A week ago, it was a fantastic finish to the 2010 Australian Football League season with St Kilda making a fantastic rally from 24 down to pull level with regular season champion Collingwood in the AFL Grand Final. Except… it was not over. By the rules of the league, a draw in the Grand Final results in a replay of the championship game, something that has only occurred twice previously with the last time 33 years ago in 1977.
The replay likely may be the last by the way the talk had been last week following the final horn as it was a surreal scene with exhausted and bewildered looks upon the players’ faces on the ground.
More on the Grand Final Game…
The flurry of action in the final moments of the game last week were thrilling as St Kilda were within range of scoring if only someone could have gotten hold of the ball with some space, but the scramble for the ball was intense at that opportunity never came as the game finished tied 68-68.
This week was a completely different story. Collingwood again got out to a big lead, up by 27 at the half. But this time, they crushed the hopes of St Kilda early in the third quarter with numerous goals in the early going to build an insurmountable lead, and then never let up. The Magpies just ran away with the contest, doubling up on the Saints 108-52. It was the team’s first title in 20 years.
While Collingwood ended a 20-year drought, poor St Kilda has not was the Grand Final since 1966 and have now failed to win three times in two years, losing to Geelong by 12 points last year after finishing first in the regular season. That’s nearly as bad as the Buffalo Bills’ run of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
Though the 56-point margin was a lot, especially considering last week’s draw, it was no where near the record set in 2007 when Geelong destroyed Port Adelaide by 119 points (163-44).
My Take…
It was great being able to watch both Grand Finals (as well as one of the matches a while back) on ESPN, but I wish they would air more of it in the future. In addition to taking me back to when I was a kid watching it on cable at my dad’s place, it is far more entertaining than American gridiron football is now with all of the dead-ball delays and commercial breaks.
As for the Grand Final itself, I have to say that I am a bit conflicted on the whole thing of replaying the draw. On one hand, it would have been great to see last week’s match continue into overtime. But the idea of seeing a whole other match between the two was also intriguing – at least until Collingwood began to run away with the match in the replay. In the era of the Super Bowl, it is unbelievable that a league would have its big championship game potentially have to be replayed due to all of the logistics and corresponding events, however, the extra 90,000 tickets they were able to sell after hitting the 100,000 mark for the first may be a contributing factor.
I kind of enjoyed seeing the post-game festivities as well since they have different traditions from the US and soccer. I liked that the AFL used a professional announcer to handle the awards presentation and that they didn’t have a half-dozen dignitaries handing out medals and shaking hands, slowing everything down. It was quick and simple. And although I don’t go for the sappy stuff, I kind of like how the players went up on the stage and got their medals placed on their heads by little kids, who then received what looked like championship hats from the players in addition to a handshake – nice to see the league executives sharing the moment with the future of the game instead of hogging the spotlight for themselves.
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