This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

2009 AFL Grand Final
Home Team	St Kilda
Away Team	Geelong
Date	26 September 2009
Stadium	MCG
City	Melbourne
TV in Australia
Network	Network Ten
< 2008 • AFL Grand Final • 2010 >

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 in Melbourne on 26 September 2009. It was the 113th annual grand final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 2009 AFL season. The match, attended by 99,251 spectators, was won by Geelong by a margin of 12 points, marking that club's eighth premiership victory.^[1]

[edit] Background

St Kilda entered the 2009 premiership season after having lost its preliminary final in 2008 against eventual premiers Hawthorn. The Saints' home-and-away season was outstanding and they won their first 19 games (the longest winning streak in the club's history) before losing consecutive close games in Rounds 20 and 21 against Essendon and North Melbourne. They won their final game and earned the McClelland Trophy for the first time since 1997. Their record of 20-2 is the equal-third most wins of all time, behind the 2008 Cats and the 2000 Bombers. They accounted for fourth-placed Collingwood by 28 points in their qualifying finaland won a hard-fought and low scoring preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs 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 against Port Adelaide in the 2007 AFL Grand Final and a loss against Hawthorn in the 2008 AFL Grand Final. They won their four pre-season games to win the NAB Cup and their first 13 home-and-away games. Their first loss came in Round 14 against St Kilda (who at that stage were also undefeated) by six points. Following that loss the Cats entered a form slump, caused in part by several key injuries; their eight games from Rounds 14 to 21 yielded four wins and four losses, but only one of those wins (a 46-point victory against eventual wooden spooners Melbourne) was by a margin greater than one goal. Geelong won their final game comfortably to finish with a record of 18-4. They 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.

This grand final was the sixteenth in Geelong's history and the third in succession, with the club attempting to win its eighth premiership and second in three years.

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. Its only flag to date was won 43 years earlier in the 1966 Grand Final.

This was the first time that St Kilda and Geelong had met in a grand final. In spite of their respective ladder positions, Geelong entered the game as the favourite team to win amongst most bookmakers.

It was also the first grand final to be played since the death of cartoonist William Ellis Green (better known as WEG), who had been drawing victory posters after VFL/AFL 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 of the Herald Sun.

[edit] Pre-match entertainment

Mark Seymour from Australian rock band Hunters and Collectors performed "Holy Grail" on stage, followed by Jimmy Barnes singing "No Second Prize". John Farnham then sang "You're the Voice", 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, then later via zip-line by Adelaide Crows champion Mark Ricciuto. The Qantas choir performed "I Still Call Australia Home", and the national anthem was performed a capella by the cast of Jersey Boys.

[edit] 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.

[edit] First quarter

Geelong started strongly, earning a two-goal advantage after eight minutes, with Max Rooke scoring the opening goal of the game following a solid tackle on a seemingly unaware Raphael Clarke - a player who earned the ire of many Saints fans by the end of the game. St Kilda then gained the ascendancy in the middle part of the quarter, asserting an advantage in the midfield (partly through the influence of Lenny Hayes who tallied 11 touches and a goal in the first term) and stopping Geelong's rebound. 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 scored 3.2 (20), with Adam Schneider missing an easy shot at goal. Meanwhile, Geelong's attacks were adding points, with the recently inaccurate Cameron Mooney marking and goaling from 50 metres and, later, Joel Selwood kicking one of the great Grand Final goals by barging through tackles and kicking truly from a similar distance. Another factor was the defences - St Kilda struggled to repel the few Geelong attacks, whereas Geelong managed to hold up some of St Kilda's. At quarter time, St Kilda had both the ascendancy in general play and the momentum. Luck, though, seemed on Geelong's side.

[edit] Second quarter

St Kilda opened the second quarter better, but again missed, or failed to even make, relatively easy shots at goal from Schneider, McQualter and Milne. In the middle stages of the quarter, Geelong again made the most of their limited opportunities. Selwood was again influential by creating a chance for Cameron Ling to snap a kick which was converted into a goalsquare goal by the pacey Shannon Byrnes. Gary Ablett was then shifted forward and received a free kick to close the gap. Geelong then kicked to a two-goal with a controversial non-goal scored by Tom Hawkins after a Zac Dawson turnover in the goal-square, which television replays confirmed hit the post. This was followed by a quick goal from Paul Chapman from the resulting centre bounce. However, the Saints scored some equally controversial goals, including a questionable free kick against Matthew Scarlett. Of their three goals in the final two minutes of the quarter, Clinton Jones roved a pack to snap a goal from the pocket with about ninety seconds remaining; a questionable freekick against Joely Corey saw the ball head forward and Justin Koschitzke got his boot to a broken marking contest in the goal square to score a goal with only twelve seconds left; and an angry Darren Milburn, believing (incorrectly, according to replays which showed it was Koschitzke's boot, not the ball, which had touched his hand) that he had touched Koschitzke's kick off the boot, gave away an additional free kick on the goal-line for abusing the goal umpire - Milburn claims he was simply indicating that the umpire had got it wrong - as Geelong players also believed an earlier goal had been touched. His coach, Mark Thompson, admitted after the game that he was livid with Milburn's carelessness, and told him if the team lost by a goal, it would be his responsibility. This free kick gifted Schneider an easy and the second of two arguably undeserved goals with just five seconds remaining in the half, leading to noisy heckling from Geelong fans as the half-time siren sounded. The ingredients of a classic Grand Final were in place.

