2006 AFL Grand Final

The Red and White army celebrate a goal at the AFL Grand Final

The 2006 AFL Grand Final was contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 30, 2006. The West Coast Eagles avenged their Finals defeat in 2005 by beating the Sydney Swans by a single point, to record only the fourth one point Grand Final margin in the competition's history.

Grand Final Week

Brownlow Medal

Main article: Brownlow Medal.

The 2006 Charles Brownlow Medal Presentation was held at the Palladium at Crown Casino, Melbourne on 25 September, 2006. The Charles Brownlow Medal is awarded to the "Best and Fairest" AFL Player of the year. It is selected by a 3-2-1 voting system awarded by the umpires of each match for the whole year (excluding finals). The winner of the 2006 Brownlow medal was Adam Goodes, the Sydney Swans utility who was playing in the Grand Final later that week.

Leigh Matthews Trophy

Main article: Leigh Matthews Trophy.

The 2006 Leigh Matthews Trophy is similar to the Charles Brownlow Medal, however the trophy goes to the "Best and Fairest" AFL Player of the year as voted by the AFL Players Association. 2006 winner was Chris Judd from West Coast.

Grand Final Parade

Some of people who lined the streets of Melbourne for the 2006 AFL Grand Final parade

The Grand Final Parade took place on Friday, September 29 and commenced on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, and ending at Spring Street, Melbourne. The crowd was officially estimated at fifty thousand people.

Pre-match

Prior to the match, at 10.00 am the TAC Cup Grand Final was played.

The Red Berets parachuted into the MCG delivering the match balls, followed by a team warm up and the beginning of pre-match entertainment. The entertainment included a performance of the song "Flashdance (What A Feeling)", performed by Irene Cara, [1] as well as appearances from Brian Mannix, John Paul Young, Daryl Braithwaite and Shane Howard (lead singer of Goanna). The medley of songs they performed included "Solid Rock", Yesterday's Hero", "The Horses", "Everybody Wants to Work" and "I Hear Motion".

Grand Final Sprint

The Sprint, which had heats ran before the pre-match entertainment and the final ran during the half-time break, was won by Carlton's Brendan Fevola. 2006 saw the first use of handicaps during the sprint.

Teams

These are the selected teams as they were announced prior to the game.

List

Result

International telecasts

The 2006 AFL Grand Final was watched by a worldwide audience of close to 30 million people. The following television networks covered the event.

• Papua New Guinea - EM TV, Australia Network (live)
• New Zealand - SKY Sport 1 (NZ) (live)
• South East Asia - Australia Network (live)
• Middle East - Australia Network. Israel - Fox Sports Israel
• Indian subcontinent - Australia Network
• North America - United States - Setanta Sports North America (live), MHz Worldview (delayed). Canada - Fox Sports World Canada (live). See also AFANA.
• United Kingdom - British Sky Broadcasting (live)
• Ireland - TG4 (delayed)
• Spain - [[Canal+ Spain]]

Match scoring records

The 2006 Grand Final placed Sydney vs West Coast games further in the VFL/AFL record books for closeness, with the five most recent margins up to and including this game standing at 4, 4, 2, 1 and 1. With 12 points total difference across five games, Sydney vs West Coast comprehensively beat the previous five-game record of 19 points, set by Hawthorn vs Collingwood in 1958-60. They also became the seventh pair of teams in VFL/AFL history (and the second in 2006 after Geelong vs Western Bulldogs) to contest two consecutive one-point games.

These records were further reduced in the Grand Final rematch in Round 1, 2007, which was again decided by a single point, giving the pair the record for four games, five games and six games (5 points, 9 points and 13 points respectively), and positioning them equal second for three games behind Brisbane vs Port Adelaide (2 points, 1997-98) and Hawthorn vs Footscray (3 points, 1956-57).

The 2006 Grand Final also marked the fourth time in VFL/AFL history that consecutive games between two teams were decided by the same total scores, with both the qualifying final and the Grand Final decided by 85-84. This previously occurred between South Melbourne vs Melbourne (1903-04), St Kilda vs Collingwood (1913-14) and Melbourne vs Richmond (1954-55). On none of the four occasions have the goals and behinds tallies been identical.

Post-match presentations

The post-match presentation was carried out by Craig Willis, with the presentation of the premiership cup done by former St Kilda premiership coach Allan Jeans.

Following the match, a couple of West Coast Eagles players were criticised for not shaking the hands of the young Auskick kids who handed them medals on stage after the match, possibly due to the excitement of the occasion. ^[3] In particular, Daniel Chick received the medal without handshaking and then held his medal to the sky, in reference to a mate who had passed away. ^[4] David Wirrpanda later apologised for not shaking the hand of a young Indigenous Australian during the ceremony. ^[5]

See also

• 2006 AFL finals series

References

1. ^ Daniel Kerr was ineligible for 3rd place, even though he polled 22 votes due to suspension.
2. ^ ^{a b} Pos'ns stands for Possessions.
3. ^ Think of the children, say fans, Courier Mail, October 2, 2006.
4. ^ Chick flick outrage, Herald Sun, October 2, 2006.
5. ^ David Wirrpanda sorry, Herald Sun, October 3, 2006.

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