crafterm's weblog

Australian Football Grand Final!

Was up bright and early at 5.30 am this morning to watch the Australian Football Grand Final at the Irish Times pub here in Frankfurt, Germany.

I was joined by several ex-pat mates of mine working here in Frankfurt, the Frankfurt AFL football team (!), and several Aussie travellers on their way to this years Octoberfest in Munich. Was a great atmosphere, and terrific to hear some of the old Football slang again :)

The Grand Final was played in Melbourne at the MCG, in front of 70,000 people, between the top two teams of the season this year, the Brisbane Lions and Collingwood Magpies.

The final score was devestating, Brisbane won the premiership 134 points (20 goals, 14 behinds) to Collingwood 84 points (12 goals, 12 behinds), to be the first team to win 3 AFL premierships in a row.

Game quality was ok, but wanting Collingwood to win I was disappointed with the end result. Collingwood needed much more possession of the ball, and their back and mid field left Brisbane open many times run away with the game. I'm sure Collingwood Coach Mick Malthouse will have a few harsh words to say to the boys along with club president Eddy McGuire. Collingwood went into the Grand Final after leading the season winning their last 11 of 12 games, as the favourites, and incidentally, also after defeating Brisbane Lions in the qualifying final only 3 weeks ago (!).

The match was without controversy of course, Brisbane captain Michael Voss played with pain killers injected into his knee after a recent injury, and Collingwood star Anthony Rocha missed the match after being suspended for 2 games last weekend, due to a dubious striking charge against a Port Adelaide player last weekend.

Well, congratulations to Brisbane and Collingwood for a fantastic season. As for the runner up Collingwood, as they say, there's always next year.

I'm already looking forward to the next season! :)

Posted by crafterm at September 27, 2003 03:18 PM | TrackBack