, Fagan’s push, strongly supported by a number of non-Victorian coaches, for a pre-grand final week bye, looks unlikely.
Fagan consulted commissioner and former Brisbane and Sydney chief Andrew Ireland and wrote to the AFL after the 2023 season noting the vast differences he experienced as Brisbane Lions coach compared with his former role as a senior football executive at the Hawks during their grand final week campaigns.
He was encouraged by Andrew Dillon to put his observations in writing after a conversation with the new AFL boss shortly after the grand final. Longmire (Sydney) and Adam Kingsley (Greater Western Sydney) also contributed to the AFL document entitled The case for fairer treatment of interstate clubs.
Stressing that the Lions in 2023 lost to a better team on the day in Collingwood, Fagan said Brisbane’s problems during grand final week were not the reason the club was defeated. However, he pointed out the historic challenges faced by non-Victorian clubs to win premierships on the MCG against Victorian teams and the vast logistical demands of grand final week faced by interstate teams.
‘You’re treated like it’s the America’s Cup and you’re the challenger.’
A president of a non-Victorian club
Pointing out that the grand final agreement with the MCG was unlikely to change, Fagan said the AFL should move to mitigate that ongoing home-ground advantage. He has pushed for:
*More MCG home and away fixtures for non-Victorian clubs.
*Non-Victorian clubs allowed to train on the MCG three times in grand final week.
*Non-Victorian teams funded to spend the full week in Melbourne should they wish in the lead-up to the grand final.
*An extra week off in the lead-up to the grand final to mitigate the extra logistical demands faced by competing clubs from outside Victoria as well increasing player availability.
*The AFL to cover all travel and accommodation costs for the partners and children of players and staff, a cost not incurred by Victorian clubs.
Fagan said that one of his assistant coaches could not afford the cost of flying his family to and accommodating his family in Melbourne for the grand final, with costs estimated at between $6000 to $7000. His comments were strongly supported by other non-Victorian clubs given the AFL does not cover such costs against a backdrop of airline and hotel rate hikes during grand final week.
“My experience at the Hawks tells me that the biggest issues for Melbourne-based clubs are ticketing, who gets into the rooms after the game, and how we get to the after-match celebrations,” wrote Fagan. “The Lions footy ops staff were exhausted by the time we got to Melbourne, which is a real pity and unnecessary.”
Lachie Neale and Chris Fagan at last year’s grand final parade.Credit: Eddie Jim
The commission changes should prove timely given the strong likelihood that Sydney will qualify for the 2024 grand final. On current ladder positions, the Swans would take on one of three big Melbourne-based clubs in Carlton, Essendon or Collingwood.
Longmire has coached the Swans in four grand finals – all against Victorian teams – for one win. That 2012 victory over Hawthorn was one of only two occasions from the past 10 grand finals between a non-Victorian and Victorian team in which the visiting team has won.
The non-Victorian coaches’ document pushed for fixture changes, funding for more practice games against clubs from other states, a national reserves competition, extra soft-cap funding for non-Victorian coaches in Sydney, family salary-cap exclusions, and all-state representation on the All-Australian selection panel, which currently has no Queensland representative. They did note the new AFL regime under Dillon had reversed the trend of Zoom meetings with clubs outside Victoria and were spending more time travelling for club visits.
Fagan’s observations have received strong support from every non-Victorian club that has contested a grand final over the past decade. One club president from outside Victoria observed: “You’re treated like it’s the America’s Cup and you’re the challenger.”
Brisbane’s attempt at a fourth consecutive premiership in 2004 was disadvantaged by the then-AFL agreement with the MCG, which guaranteed the stadium one preliminary final. Not only were the higher-placed Lions forced to host Geelong in Melbourne, but another deal struck between then-league boss Andrew Demetriou and host broadcaster Channel Ten dictated that the game was scheduled on Saturday night.
As a result Brisbane could not return home until Sunday, handing eventual premiers Port Adelaide a significantly longer break.
That MCG deal was changed in 2005, but even recent history is punctuated with examples of the competition’s cavalier treatment of non-Victorian clubs in finals. Notably in 2013 when – in a radical break from tradition – Fremantle were sent to Kardinia Park to play Geelong in a qualifying final.
The reality of Melbourne’s place at the heart of the AFL industry and the fact the grand final is contractually tied to the MCG until 2059 underline the practical disadvantages to clubs based outside Victoria.
But the fact that Sydney played their last home and away game for the season at the MCG in round seven and Collingwood play seven of their last eight at the grand final venue underlines the home-ground advantage. While second-placed Carlton play fewer games at the MCG (nine in season ’24) the Blues travel from Melbourne just twice in their last 11 home and away games.
The following instances might seem petty, but they are also symbolic. In 2015, West Coast entered the finals as ladder leaders but were placed below Hawthorn on the MCG scoreboard on grand final day with the Hawks also handed first choice of venue for their post-match function.
In 2016, at the grand final parade both handles of the premiership cup were tied with the Bulldogs’ coloured ribbons of red, white and blue. Cup ambassador Michael O’Loughlin asked for one handle to be changed to adorn Sydney’s red and white but was refused.
Chris Fagan congratulates Magpies counterpart Craig McRae after last year’s decider.Credit: AFL Photos
The Fagan document stressed support for the grand finalparade but suggested some time and space restrictions after supporters were able to touch players and coaches last year. Fagan described the abuse directed at Neale, who won the 2023 Brownlow, which Collingwood fans thought Nick Daicos should have won, as “relentless” and “deeply personal and, to be honest, unacceptable”.
Fagan and Andrew Dillon were contacted for comment.
PAST 10 VICTORIAN v NON-VICTORIAN GRAND FINALS
2023: Collingwood 12.18 (90) d Brisbane Lions 13.8 (86)
2022: Geelong 20.13 (133) d Sydney 8.4 (52)
2019: Richmond 17.12 (114) d GWS 3.7 (25)
2018: Collingwood 11.8 (74) lost to West Coast 11.13 (79)
2017: Richmond 16.12 (108) d Adelaide 8.12 (60)
2016: W Bulldogs 13.11 (89) d Sydney 10.7 (67)
2015: Hawthorn 16.11 (107) d West Coast 8.13 (61)
2014: Hawthorn 21.11 (137) d Sydney 11.8 (74)
2013: Hawthorn 11.11 (77) d Fremantle 8.14 (62)
2012: Hawthorn 11.15 (81) lost to Sydney 14.7 (91)
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