AFL Grand Final action just as hot off the field no matter the score on it

The Olympic Room is the place to be. The PM will be there, networking with billionaires, football legends and celebrities. But it’s those missing this year which is just as interesting.

Collingwood captain Darcy Moore will compete with Brisbane Lions counterpart Harris Andrews to win the AFL grand final on Saturday.

Winning or losing the AFL grand final can depend on who is selected or those that turn up in peak condition on the day, on or off the field.

Saturday’s big match between traditional powerhouse Collingwood, a polarising club that has turned likeable in the past two years, and the Brisbane Lions, the old Fitzroy transplanted to the new world via a merger with the Brisbane Bears, is a clash of the AFL’s two best teams this year.

There will be plenty of action in the middle of what will be a warm spring afternoon on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but the competition for positions and the contest off the field in the Olympic Room will be just as fierce.

Anthony Albanese, purportedly a Hawthorn fan, donned a Collingwood scarf on Friday when lured to the club’s headquarters to announce a facilities and infrastructure upgrade.

“I certainly hope that [Saturday] is a very tight game in the grand final. I’m looking forward to going along and watching,” the Prime Minister said.

Albanese headlines an unbeatable collection of about 700 politicians, billionaire business identities, celebrities and football legends who will descend on the stadium from 11am – well ahead of the 2.30pm game start – for the best networking gig in the country.

The jostling for the best seats in the room is intense.

Albanese will be seated next to AFL president Richard Goyder. Both have been embroiled in ­issues about Qantas lately, and Goyder in his role as chairman of the airline is fresh off a Senate ­inquiry grilling this week.

But missing from the event are a pair of Queenslanders in Peter Dutton, who has a family reunion, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has chosen to head to Sydney to cheer on the Brisbane Broncos in Sunday’s NRL grand final.

Ms Palaszczuk is sending long-time Lions fan and Education Minister Grace Grace, who has not been to an AFL match in Melbourne before.

The Opposition Leader is being represented by South Australian senator Anne Ruston, who is taking along senator Bridget McKenzie, who gave Goyder a tough time during the Senate inquiry.

Completing the aviation theme in the room will be Jayne Hrdlicka, there in her capacity as boss of AFL sponsor Virgin Australia.

New Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has also scored an invite to the top table with husband Yorick Piper, where AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will preside over his last grand final function before he steps down after nine years in the top job.

Sitting next to McLachlan will be media mogul and Channel 7 chairman Kerry Stokes, at the main table with wife Christine Simpson Stokes and son Ryan.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan at the Grand Final Parade in Melbourne with a Brisbane fan. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jason Edwards

Others on the main table ­include Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton, News Corp Australia boss Michael Miller, Herald & Weekly Times chair Penny Fowler, Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany, Telstra director Elana Rubin, Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner and Toyota Australia boss Matthew Callachor.

Stokes’ fellow billionaire and cardboard box manufacturing magnate Anthony Pratt is among the business luminaries to have scored an invite to the room along with the likes of Barrenjoey boss Matthew Grounds and Caledonia chairman Mark Nelson.

Others in the room include Coles chief executive Leah Weckert and Sportsbet boss Barni Evans, while comedian Santo ­Cilauro will be one of the more prominent Collingwood fans.

Other Pies fans attending include Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and former senator Stephen Conroy, though both are sitting out in the grandstands

Richard Marles will be sitting at the same table in the Olympic Room as incoming AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, and while the Deputy Prime Minister is a Geelong fanatic, he said on Friday he would be cheering on the Lions as “ … supporting Collingwood is, in essence, a character flaw”.

That is nothing that Collingwood hasn’t heard before though, as star midfielder Jordan De Goey noted when pointing out that the “Magpie Army” is the biggest in the AFL. “They have been known as the misfit army and they love that. It’s all the people other people have palmed away but we always give them the time of day.”

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan joked that the Lions players and staff “had been heckled by all those Collingwood supporters out there” at Friday’s grand final parade in Melbourne, attended by an estimated 100,000 fans.

Lions fans cheered Chris Fagan every time he put down a cone at training on the MCG on Friday. Picture: Lachie Millard

About 10,000 Lions fans turned up at the MCG earlier in the day to watch their team in a light training session on the big ground, showing that there are plenty of Lions support around Melbourne even if it has been 27 years since Fitzroy has existed at AFL level.

There is a level of respect ­between the coaches and players, which is not surprising, given the close connections the Lions and Magpies share.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae and assistant Justin Leppitsch played for the Lions when they beat Collingwood in 2002 and 2003. Lions chief executive Greg Swann was then the boss of Collingwood.

McRae pointed out that the last time Brisbane beat Collingwood to win the premiership was 20 years ago, “a long time ago and it’s a new era now”.

That new era for Collingwood has included an overhaul over the past two years, including a new president in Jeff Browne, McRae’s ­appointment as coach, 1990 premiership heroes Craig Kelly and Graham Wright returning as CEO and football general manager respectively, and a new captain in Darcy Moore.