[edit] 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 Cameron Mooney goaled seven minutes into the quarter, while Saints' captain Nick Riewoldt answered with a goal from a close set shot only two minutes later. The Cats pushed forward and Paul Chapman, who was to win the Norm Smith Medal scored his second goal with a snap, thanks partly to the shepherding of Max Rooke. After nineteen minutes, 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 continued the trend of late-minute St Kilda goals with less than ninety seconds left in the quarter from a Steven King hit-out from a boundary throw-in in the Saints' forward pocket. St Kilda entered the three quarter time break with a seven point lead. No team had lost from such a position since 1984.

[edit] Fourth quarter

Geelong began the final term by pushing forward. It was Chapman who set up the first goal, passing to Hawkins in the second minute of the final quarter to bring the margin back to a single point. The 21 minutes that followed would yield only five behinds and its fair share of controversy - including an overlooked holding free kick to Schneider, and a number of possible interference frees against Geelong forwards. Geelong controlled most of the play, with players like Shannon Byrnes out-running his opponent (Clarke) a number of times to create scoring opportunities.

In the 24th minute, Clinton Jones chose to kick with his left foot, rather than the side he was on. The resulting ball floated away from the champion Riewoldt and into the arms of his opponent, and master for the day, Harry Taylor. His pass to Enright and then to the unusually quiet Steve Johnson, led to a ball-winning play in the centre of the ground. Jones' error also meant his opponent, Ablett, was free. Johnson's pass to Ablett appeared momentarily to have failed, as Dawson heroically arrived to spoil the mark. In a moment now known as "the toepoke" Geelong full-back Matthew Scarlett instinctively kicked the ball in mid-air back to Ablett, who kicked long to the packed goal-square: Travis Varcoe gathered the ball from Byrnes at the kick-off line, and handpassed back to and shepherded for Paul Chapman, who kicked the go-ahead goal from 12 metres. A subsequent behind to the bullocking Rooke in the 27th minute put the Cats seven points ahead, and a rushed behind to the Saints in the 29th minute brought the margin back to one goal. Kicking in from the behind, the Cats went to a contest where a strong mark was taken by Harry Taylor - it was later revealed his hand was broken. 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. Most crucially, having squandered earlier opportunities, St Kilda was held goalless during the final quarter.

[edit] Norm Smith Medal

Paul Chapman was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for his three goals and 26 possessions, despite sustaining a slight hamstring injury in the first quarter. Chapman received nine of a possible fifteen votes to win the medal. St Kilda's Jason Gram finished second for the medal, also polling nine votes, but losing to Chapman on a countback (Chapman received three votes from three of the five judges, while Gram received three votes from only one judge). Geelong's Taylor (who received three votes from the fifth judge) finished third, while Rooke, Gary Ablett, Jr., Jimmy Bartel, Milburn and Joel Corey also polled votes.

[edit] General summary

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, Jones, Montagna, Steven Baker and Brendon Goddard; Goddard continued playing with a broken nose and a fractured collarbone, sustained in separate incidents during the game.

It was an extremely close game throughout: twelve points was the greatest margin at any stage of the game (Geelong's lead late in the second quarter, and the final margin). Both teams scored controversial goals but St Kilda had the more obvious misses. There was a very high number of tackles laid during the game, although it should be noted that wet conditions are always conducive to high tackle counts: St Kilda's 118 tackles is the highest on record for any team in any game, the combined total of 214 tackles is the second highest on record, and Bartel's 16 tackles represented the equal-highest personal tally on record.

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, as noted above, 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 defense. This attribute ultimately accounted for Geelong's triumph.^[2] Geelong also became the first side since Essendon in 2000 to win both the pre-season premiership and the regular season premiership in the same season.

[edit] Scorecard

[edit] Teams

[edit] List

[edit] Gallery

[edit] See also

• 2009 AFL finals series
• 2009 AFL season

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikinews has related news: Geelong win 2009 Australian Football League Grand Final

• St Kilda 2009 season at FinalSiren.com

• Geelong 2009 season at FinalSiren.com