Australian rules football Grand Final this Friday night

[GA Russell]

New URL:

http://xml.afl.com.au/live_audio.htm?media...s-wh_afl0live11

[GA Russell]

After three, I think it's Hawthorn Hawks 89...Geelong Cats 72.

It was an incredible see-saw battle with the score tied at 58 fairly late in the third, when Hawthorn scored five (!) quick goals. But at the very end of the period, Geelong scored two quick goals (the last on a penalty kick) to make a game of it again.

[GA Russell]

Hawthorn Hawks 115....Geelong Cats 89

In the fourth quarter, the Hawks pretty much shut the door on the Cats.

Ten years ago I met some folks from Melbourne, and I told them that I was a Hawthorn Hawks fan. One told me that nobody roots for the Hawks except their fans!

[GA Russell]

I forgot to mention that at the end of the broadcast, one of the announcers said that he expected a number of teams to adopt Hawthorn's revolutionary style of playing defense, which sounded to me like zone defense.

*****

The league has put up on YouTube clips of highlights of the season, including this one of the year's best goals.

[GA Russell]

Tonight's the night! The game is scheduled to start at 12:30 am eastern, 9:30 pm pacific. I am going to use the link above to see if that still works.

This year the Geelong Cats return to face the St. Kilda Saints. I remember when Australian rules football was on ESPN every week, St. Kilda was the worst team in the league. But that was a long time ago.

[Matthew]

Tonight's the night! The game is scheduled to start at 12:30 am eastern, 9:30 pm pacific. I am going to use the link above to see if that still works.

This year the Geelong Cats return to face the St. Kilda Saints. I remember when Australian rules football was on ESPN every week, St. Kilda was the worst team in the league. But that was a long time ago.

It's live online at ESPN360, which is how I watch a lot of my sports now.

[kenny weir]

The two best teams made the Grand Final.

Geelong is favourite, but only by a Cat's whisker.

Questions remain about the Saints' ability to handle the pressure of such a long drought.

Sadly, I will miss tonight's National Rugby League preliminary final between the mighty Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos.

My current employer, the Geelong Advertiser, doesn't normally publish on Sundays, but they're putting out a special Sunday GF edition, so I will be hacking away till about 11pm I guess.

It's cold and wintry - spring's gone away for a while, I guess.

If it gets raining - it's predicted - the nature of the game will definitely change.

[AllenLowe]

I like rugby.

[kenny weir]

Even though I proclaim indifference to the AFL, it's impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of the Grand Final - even if I'll spend the first half of this afternoon's game driving to work.

When I first moved to Melbourne, one could easily buy finals tickets so I ended up going to a succession of Grand Finals.

Those days are long gone.

Come game time, the streets will be very quiet, but the focus is spread these days - to homes and parties and barbecues and so on.

Sure, there'll 100,00 people at the game, but only 25,000 of those are guaranteed to be fans of the two competing sides. The rest go to the other clubs and a big whack to high-priced corporate packages and so on.

Subsequently, the atmosphere lacks of the fevered fan involvement of the home-and-away season and the finals that lead up to the big game.

Man, it's an icy blast of a day here - seems bound to be rain and even hail during the game.

Great comment to the Herald Sun's frozen footy weather story:

Anabel Posted at 10:40 AM Today

Good, I hope the weather is as unkind to them as possible and they all freeze their balls off! Football and footballers YUK!!

Comment 2 of 8

Edited September 26, 2009 by kenny weir

[GA Russell]

At halftime, St. Kilda leads by one goal (six points).

Geelong had the early momentum and scored the first three goals. But St. Kilda dominated for a while and took the lead. Geelong came back with two goals, then St. Kilda tied the game at 31.

Then Geelong scored two goals in 45 seconds and it looked good for them. But St. Kilda scored three goals in the last minute of the half! I have to wonder if that's ever been done before.

[GA Russell]

With five minutes to go the score was tied at 67. Geelong won the game with a goal with two and a half minutes left. At the very end Geelong scored an uncontested goal to win by 12.

This was the first time in history for a team to trail after each of the first three periods, and come back and win it in the fourth.

