The 2009 AFL Grand Final was an
Australian rules football game contested between the
St Kilda Football Club and the
Geelong Football Club at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26 September 2009. It was the 113th annual
grand final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...
of the
Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the
premiers
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
for the
2009 AFL season
The 2009 AFL season was the 113th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixte ...
.
The match, attended by 99,251 spectators, was won by Geelong by a margin of 12 points, marking the club's
eighth VFL/AFL premiership victory. It is remembered as one of the great grand finals in recent memory, due to the closeness of the scoreline, the physical nature of the game and the sheer brilliance of individual efforts from some of its participants. Geelong's
Paul Chapman was awarded the
Norm Smith Medal
The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...
as the best player on the ground.
Background
St Kilda entered the
2009 premiership season after having lost its preliminary final in 2008 against eventual premiers . The Saints' home-and-away season was outstanding, and they won their first 19 games to record the longest winning streak in the club's history, before losing consecutive late season games. They finished on top of the ladder with a club record 20–2 record, and won the
McClelland Trophy
The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...
for the first time since 1997. They accounted for fourth-placed by 28 points in their qualifying final and won a hard-fought and low scoring preliminary final against the
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.
Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...
by seven points to earn their place in the grand final.
Geelong entered the 2009 season after two consecutive minor premierships and two consecutive grand final appearances: a victory in
2007 and a loss in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
. They won their first 13 home-and-away games, but endured a late season slump—with a 5–4 record and only one win by greater than a goal—to finish second with an 18–4 record. Geelong defeated a fast-finishing Bulldogs team by 14 points in their qualifying final and then comfortably beat Collingwood by 73 points in their preliminary final to advance to the grand final. In the week leading up to the grand final, Geelong's
Gary Ablett was awarded the
Brownlow Medal
The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by t ...
.
The two sides had faced each other once during the year in a famous Round 14 match, before which both sides were undefeated. A record
Etihad Stadium
The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...
crowd saw St Kilda win the match by six points, with
Michael Gardiner
Michael Strickland Gardiner (born 5 July 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Albany, Western Australia.
Ga ...
kicking the winning goal in the dying minutes. Despite their respective ladder positions, Geelong entered the grand final as $1.60 favourites to win amongst most
bookmaker
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds.
History
The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795.
Range of events
Bookm ...
s.
This grand final appearance was the sixteenth in Geelong's history and its third in succession. It was sixth grand final appearance in St Kilda's history and the first since the
1997 Grand Final, with the club attempting to win its second premiership. Geelong and St Kilda had never previously met each other in a grand final.
It was the first grand final to be played since the death of cartoonist
William Ellis Green
William Ellis Green (12 August 1923 – 29 December 2008), who signed his cartoons "WEG", was an Australian editorial cartoonist and illustrator who drew the Australian Football League premiership posters from 1954 until his death.
Life and ca ...
(better known as WEG), who had been drawing victory posters after
VFL/AFL
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...
grand finals since 1954. The posters had been sold after each Grand Final with the proceeds going to the Royal Children's Hospital. Beginning in 2009, the posters were drawn by cartoonist
Mark Knight
Mark Knight (born 1962) is an Australian cartoonist. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for the '' Herald Sun'', a daily tabloid newspaper in Melbourne. Knight was also the last editorial cartoonist for one of the ''Herald Suns joint p ...
of the ''
Herald Sun''.
Media coverage
Coverage telecast live and in
HD (via
One HD) on
Channel Ten and
One HD with commentators
Stephen Quartermain (host),
Tim Lane (commentator),
Robert Walls
Robert Walls (born 21 July 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented and in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. In a playing career that spanned three decades Robert played a combined 259 gam ...
(expert commentator),
Luke Darcy
Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and now works for the Seven Network and Triple M covering the AFL and the Olympics.
Early life
L ...
(expert commentator),
Mark Howard (boundary rider) and
Andrew Maher (boundary rider). Geelong's
K-Rock provided local coverage with commentary from Anthony Mithen and Ian Cohen.
Pre-match entertainment
Mark Seymour
Mark Jeremy Seymour (born 26 July 1956) is an Australian musician and vocalist. He was the frontman and songwriter of rock band Hunters & Collectors from 1981 until 1998. Seymour has carved a solo career, releasing his debut solo album in ...
from Australian rock band
Hunters and Collectors performed "
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...
