Finally, A Big One We Can Look Forward To
The Age
Monday September 24, 2001
More than two decades' worth of mostly shocking anti-climaxes should have us appropriately forewarned, but though tempting fate, it's hard to see Saturday's Essendon-Brisbane grand final proving anything other than the classic premiership playoff we've been craving.
For the first time since 1996, the grand final will be contested by the two best teams of the season proper. Both won 17 of 22 games, at times playing a brand of football clearly superior to 14opponents. Both are physically hard as well as skilled, and in terms of players with finals experience, behind only Carlton of this year's finalists. In terms both of match-ups and preparation, we could have asked no more.
It's a sense of anticipation we haven't felt during grand final week for at least the last couple of years, when first Carlton, then last year Melbourne, went into grand finals against the Kangaroos and Essendon respectively as massive underdogs.
It's also, clearly, another red-letter day for the concept of national football. Saturday's grand final will be the seventh time in the past 11seasons an interstate team has played a Victorian rival for a premiership, each of the five states involved in the AFL having had a team in a grand final during the past decade.
That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that Brisbane will be marching into the MCG for only the third time this season facing the same sort of hostility as its predecessors.
As well as commanding the favor of the neutral, the Lions can expect even more support from those disaffected Fitzroy fans for whom the emotion of a first grand final appearance in 57 years by a side called the Lions and wearing the same colors will overpower any lingering bitterness over their ``shotgun marriage" five years ago.
But even on purely aesthetic grounds, this shapes as a great grand final. Brisbane and Essendon are arguably the two most entertaining sides in the competition to watch, both quick movers of the ball, solid defensively, dangerous in attack and with eye-catching midfields, and chock-full of highly-skilled and composed players.
It's hard to see either grabbing enough of an ascendancy in any of those areas to reduce Saturday to the sort of one-sided tedium we have come to expect on grand final day.
That said, it is Essendon's capacity to pressure and restrict Brisbane's midfield stars that will probably determine the result.
In that context, the extent of the injury to Bomber skipper James Hird and its ramifications for his ability to play a key centre-square role is critical.
Joe Misiti aside, the Dons' key midfielders were overrun by the Hawks late last Saturday. Not a good sign when coming up is the quartet of Michael Voss, Simon Black, Jason Akermanis and Nigel Lappin, in such sustained red-hot form that pundits are now seriously asking whether we are watching one of the great midfield units of all time.
Even the battle of the coaches seems to have more riding on it this time.
For Kevin Sheedy, there's the possibility of a fifth premiership to put him equal-third in the pantheon of premiership coaches. Saturday's game will be his seventh grand final in charge of the Bombers over 21 seasons, an average of one every three seasons, already a remarkable achievement.
Can you achieve immortality twice? Leigh Matthews has already earned it by taking Collingwood to its first premiership in 32 years in 1990. Becoming the first man to win an AFL premiership for Queensland as well as leading teams from different states to flags, on top of an extraordinary reputation as a player, would see him all but canonised.
Perhaps the best thing about Saturday's grand final, however, is that whichever side wins, there can be no argument that over the course of the season, as well on the day, the side emerging with the flag will have well and truly deserved it.
Aside from its historical impact, a Brisbane victory would be its 16th in a row, as many as Carlton won on its march to the 1995 premiership.
Brisbane, then the Bears, was the first side the Blues knocked over in that finals series, the club's first genuine steps in the transition from laughing stock to serious contender.
Six finals campaigns later, the now Lions are on the verge of completing an amazing turnaround.
An Essendon win would make it 63 from its past 74matches, two premierships from three years of sustained excellence, and unarguable status as one of the very best teams 105seasons of league football have produced.
If that isn't the perfect script for a grand final showdown, we're a little too demanding. Now all we need is the football gods to play their part.
ESSENDON v BRISBANE
HEAD TO HEAD
Essendon 16, Brisbane 5
HISTORY
Essendon: Joined VFL 1897.
Premierships: 16 (1897, 1901, 1911, 1912, 1923, 1924, 1942, 1946, 1949-50, 1962, 1965, 1984-85, 1993, 2000).
Brisbane: Joined VFL 1987 as Brisbane Bears, merged with Fitzroy (eight premierships, 1898-1944) in 1997.
Premierships: 0.
FINALS
Essendon 0 Brisbane 1.
1996 qualifying final at Gabba - Brisbane 15.11 (101) d Essendon 15.10 (100).
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
Brisbane 15.12 (102) d Essendon 10.14 (74) R10 2001 at Gabba.
Essendon 19.13 (127) d Brisbane 9.9 (63) R8 2000 at Gabba.
Essendon 13.11 (89) d Brisbane 9.17 (71) R12 1999 at Gabba.
Essendon 12.12 (84) d Brisbane 8.22 (70) R8 1998 at MCG.
Essendon 16.10 (106) d Brisbane 15.12 (102) R21 1997 at Gabba.
© 2001 The Age
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