Get all the facts and details as Werribee and the Southport Sharks meet in the 2024 Smithy’s VFL Grand Final at IKON Park on Sunday 22 September.

2024 SMITHY’S VFL GRAND FINAL DETAILS

Werribee (1st) vs Southport Sharks (5th)
Sunday, September 22
3:10pm AEST
IKON Park

Broadcast: The 2024 Smithy’s VFL Grand Final will be broadcast live and free on the Seven Network via Channel 7 in Victoria and 7plus nationally. The match will also be streamed live and free on AFL.com.au and the AFL Live Official App.

Ticketing: For the 2024 Smithy’s VFL Grand Final admission prices will be adults $20, concession/pensioners $15 and children under 15 free. Tickets can be purchased at www.intix.com.au/org/vfl from midday on Tuesday, September 17. Patrons purchasing at the gate are advised the payment method is card only.

2024 SMITHY’S VFL GRAND FINAL FACTS

WERRIBEE

- Finished the 2024 Smithy’s VFL season on top of the ladder to win its first minor premiership since 2005. The Tigers’ record at the end of the home and away season was 15 wins, three losses and a percentage of 141

- Coach: James Allan (first season) / Captain: Nick Coughlan (Coughlan has been injured and last played in Round 16 vs Coburg. Former captain and current vice-captain Dom Brew has been skipper in his absence)

- Werribee is aiming to break a 31-year premiership drought since its last and only Victorian Football Association/ Victorian Football League flag in 1993. Werribee defeated Port Melbourne in the Grand Final that year, which was also played at IKON Park.

- With victory, Werribee will bring the VFL premiership back to Victoria after the Gold Coast SUNS defeated them in the 2023 Smithy’s Grand Final to become the first non-Victorian VFL premier

- It is the first time Werribee has played in consecutive VFA/VFL Grand Finals in its history

- Werribee has been runners-up in the VFA/VFL five times: 1991, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2023

- Werribee finished top in 2024 despite having two members of their 2023 Grand Final team - Shaun Mannagh (Geelong) and Sam Clohesy (Gold Coast SUNS) – drafted to the AFL

- Dual J.J. Liston Trophy winner Tom Gribble (2022, 2019) also departed the club at the end of the 2023 season.

- Details of Werribee’s only VFA/VFL premiership:
1993 VFA Grand Final
Werribee 10.10 (70) def. Port Melbourne 4.4 (28)
Werribee captain/coach: Donald McDonald
Norm Goss Medal (best on ground): David Allday (Werribee)
Played at Princes Park

- The club was established in 1964 when it entered the VFA.

SOUTHPORT SHARKS

- Finished the 2024 Smithy’s VFL season fifth on the ladder with 12 wins, six losses and a percentage of 120.5

- Coach: Steve Daniel (coach since 2018 when Southport won the NEAFL premiership – has announced that he is stepping down following the 2024 season) / Co-captains: Jacob Dawson and Brayden Crossley

- The club entered the VFL competition in 2021, along with four other clubs from Queensland and New South Wales – Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast SUNS, GWS GIANTS and Sydney Swans), after competing in the NEAFL from 2011-2020. The club won one NEAFL premiership in 2018 when they defeated the Sydney Swans in the Grand Final.

- In the three completed seasons it has been in the VFL (joined from the NEAFL), Southport will have contested two Grand Finals (2022, 2024). The 2021 VFL season was called off early because of COVID

- With victory in the 2024 VFL Grand Final, Southport will become the second-straight Queensland-based VFL premier after Gold Coast SUNS became the first non-Victorian VFL premier in 2023

- Southport Australian Football Club was founded in 1961, 63 years ago

- Southport has previously won four QAFL flags in a row (1997-2000), as well as a GCAFL threepeat (1975-77)

- The Sharks played in 11 Grand Finals in 12 years from 1997-2008 for seven premierships, only missing out in 2003, when they lost in the preliminary final

- They also played in all but one QAFL decider from their entry to the league in 1983 until 1993, for six flags from 10 attempts.

VFL GENERAL NOTES

- Two standalone clubs (no AFL alignment) will contest the Smithy’s VFL Grand Final for the first time since AFL reserves and AFL-aligned teams first came into the VFL competition for the 2000 season

- The last standalone club to win the VFL premiership was Port Melbourne in 2017, who defeated Richmond in the Grand Final. In the 25 years since 2000, standalone clubs have won VFL premierships on three occasions: Port Melbourne (2017, 2011) and Williamstown (2015)

- Seven of the 21 clubs competing in the VFL competition in 2024 are standalone clubs (no AFL alignment), yet two of those have made the Grand Final

- The last two defeated VFL Grand Finalists (Werribee 2023, Southport 2022) will contest the 2024 decider. The last time this happened in the VFL was 1997 when Sandringham defeated Frankston (Sandringham lost ’95 GF, Frankston lost ’96 GF)

- Half of the 2024 VFL State Team that represented the league in a match against the SANFL at AFL Gather Round in April came from the two 2024 VFL Grand Final clubs:

• • Werribee (7 players of which 6 played): Dom Brew, Nathan Cooper, Key Declase Hudson Garoni, Nick Hayes, Jack Henderson and Louis Pinnuck
  • Southport (5 players and 1 assistant coach): Brayden Crossley, Jacob Dawson, Hugh Dixon, Ben Jepson and Boyd Woodcock, along with Steve Daniel as assistant coach
  • Of this group, Brew (Werribee) was VFL State Team captain while Woodcock (Southport) was named best afield for the VFL by the SANFL coaching panel