" on stage, followed by
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon "Jimmy" Barnes (née Swan; born 28 April 1956) is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best- ...
singing "No Second Prize".
John Farnham then sang "
You're the Voice
"You're the Voice" is a song written by Andy Qunta, Keith Reid, Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson, and recorded by the Australian singer John Farnham and released as a single in September 1986 ahead of his album '' Whispering Jack''. "You're t ...
", joined later by Seymour and Barnes. The premiership cup was brought onto the field twice: once by captains and administrators from football clubs affected by the
2009 Victorian bushfires
The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...
, and then later via zip-line by Adelaide Crows champion
Mark Ricciuto
Mark Anthony Ricciuto ( ; born 8 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). From Ramco, South Australia, Ricciuto started as a junior with the local Waike ...
. The
Qantas choir performed "
I Still Call Australia Home
"I Still Call Australia Home" is a song written by Peter Allen in 1980. In it, Allen sings of Australian expatriates' longing for home.
Significance to Australian culture
It has been used to signify Australian patriotism and nostalgia for home ...
", and the national anthem was performed
a cappella by the cast of ''
Jersey Boys
''Jersey Boys'' is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of the ...
''.
Match summary
The grand final was played in cold and wet conditions. It had rained heavily the previous night in Melbourne such that the ground was particularly wet around the boundary, and there were also several heavy showers during the game. The highest ambient temperature for the game was only 11.3 °C, the coldest on record for a grand final.
First quarter
Geelong started strongly, with
Max Rooke scoring the opening goal of the game in the 3rd minute after winning a
holding the ball at centre half-forward against St Kilda's
Raphael Clarke
Raphael Clarke (born 24 September 1985) is an Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2004 to 2012. His brother Xavier Clarke also played for St Kilda.
AFL career
Clar ...
, and
Cameron Mooney
Cameron Mooney (born 26 September 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Geelong Football Clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). A forward, tall and weighing , Mooney is renowned for hi ...
scoring another in the 8th minute. From that point forward, St Kilda dominated the middle part of the quarter, asserting an advantage in the midfield, particularly through the influence of
Lenny Hayes
Lenny Hayes (born 14 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1999 to 2014. He is currently an assistant coach at the St Kilda Fo ...
who tallied 11 disposals for the quarter. St Kilda failed to convert on the scoreboard due to inaccurate kicking: despite entering the forward 50-metres arc on 14 occasions to Geelong's two during a sustained period of midfield dominance, they only registered 2.2 (14), with goals to
Brendon Goddard
Brendon Goddard (born 20 May 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the St Kilda Football Club from 2003 to 2012, then with Essendo ...
in the 13th minute and Hayes in the 20th minute; while Geelong was able to counterattack with one goal to
Joel Selwood
Joel Anthony Selwood (born 26 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was a quadruple premiership player, a six-time All-Australian, and a three-ti ...
in the 18th minute.
Andrew McQualter,
Adam Schneider
Adam Schneider (born 12 May 1984) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
He is currently the assistant coach of the Greater Weste ...
and
Stephen Milne all missing easy shots at goal; but, in the 29th minute, Schneider marked and goaled from 15 meters out to give St Kilda a two-point lead at quarter time.
Second quarter
St Kilda opened the second quarter better, and
Sean Dempster
Sean Dempster (born 20 January 1984) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans and St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Early life
Born in 1984, Dempster grew up in the Victorian tow ...
kicked the first goal of the quarter from a high tackle free kick in the 4th minute; but again the Saints missed several relatively easy shots at goal from Schneider, Milne and McQualter, and after twelve minutes of strong play led by only ten points.
Geelong then responded with the next four goals of the game in a fifteen-minute period of play.
Shannon Byrnes
Shannon Byrnes (born 7 April 1984) is a former Australian rules footballer who last played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) after a ten-year career with the Geelong Football Club. He is currently a dev ...
gathered a tumbling
Cameron Ling
Cameron Ling (born 27 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A tagger at and , Ling is a premiership-winning captain at the club.
He is now a c ...
kick in the goal square for Geelong's fourth goal in the 13th minute; and a goal to
Gary Ablett, Jr. from a marking infringement free kick in the 20th minute gave Geelong back the lead. The game's most controversial goal came in the 24th minute with scores level: St Kilda full back
Zac Dawson
Zachary Samuel Dawson (born 22 February 1986) is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Hawthorn Football Club, St Kilda Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League. In March 2019, he was a ...
