AFL grand final 2021: All the news from the Demons’ premiership win
Christian Petracca wasn’t known for his humble nature early in his career, but a lot has changed. He reveals his favourite premiership moment and who is dominating the after-party.
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Grand final hero Christian Petracca has revealed the reason why he “tucked” his Norm Smith Medal away during Melbourne’s premiership celebrations, saying he didn’t want his individual award to overshadow the team-first ethos that swept the Demons to this year’s flag.
The star midfielder was the unanimous winner of best afield honours after his 39-disposal masterclass, as the Demons ended a 57-year premiership drought.
But after accepting the award immediately after the match, Petracca put his medal away for safekeeping and partied the night away with his premiership medal around his neck instead.
“I tucked the Norm Smith (Medal) away because we are built to be selfless,” Petracca said at the TAB’s Virtual Spring Carnival Launch on Tuesday.
“The award is an individual award, you don’t play footy for individual awards. It has my name on it, but it should have everyone’s (name on it).
“I got here in 2014. I saw years that we were down as a team, but you look at Gawny (Max Gawn) and (Nathan) Jones, they have been through the dark years.
“And our fans had been waiting since 1964.”
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Petracca said the past few days had been the best experience of his life, but said he was keen to see if the Demons could back it up at the MCG next season.
“(Winning) is a lot better than I thought,” he said.
“I knew winning a premiership would be the best day of my life, but it’s times 30,” he said. “The best moment was going back on the ground after the crowd was not there, with all the team and the staff.
“The MCG is the home of footy, it is the mecca of the AFL. (Perth) Stadium was unbelievable, it was one of the best nights I’ve ever had. It was like a coliseum.
“But hopefully we can come back (at the MCG). We can’t wait hopefully to be playing finals next year and hopefully Victoria opens up, so we can be back playing there.”
Petracca, 25, revealed he will return home to Melbourne on Thursday, eager to share the experience with his family and girlfriend.
He hasn’t thought too much about what might come next for the Demons, other than his belief that the club is seeking to have sustained success.
“We want to create a sustained culture within the team over the next four or five years,” he said. “You look at teams like Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney … what they have done over the last 15 years in creating a culture (has been incredible). They love playing finals.”
Petracca said the younger Demons had gone “too hard too early” in the celebrations, but said the “old hands” such as Max Gawn and coach Simon Goodwin had been stayers.
“Everyone has had their moments,” he said. “Gawny’s been unbelievable. Goody’s second, the young boys went too hard, too early. I tried to tell them to pace themselves, don’t drink too much, but they didn’t listen.”
How Dees overcame scars of 2018
Melbourne star Clayton Oliver says it is a testament to the Demons that they didn’t let the 2018 preliminary final horror show define them as a group.
The Demons finally ended their long wait for a premiership on Saturday night against the Western Bulldogs.
The breakthrough victory came after the Demons spent two years out of the finals, after making a prelim in 2018.
That 66-point trashing at the hands of West Coast — in a game in which Melbourne was goalless at halftime — had the potential to truly scar the Demons playing group, with Melbourne finishing 17th in 2019 and then ninth last year.
Oliver said it showed the strength and connection of the group that they were able to bounce back.
“It’s been a long couple of years with ups and downs at our football club, so it is pretty nice to get it done,” he said.
“We had that 2018 year where we thought we were going all right and then we got a reality check in 2019 and 2020 was so close (to playing finals).
“At the start of the year we sat down and spoke about what we wanted to achieve and our values and we stuck to them throughout the year.”
Demons president Kate Roffey has declared the drought-breaker should give birth to a brand new dynasty.
The age profile of the Demons list should fill Melbourne fans with confidence, with only Max Gawn soon to hit 30 of the club’s stars.
Oliver backed Gawn to keep improving despite hitting the milestone.
“He’s a different sort of 30, I think,” he said.
“He seems to get better every year. He is crazy.
“And he didn’t really start (becoming an elite player) until he was 25 or so, he had the ACL (tear) so hopefully he can play til he is 35.”
Flag glory perfect postscript for ex-pres
Former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett says witnessing the Demons’ premiership with Robbie Flower’s daughter Danielle was the perfect postscript to the club’s eight-year climb from rock bottom.
Bartlett moved aside as Melbourne president earlier this year for Kate Roffey, having done his share of the heavy lifting alongside CEO Peter Jackson as the club cleared debt and resuscitated its reputation.
While his withering assessment of the club’s on field fortunes was contentious last season, Bartlett has stood by his determination to drive high standards during his tenure.
The Demons board member told the Herald Sun yesterday witnessing the glorious triumph was made all the sweeter by watching the game alongside the family of fallen club legend Flower.
“Across the country it means so much to so many people. I got to spend the game with Danielle Flower and Robbie’s son-in-law and there was just so much raw emotion. I took them with us down onto the ground after the game and they spoke a lot about how Robbie would have been proud of this team. It was quite emotional,” he said.