Geelong has been in the Grand Final the past three years. They won two years ago. St. Kilda has not won since 1966.

[kenny weir]

I watched most of the second half in the editorial office of the Geelong Advertiser.

My colleagues were pretty tense!

On the main drag outside, the local youths are already starting to let loose - climbing on cars, general yahoohing, plenty of bum-crack flashing and so on.

It's gonna be along night for the local cops.

I reckon they'd prolly preferred for the Sainst to win.

[GA Russell]

It's that time of year again! The teams will be Collingwood and St. Kilda.

I assume that the Grand Final will again start Friday night midnight eastern time.

And once again we can listen at http://www.3aw.com.au/

[kenny weir]

Grand Final is next Saturday - Collingwood/St Kilda.

This weekend's prelim finals saw Geelong trounced by Collingwood, and the Bulldogs beaten by the Saints.

St Kilda will be the underdog.

[GA Russell]

Kenny, what city are the Bulldogs from? I'm not sure I have heard of them. Are they a relatively new team?

[kenny weir]

Kenny, what city are the Bulldogs from? I'm not sure I have heard of them. Are they a relatively new team?

Until recent years, when the names were tweaked to give them broader demographic resonance, they were known as Footscray and the Bulldogs. Now they're the Western Bulldogs, and indeed they are well supported in not only Footscray but the greater wetsern suburbs where we live. They're the most blue collar team. And, no, not new - one of the older teams, IIRC. But like the Saints, they've only won one premiership.

[GA Russell]

Ah. Footscray I remember. Western is news to me. I saw a headline at The Age's site that referred to them as W Bu, and I couldn't think of who that might be.

[GA Russell]

Tonight's the night! I envy you guys on the west coast, for whom the game starts at 9:00 pm. I'll be staying up till 3:00 am to listen.

The Age has a poll running on its website. With nearly 14,000 voting, 51% are picking the Collingwood Magpies to win, 49% the St. Kilda Saints.

Edited September 24, 2010 by GA Russell

[kenny weir]

Tonight's the night! I envy you guys on the west coast, for whom the game starts at 9:00 pm. I'll be staying up till 3:00 am to listen.

The Age has a poll running on its website. With nearly 14,000 voting, 51% are picking the Collingwood Magpies to win, 49% the St. Kilda Saints.

GA - why don't you watch it, instead of listening to it?

[GA Russell]

Kenny, I don't get cable television. My ISP is not affiliated with ESPN, so it is not available to me on the web (espn3.com).

At a quarter past midnight, my 3AW stream stopped. I suppose that the website was seeing too much demand. It took me 20 minutes, but I found the game on the website of SEN1116 in Melbourne, and I missed only the first three minutes of the game.

Great game so far! Right now the score is 6.4.40 to 4.2.26, Collingwood.

Edited September 25, 2010 by GA Russell

[GA Russell]

St. Kilda did little in the second quarter, but Collingwood failed to score a goal in the third quarter.

After three it's Collingwood by eight, 7.13.55 to 7.5.47.

I was able to switch back over to 3AW during halftime, but my man Rex isn't calling the game this year.

[GA Russell]

Unbelievable! The game ended in a draw. 9.14.68 to 10.8.68.

They don't play overtime! They will come back next week and play another game!

[GA Russell]

Here we go again! Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

This was the first draw in a Grand Final since 1977.

[GA Russell]

I wasn't able to stay up last night, and I went to bed with Collingwood leading 20-1. The final score was Collingwood 108....St. Kilda 52.

Congratulations Magpies!

[GA Russell]

It's that time of year again!

This year's Grand Final will be this Saturday (Friday night in the US) - the Collingwood Magpies vs. the Geelong Cats.

My Hawthorn Hawks almost upset the defending champion Magpies in the semi-finals Friday, but fell just short.

The game will start at half past midnight eastern time, 9:30 pm Pacific time in the US.

As in the past, I expect that you can listen to it at 3AW's website. Last year I found it on another website as well, so I guess more than one network carries the radio broadcast.

http://www.3aw.com.au/

Edited September 26, 2011 by GA Russell