's attempted clearing kick was smothered in the goal square by Geelong's
Tom Hawkins, who gathered and immediately snapped for goal from five metres out; the ball clipped the inside of the right goal post, but no umpire was in a position to see it and a goal was awarded (video score reviews were not introduced to the league until 2012). Fifteen seconds of game time later, a clean centre clearance finished with a goal to
Paul Chapman, and a 12-point lead to Geelong.
However, St Kilda finished the quarter with a flurry of goals, kicking three inside the final minute of playing time. With 53 seconds remaining,
Clinton Jones roved a pack to snap a goal from the pocket. With nine seconds remaining,
Justin Koschitzke got his boot to a broken marking contest in the goal square, just eluding the diving hands of
Darren Milburn's attempted smother, to tie the scores. Then Milburn, believing (incorrectly, according to replays) that he had touched Koschitzke's kick off the boot, made an obscene gesture to goal umpire, giving away a free kick for demonstrative abuse on the goal line; Schneider took the free kick and kicked the easy goal to give St Kilda a six-point half-time lead.
Third quarter
The third quarter was an even and lower-scoring contest. There were many stoppages, much congestion and very little opportunity for scoring by either side. Geelong's Mooney goaled in the eighth minute the quarter from a solid contested mark at the top of the goal square, and Saints' captain
Nick Riewoldt
Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt ( ; born 17 October 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the ...
did likewise in the tenth minute. Riewoldt had two more scoring chances soon after, kicking a behind in the 14th minute, and having a short range shot smothered for a rushed behind by
Harry Taylor in the 15th minute.
After a goal to Chapman in the 18th minute, the scores were tied at 58 apiece, and remained tied for more than ten minutes. The deadlock was broken by the Saints'
Leigh Montagna, who goaled with 90 seconds left in the quarter from a
Steven King hit-out from a boundary throw-in in the Saints' forward pocket. With one more behind before the end of the quarter, St Kilda entered the three quarter time break with a seven-point lead.
Fourth quarter
Geelong scored a goal from a Hawkins set shot in the second minute of the final quarter to bring the margin back to a single point. The 21 minutes that followed were a tough battle which yielded only five behinds: the first two to St Kilda, and the next three to Geelong, tying the scores at 67 apiece.
In the 24th minute,
with less than five minutes of play remaining,
Geelong's
Steve Johnson had the ball in defence and kicked the ball towards Ablett, who had found space in the centre circle.
St Kilda's Zac Dawson
Zachary Samuel Dawson (born 22 February 1986) is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Hawthorn Football Club, St Kilda Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League. In March 2019, he was a ...
had left his opponent
Cameron Mooney
Cameron Mooney (born 26 September 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Geelong Football Clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL). A forward, tall and weighing , Mooney is renowned for hi ...
and run a considerable distance from his own defence
[
]
and managed to spoil the kick. With two St Kilda players in the area, the ball fell to Geelong's Matthew Scarlett, who had also run a long way from his own defensive area.
[
] Scarlett, with his right foot, gently kicked the ball five metres out of midair to Ablett, who was now in space—a moment which has become known as the toe-poke.
[
][
] Ablett then kicked the ball long to Geelong's goal square, where several players contested for the ball.
After receiving the ball from teammate
Shannon Byrnes
Shannon Byrnes (born 7 April 1984) is a former Australian rules footballer who last played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) after a ten-year career with the Geelong Football Club. He is currently a dev ...
, Geelong forward
Travis Varcoe
Travis Varcoe (born 10 April 1988) is a retired Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the Geelong Football Club from 2006 to 2014 and for the Collingwood Football Club from 2015 to 2020. He currently ...
managed to
handball to Chapman, who kicked a left-foot goal past St Kilda's
Jason Blake's outstretched hands.
Had Dawson's spoil not gone directly to Scarlett, St Kilda had the numbers advantage at the fall of the ball and would likely have been able to go forward into attack themselves.
After the game, Matthew Scarlett stated that his toe poke was a lucky kick.
[
]
A subsequent behind to Rooke in the 27th minute put the Cats seven points ahead. In the 29th minute,
Stephen Milne took a long kick into a largely open forward line towards the unguarded goals for St Kilda, but it was a tumbling kick and Scarlett was able to comfortably rush it through for a behind. Kicking in from the behind, the Cats went to a contest 50m from goal where a strong mark was taken by
Harry Taylor. From there, the Cats were in the process of moving the ball forward when the final siren sounded. An after-the-siren goal from Rooke extended the margin to twelve points,
and St Kilda was held goalless during the final quarter.