“It was a dream for Danielle and her husband. They kept saying it was just a dream come true. All over the country people were so emotional and so grateful. To think what we were eight years ago to what we have become. I keep saying it’s amazing the amount of good you can do when you don’t care who gets the credit.”
While Bartlett’s demand that the players improve ruffled feathers within the club he says it came with a strong level of support for coach Simon Goodwin.
“There was a lot of support and a lot of feedback after that.
“We worked hard to get that support around him with Adem Yze and Mark Williams and we wanted to create the best for the playing list and football department and it might have seemed hard at the time but it’s what leaders do and I will never apologise for being hard and clear.
“People asked if I was surprised we were here and winning a flag but it was the plan all along. All the data linked up to 2021-2024 and this might have been early but you ride the wave. If you stick together and follow the plan and make the right decisions and don’t listen to the noise you can get there.”
Melbourne recently sold poker venue The Bentleigh Club for $23.7 million, with the windfall to be used as a future fund, and was this year able to wipe its historical debt.
The club is hopeful it can ride the wave of a premiership and successful on-field side by attracting huge crowds at the MCG, and is set to make at least $2 million profit from its bumper finals performance and premiership.
The AFL hands its premier $1 million in prize money, which is split evenly between the club and players.
How six-goal hero knew he had no chance at Norm
Even with six goals, Bayley Fritsch knew that he wouldn’t be claiming the Norm Smith Medal on Saturday night.
The man wearing Ron Barassi’s famous No.31 lit up the grand final in Perth, as Melbourne ended its premiership drought with a 74-point win over the Western Bulldogs.
He became the first player since Darren Jarman in 1997 to kick six goals in a grand final.
Christian Petracca’s 39-disposal, two-goal and nine-clearance game earned him the medal and Fritsch said all he could do was admire his teammate’s effort.
“I was sitting on the bench in the last quarter and someone said Trac is approaching 40 disposals,” Fritsch said.
“So I knew with a couple of goals as well, no one was beating him.
“But all that matters is that I’ve got this (premiership) medal around my neck.”
Petracca’s efforts in the middle at Optus Stadium were the inspiration that got the Demons back from 19-points down in the third quarter, when it looked like the Bulldogs could run away with the game.
But Fritsch played a huge role himself.
He kicked the first two goals of the Demons’ matchwinning run, after Marcus Bontempelli had put the Bulldogs up by over three goals.
The second, and his fourth of the night, came after he nearly took a stunning high-flying mark – only to be denied by the fingertips of Max Gawn.
Despite rising so high, Fritsch was the quickest to get the ball after it had gone out the back of the contest and kicked the goal.
“I was watching the replay after I kicked the goal and I was like, ‘gee Maxy, get out of the way’,” he said.
“Thankfully it soft-dropped over the back and I was able to get on the end of it.
“I want to be a good air player, but also a good ground player when the work in the air is done.”
The shocking injury May carried into grand final
Melbourne defender Steven May played in Saturday night’s Grand Final just two weeks after suffering what would ordinarily be considered a seven-week injury.
May was only told of the full extent of his injury in the aftermath of the season decider, with word filtering through to him that he had a 6cm tear in his right hamstring.
The 29-year-old looked sore at times during the game but still played 93 per cent game time and held dangerous Western Bulldogs opponent Aaron Naughton to a single goal in the Demons’ thumping 74-point win.
May, who logged 14 disposals and took five marks, said after the game that he realised his hamstring was still not right when he lunged for a second-quarter ground ball, but tried to block the pain out of his mind.
“I just thought I’ve got an hour to get through and I can fix the hammy in the off-season,” May said.
“I was glad I was able to still not be a liability out there, able to still try and have some sort of influence.
“It was all heart really … I’ll deal with this in the next few days.”
PLAYER RATINGS: VOTE ON EVERY GRAND FINAL DEMON
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said on Sunday that he “couldn’t not pick” May after this year’s All-Australian fullback passed all his fitness tests in the week leading up to the grand final.
“I have got trust in the medical department,” Goodwin said on Channel 9.
“We got the scan and we had a look at what it looked like. They made a pretty clear decision they were going to treat it clinically.
“Every step of the way he passed all his tests. All his strength markers, all his stuff was right on track. He trained. He didn’t miss a beat. In the end you couldn’t not pick him.
“He trained fully on Wednesday and Friday. It was like, ‘Well, we have to take this risk’. But if he hadn’t trained properly Wednesday, we wouldn’t have picked him.”
Small forward Charlie Spargo also entered the game under a cloud after suffering an ankle injury at training but played 58 per cent of game time and did not look troubled.
The Demons’ coaching staff attempted to get medical substitute James Jordon on the ground in the last quarter but were knocked back by doctors, with minor James Harmes cramping not considered a significant enough injury to activate Jordon.
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