By Aaron Cordy
AFL GRAND Final day sparks a torrent of emotion for players, officials, and, most importantly, fans across the country. Away from the holy colosseum of the MCG on suburban and country grounds, Grand Final day can inspire joy, heartbreak and folklore that lasts for generations.
Sports journalist Toby Prime saw the highs and lows of footy grand finals covering the sport across the state, which inspired him to write Famous Flags: Great Local Grand Finals. A collection of stories from around Victoria, told by those who played, watched and lived some of the amazing grand finals.
“When I was a journo, grand finals always left an impression on me. Some of the games that I’ve seen have remained in my memory. Some of the more memorable grand finals, and I think that’s just because of the emotion and the people attached to grand finals,” said Toby.
“Those emotions are clearly heightened on grand final day when people invest so much into community football, and if you’re on the right side of the result, it’s a euphoric feeling. Likewise for people who have experienced hardship, not just with the games, but in some instances in their lives, it was almost therapeutic for some of those people to relive those emotions and express how they feel about those games. Good, bad, or indifferent, those emotions do remain for a lifetime.”
One memorable grand final in the book was the 1990 PDL grand final between Waaia and Blighty. The match that lives in football folklore for a 50-meter penalty that led to an after-the-siren goal by Waaia’s Mike Cleeland, giving them a one-point victory, while the unwitting Blighty players and fans celebrated a win they had not won.
For full details of the fallout, you must read Famous Flags.
“It’s clearly the case that people haven’t forgotten that game now, 36 years down the track, and that’s because it was just such a controversial and remarkable finish. And the story almost gets better with time,” said Toby.
Luke Beveridge provided the foreword for the book. The 2016 premiership coach of the Western Bulldogs rates the VAFA St Bedes/Mentone C-section flag he coached in 2006 equal to his 2016 AFL Premiership.
“I know it’s only a game of football in the end, but because people invest so much into it, it means so much to them. Those emotions, regardless of how long down the track it is, those emotions remain for a lifetime,” said Toby.
Famous Flags is available online and at all good bookstores.
