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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/world/australia/afl-grand-final.html
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Letter 372
In the state of Victoria, you need more than one day to take in all that the A.F.L. Grand Final has to offer.
Sept. 27, 2024, 1:12 a.m. ET
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. This week’s issue is written by Julia Bergin, a reporter based in Melbourne.
It is an unusual public holiday, one in honor of a professional sports event. The day off is on Friday, a day before the big game, and is celebrated with a parade featuring the two teams going head-to-head on Saturday.
The Australians reading this article already know the holiday: the Friday before the A.F.L. Grand Final. For the uninitiated, it refers to the biggest game in Australian rules football, commonly referred to as footy.
The championship game is, in a way, Australia’s Super Bowl. The Australian Football League has a rabid domestic following, and more than 100,000 fans will watch the final in person, with millions more watching it on TV in pubs, clubs or at home.
Yet the holiday on Friday is not a national one; it is observed only in the state of Victoria, which is home to about a quarter of Australia’s 27 million people and where 10 of the A.F.L.’s 18 teams are based. And it is here, in the city of Melbourne, that the parade and final are held every year.
“It’s the biggest sporting event in the city,” said Mason Cox, an American who plays ruck for Collingwood. “You have the international events, the Australian Open, the F1, but when it comes to passion and what people really want to see, I think that the grand final takes the cake.”
The atmosphere at a grand final match is electric, with 100,000 people cheering, chanting, roaring and contesting every decision by a referee, and sirens blaring at the start and end of each quarter.
