2005 AFL Grand Final

2005 AFL Grand Final
Home Team	Sydney Swans
Away Team	West Coast Eagles
Date	24 September 2005
Stadium	MCG
City	Melbourne
TV in Australia
Network	Network Ten
Announcers	Stephen Quartermain and Tim Lane
< 2004 • AFL Grand Final • 2006 >

The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League,^[1] staged to determine the premiers for the 2005 AFL season. The match, attended by 91,898 spectators, was won by Sydney, by a margin of four points.

Background

This was West Coast's first appearance in a Grand Final since winning the 1994 AFL Grand Final, whilst it was Sydney's first since losing the 1996 AFL Grand Final. The Swans had not won a premiership since winning the 1933 VFL Grand Final. Two players from the Eagles' last premiership in 1994 were appearing in this Grand Final - Drew Banfield for the Eagles and Jason Ball, now playing for the Swans.

At the conclusion of the home and away season, West Coast had finished second on the AFL ladder behind Adelaide with 17 wins and five losses. Sydney had finished third with 15 wins and seven losses. West Coast entered the Grand Final having defeated Adelaide in the preliminary final by 16 points. Sydney had defeated St Kilda in their preliminary final by 31 points.

In the week leading up to the Grand Final, West Coast's Ben Cousins was awarded the Brownlow Medal.

Match summary

West Coast opened the game aggressively, with Sydney struggling to get the ball to their end of the field. However, better goal kicking accuracy by the Swans put them ahead by two points at the first change.

In the second quarter Sydney appeared to be asserting control of the game, kicking three goals while the Eagles got none. However, after the long break, West Coast put their stamp on the game, kicking three goals while the Swans went goalless.

At the end of the day, both teams would remember seemingly easy goals that were missed, but the Eagles most clearly would remember theirs from the fourth quarter. With just under five minutes remaining in the match, West Coast's Brent Staker almost cost his team the match following a 50-metre penalty to the Swans sending them out of their defensive 50 in a very costly play. With the Swans holding a five point lead in the closing moments, Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly rushed a behind to blunt a ferocious Eagles attack. After the ensuing kick in, West Coast again regained control of the ball and sent a long kick back to the half forward line by Dean Cox. Sydney's Leo Barry responded by taking a mark in the midst of the pack full of Eagles (with the commentator Stephen Quartermain mentioning words made famous through frequent replays - "Leo Barry you star!"), denying the Eagles an opportunity to kick a game winner on or after the final siren.

The match has been labelled as a 'classic',^[2] with the final margin being the closest since the 1977 drawn Grand Final. This was the first time since the 1989 VFL Grand Final that the Grand Final was decided by a goal or less.

Eagles player Chris Judd was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for being judged the best player afield, despite the fact that he finished on the losing side. This is only one of four instances of a Grand Final player having won a Norm Smith Medal without being on the winning premiership team.

The same teams met again in the 2006 AFL Grand Final, another close match, with the Eagles emerging victors by one point. This was then followed by another one point win to the Eagles in the next home and away season.

Teams

Scorecard

Match statistics

Entertainment

See also

• 2005 AFL finals series
• 2005 AFL season

References