Every mark, every kick, every sublime act: Everything matters in finals

This is The Age’s chief football writer Jake Niall, subbing in with a footy finals edition of your Note from the Editor as our city succumbs to its annual September obsession and Patrick takes a spell on the bench.

It is hard to recall an AFL finals series when there has been so much uncertainty, when the grail of the premiership cup has seemed as up for grabs as in this remarkably unpredictable 2024.

In conversations with the clubs in this year’s top eight, it is clear that all enter this September believing they can do it. Even Carlton, eighth and with six key players returning for Saturday night’s final at the Gabba against the Lions, have grounds for optimism, if those returnees − especially Harry McKay, Adam Cerra and Tom De Koning − can produce a semblance of their trademark brilliance.

This most unpredictable AFL finals series kicked off last night with Geelong’s convincing 84 point victory over Port Adelaide in the qualifying final at the Adelaide Oval.Credit: Getty Images

Finals are different, too. The cliche has a basis in reality.

What’s first noticeable is that there are more people around − crowds suddenly appear at training, there are more friends and family around the players in the rooms and, of course, the stands are packed.

From a footy writer’s point of view, stories that wouldn’t be huge in the home and away season − a key player’s injury or suspension, for instance, the cruel omission of a veteran, a teenager promoted − grow legs in September.

Mistakes are magnified − a dropped mark, missed shots, cruel bounces (Stephen Milne in the drawn 2010 grand final) and crucial umpiring calls. But so too are feats of sublime intervention − Leo Barry’s mark (2005), Matthew Scarlett’s toe-tap (2009), Dom Sheed’s money shot from the boundary (2018) and Scott Pendlebury directing teammates in the final quarter of last year’s thriller.

The players show more emotion post-game – I vividly recall the euphoria in premiership teams’ rooms after the grand final. In many cases, that jubilation is expressed in earlier finals; for the drought-breaking clubs − Melbourne in 2021, Richmond in 2017 and the Bulldogs in 2016 − there was a sense of destiny within, a feeling that they were surfing a wave.

Often teams and their coaches speak of the overwhelming relief they feel on winning. This is compounded if, like Geelong in 2022 and Collingwood in ’23, they’ve had multiple near-misses in recent times. The winning teams speak about their journey with a frankness that is rarely expressed mid-season. They are more inclined to talk about internal problems or concealed injuries once those obstacles have been surmounted.

I recall talking to Melbourne captain Max Gawn in the Demons’ 2021 grand final rooms (in Perth) when he revealed that he had referenced the words of inspirational former coach and motor neurone disease ambassador Neale Daniher when speaking to the players at half-time, as they trailed the Bulldogs. “When all is said and done, more is said than done” − a Daniher-ism, was written on the wall of the rooms pre-game. “It’s about walking the walk. And I mentioned it half-time again,” Gawn told me, explaining that if the Demons did not “walk the walk” in the grand final, all the players’ talk that they had changed the football club would amount to nothing.

Demons’ captain Max Gawn drew on the words of club legend Neale Daniher to motivate his team in the 2021 grand final.Credit: Getty Images

For teams that narrowly failed in the recent past, an aversion to defeat − and wish to avoid that emotionally flattening experience − becomes a primary motivation.

In my experience, the losing team’s rooms post-grand final are quieter than at any other game, with muted conversations and faces that range from glum to grim.

This year’s finals series includes the additional quirk of having fewer games at our greatest cathedral, the MCG. Geelong, having dismembered Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval last night, will host a preliminary final at the ’G, but that will be one of only three finals played at footy’s answer to Wimbledon’s Centre Court until grand final day. Tonight’s Bulldogs v Hawthorn elimination final is the only game in the first week of the finals to be played at the ’G.

Six of this year’s nine finals matches are outside of Victoria. Three will be in Sydney, given that the Swans and Giants meet in a first-versus-fourth final on Saturday. Two are in Adelaide (including Friday night’s thrashing), and one in Brisbane.

The Age’s coverage will tell you what is happening behind the scenes, and why, with an emphasis on key individuals − the leading players and coaches − who shape the premiership outcome.

If you can’t be there, we’ll be there for you.

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