Norm Smith Medal
![Geelong Cats supporters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Geelong_Cats_supporters.jpg)
Paul Chapman was awarded the
Norm Smith Medal
The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...
for his three goals and 26 possessions, including nine possessions and the go-ahead goal in the final quarter despite sustaining a slight hamstring injury in the first quarter. Chapman received 9 of a possible 15 votes to win the medal. St Kilda's
Jason Gram
Jason Gram (born 27 April 1984) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who previously played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Junior Career
As a junior with Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup, ...
, who had 30 disposals, finished second for the medal; he also polled nine votes but lost to Chapman on a countback, as Chapman received three votes from three of the five judges, while Gram received three votes from only one judge. Geelong's Harry Taylor was third, receiving a single set of three votes for his job shutting down St Kilda's
Nick Riewoldt
Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt ( ; born 17 October 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the ...
. Geelong's Max Rooke,
Gary Ablett, Jr.,
Jimmy Bartel
James Ross Bartel (born 4 December 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A utility, tall and weighing , Bartel contributed as a midfielder, forward, an ...
, Darren Milburn and
Joel Corey
Joel Corey (born 17 February 1982) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A midfielder, tall and weighing , Corey is able to contribute inside or outside whi ...
also polled votes.
Chaired by
John Worsfold
John Richard Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former Australian rules football coach and player. He was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) between October 2015 and September 2020. He pr ...
, the voters and their choices were as follows:
General summary
![Celebration for the Geelong Football Club](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Celebration_for_the_Geelong_Football_Club.jpg)
Chapman, Rooke, Milburn, Ablett, Bartel and Taylor were all excellent for Geelong. Taylor, in particular, was lauded for restricting dangerous Saints forward Riewoldt to just one goal. Contributing strongly for the Saints were Hayes, Gram,
Luke Ball
Luke Patrick Ball (born 25 May 1984) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the and football clubs in the Australian Football League. From 2003 to 2009 he played 142 games for the St Kilda Football Club whe ...
, Jones, Montagna,
Steven Baker and
Brendon Goddard
Brendon Goddard (born 20 May 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the St Kilda Football Club from 2003 to 2012, then with Essendo ...
; Goddard continued playing with a
broken nose
A nasal fracture, commonly referred to as a broken nose, is a fracture of one of the bones of the nose. Symptoms may include bleeding, swelling, bruising, and an inability to breathe through the nose. They may be complicated by other facial frac ...
and a fractured collarbone, sustained in separate incidents during the game.
There was a very high number of tackles laid during the game—partly due to the high pressure of the teams, and also exacerbated by the wet conditions are always conducive to high tackle counts. St Kilda's 118 tackles set a new record as the highest by any team in any game, the combined total of 214 tackles set a new mark as the second highest on record, and Bartel's 16 tackles matched the equal-highest personal tally on record—these tallies have all since been surpassed.
In general play, St Kilda throughout the first half earned 31 inside-50s to Geelong's 15, and was consistently able to stop Geelong's rebound through the middle. However, they did waste many of their inside-50s by missing relatively easy shots on goal and were unable to defend the fewer entries by Geelong. In the second half, general play was much more even but Geelong had the better of the inside-50s and clearances, and were better able to break through St Kilda's rebound defence. This attribute ultimately accounted for Geelong's triumph.
It was an extremely close game throughout: twelve points was the greatest margin at any stage of the game (held by Geelong early in the first quarter, late in the second quarter, and the final margin).
St Kilda became the first team to lose a grand final from a three-quarter time lead since
Hawthorn
Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to:
Plants
* '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae
* ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
; and Geelong became the first team to ever win a grand final after losing the first three quarters (albeit losing them only by 2, 1 and 4 points, respectively). Geelong was the first team since in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
to win both the pre-season premiership and the regular season premiership in the same season.
Scorecard
Teams
List
See also
*
2009 AFL finals series
The Australian Football League's 2009 finals series determined the top eight final positions of the 2009 AFL season over four weekends in September 2009, culminating with the 113th AFL/VFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26 Sept ...
*
2009 AFL season
The 2009 AFL season was the 113th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixte ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Australian Football League
VFL/AFL Grand Finals
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...
Grand Final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...
Geelong Football Club
St Kilda Football Club