Welcome everybody to what should be one of the great Grand Finals of the modern era.
And a particular welcome to General Sir Peter Cosgrove, one of the great Australians—to your first Grand Final since taking on the role of Governor-General.
And to our foreign minister, Julie Bishop just off the plane from New York—no doubt chuffed by the win of West Coast's Matt Priddis in Monday's Brownlow Medal.
As well as achieving so much in the political sphere, Julie was a Board member of the Eagles from 2008 until she became foreign minister 12 months ago.
Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications, is here to see the game and chat about AFL Media Rights. After Gill has finished with you Minister, you may not hear the crowd.
Grand Final day gives us all a chance to reflect on what has been, and what is to come, and the last 12 months has been a time of great transition for the AFL.
• The old gave way to the new with exciting game day presentations put on by Port Power and the Crows at the revitalised Adelaide Oval.
With the benefit of a 'clean' stadium, control over the video screens, electronic billboards, and pre-game countdowns, they have shown creative ways to present games, a model for all clubs in the competition.
• Experiments in programming and variable pricing were tried by the AFL,including an early, drawn out split round to start the season, tiered pricing systems in Victoria, and blockbusters on Sunday nights. All were given a big thumbs down by our supporters here in Victoria.
We had a crack, not everything worked, but we learnt a lot, most of which will be applied in 2015 and beyond.
• Our expansion teams went from also-rans to becoming competitive, a transition thatI'm sure will continue to gain traction through 2015.
• Our clubs accepted the concept of increased revenue sharing and a cap on football department expenditure.
This was arguably the most important initiative since the Draft and Salary Cap were introduced almost 30 years ago.
The clubs clearly understand that equality of opportunity forms the foundation of a great competition.
• A cloud that has hung over our game—most unfairly in my view—was conclusively dispersed by a Federal Court judgment in favour of the processes employed by ASADA in the Essendon supplements case.
• One thing that hasn't changed is the AFL executive’s preference for aged rock stars to entertain us on Grand Final day.
The Commission currently delegates this decision—this could change after today.
Let's hope Sir Tom Jones can do the job, or our fans could be asking 'why, why, why' as they did after the Meat Loaf show of 2012.
Memories of Meat Loaf brings me to perhaps the biggest transition of the year, when Andrew Demetriou announced his retirement in March.
I knew the year was going to be very different when the slick German sedan in the CEO's car park had been exchanged for a mud-stained Toyota Landcruiser. Dave Buttner, President of Toyota, is delighted! Nice commitment to detail, Gill.
Andrew's time as CEO was one in which outstanding broadcasting deals were done,for the benefit of the game;
– when new stadia were developed in South Australia, NSW and Queensland,
– when two new clubs were successfully launched,
– and when the AFL took the lead in issues as diverse as racism, the engagement of multicultural Australia and respect for women.
Simply, Andrew left the game in better shape than he found it, adding to the great work done by the administrations of Allen Aylett, Jack Hamilton, Ross Oakley, and Wayne Jackson.
The AFL Commission was formed 30 years ago, we can now proudly proclaim we oversee a great code, one of the world’s elite sporting competitions.
••••
After a global search, the Commission was delighted to ratify the appointment of Gillon McLachlan as Andrew's successor.
I am not sure whether Gill was mentored or exploited in the ten years he worked for Andrew.
He made it clear to the Commission he was going to be different, and he has hit the ground running.
Gill has visited every club on game day,had the coaches to dinner at his home,taken journalists out of the press box tobehind the interchange bench , hired Travis Auld to bring the AFL closer to the clubs, and opened negotiations with the Melbourne stadiums to deal with the issues of cost and fan experience.
He has also impressed on all clubs the need for the clubs to take charge of game day, to follow the model so successfully employed in Adelaide and Perth.
We look forward to versions of the Adelaide model, in particular, spreading across our venues nationally—and particularly here, at the spiritual home of football.
But we are also aware of our responsibility to the code in general. It's not all about big stadia and big games: the game begins at the grass roots, and our numbers at all levels are rather impressive:
• We have almost 2700 community clubs, with 13,300 teams participating in competitions each week of the season in 267 community leagues, plus more than 23,000 school teams.
• The International Cup won by Papua New Guinea was again a great success, and goes from strength to strength. Our game really has no boundaries.
• There are 2600 NAB AFL Auskick community centres, all managed by volunteers.
• And this is the most remarkable stat of all: more than 150,000 volunteers give their time, energy and love to our game at all levels.
The fastest growing segment of our game is women's footy, which is really growing in stature and acceptance.
I was privileged to watch the annual women's Exhibition match between teams representing the Bulldogs and the Demons at Etihad Stadium in June, marvelling at the improvement in standard in the past twelve months.
Late in that game Tayla Harris took what I rated as mark of the year.
It was the sort of athletic feat that thrills spectators and players alike.
Women’s football is on the march, and the AFL is going to support it.
This is one area we can learn from our colleagues in Ireland: the Ladies Gaelic Football League attracts great crowds,with TV audiences of half a million and big attendances at the All-Ireland Final at Croke Park.
Earlier this year, Peta Searle became the first woman to hold a senior coaching role at an AFL club, as a development coach at St Kilda.
On Thursday, Peta was further recognised when she was named the 2014 Football Woman of the Year, an award which recognises women in the industry who have made a significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. An inspiring trailblazer, Peta was also the winner of theProfessional Category
This week, we announced scholarships for two young women —Eleni Glouftsis and Lucinda Lopes—to pursue their dream of becoming AFL field umpires. Chelsea Roffey, emergency goal umpire today has shown the way for women in this area.
Finally, to today's game:
As Tom Jones might say, it's not unusual to see Hawthorn against Sydney on this day—the two best teams of the past three seasons playing off on the green green grass of the MCG:
Congratulations to the administration, coaching staff and players of these great clubs, they leave no stone unturned, but they have applied themselves to the task with great integrity, and with great respect to the competition and their place in the AFL.
To Andrew Newbold and Stuart Fox congratulations on what you've achieved, taking the Hawks to their third Grand Final in a row, for the third time in the club's history.
To Andrew Pridham, here for the first time, after taking the chair of Sydney 12 months ago. He certainly hasn’t taken a backward step in his first season and now he's taken his club to the biggest day of the year.
It's easy isn't it Andrew!
And to CEO Andrew Ireland, who may bemore familiar with Grand Final day than anybody else in football administration, after laying the foundation for three flags at Brisbane, and two in Sydney.
• The Hawks are attempting to go-back-to-back for only the second time in their history, while going head-to-head with one of their greatest stars in Buddy Franklin.
• For the record, should Sydney win, Buddy will become the first player since 1912-13 to play in back-to-back Grand Final wins with different teams: Jim Martin did it with Essendon and Fitzroy.
• Two proud clubs, a warm Melbourne day, and after 23 rounds and three weeks of elimination games, the Grand Final.You couldn't ask for much more.
May the best team win, and may it be another great day for Australia’s game.
