FT: Melbourne 32-0 Parramatta
Seven tries to nil tells the story and Melbourne put to bed their loss to Canberra to set up a tantalising preliminary final date against the Roosters. The Storm were on from the first second. Strange to say but for such a flogging the Eels weren’t awful. They were simply given no chance by a rabid Storm outfit. Papenhuyzen, Vunivalu and Addo-Carr were immense, to name a few. The better team won, and won well, and Melbourne’s clash with the Chooks can’t come quick enough.
Try! Melbourne 32-0 Parramatta
Great try-saving tackle from Brown to deny Olam but that just frees up open spaces for the Storm and Asofa-Solomona uses brute strength to cross over and put some icing on the cake for Melbourne.
73 mins: A penalty to Melbourne and the zip is now out of this game. The Storm have eyes set on the Roosters, the Eels have eyes set on Trivago. Lovely kick almost sets Addo-Carr free but Ferguson is there to save the day.
68 mins: Parra win a penalty but they are making hard work of the territory battle and Melbourne regain possession. Ferguson is looking proppy after a clash of bodies but returns to the scrum. The Eels can’t make any inroads and now Melbourne get a fresh set.
62 mins: Only 11 completed sets from the Eels. In a semi-final. Against the Storm. And now a stray pass from Ferguson hands possession back to Melbourne. Did I mention Parra were 26 points down?
Ryan Papenhuyzen somersaults to score! Melbourne right on top.
— FOX LEAGUE (@FOXNRL) September 21, 2019
Watch 📺 Live on Fox League 502 #NRLFinals #NRLStormEels pic.twitter.com/XJ9cBBMLBS
Try! Melbourne 26-0 Parramatta
Ripping try from the Storm, working the ball out wide from the scrum and Papenhuyzen doing the rest courtesy of some acrobatics near the post. Training ground drill, that. Bouquets for Melbourne, but naive defending from the Eels.
55 mins: Vunivalu dumps Gutherson from a kick just inside the Parra half. The Eels No.1 is looking very groggy. Vinivalu has been huge tonight. Possession, though, is still with the Eels. They’ve had more of the footy but the Storm are still winning the war.
53 mins: Oh-so-close for Ferguson, who flies high out wide but can’t reel in the pass. They’re getting closer, the Eels, but they need to get a hurry-on. Storm defending very well.
48 mins: Addo-Carr, the star, intercepts at the tail-end of an Eels set. Nothing going right for Parra.
WHAT A FEND 💪💪💪
— NRL on Nine (@NRLonNine) September 21, 2019
Watch: @Channel9#9WWOS #NRL #NRLStormEels #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/aBgFBwzaBp
44 mins: Parra start the second half a bit more conservatively, looking to at least complete a set or two, and they do gain some territory. But the Storm work their way back with relative ease before Scott knocks on and forces the scrum 30m out for the Eels. Nothing comes of it but that’s better from Parra.
And here’s the Smith incident.
Cameron Smith has been sent to the sin bin. #NRLStormEels pic.twitter.com/YbfQPYTc8o
— NRL (@NRL) September 21, 2019
The Storm are dominating all statistical measures, as you would imagine: Possession, completion, metres gained (754-361!!!!!), tackles, even their hairstyles look better. Mostly. Can’t see a way back for Parra here. Barring something approaching a miracle, yet another preliminary final weekend will feature Melbourne.
HT: Melbourne 22-0 Parramatta
Parramatta a held scoreless for the first time in the first half of a final since the 2009 grand final (against Melbourne). An amazing first half from Melbourne. It had it all. Including a brain fade from Smith.
33 mins: Nice intercept from King repels a rare Eels charge. I don’t want to harp on about this, but, 22-0 up, what was Smith thinking?
30 mins: The two No.9s come together and Smith is in the sin bin after clocking Mahoney in the face right in front of the ref. That is bizarre. Good agitation from the Eel, but what was Smith thinking?
Try! Melbourne 22-0 Parramatta
It’s all Melbourne. Vunivalu owns Brown, earning the Storm a fresh set. From this something-from-nothing, Munster delivers a searching kick that looks to be dead but ends up in the hungry hands of Addo-Carr. That man has some gas. Very few wingers, very few players, could have made up that ground and timed his run to such perfection. Great try.
25 mins: The Eels finally toss the ball around a bit but just when they look threatening Sivo concedes a penalty, cleaning up Vunivalu with barely an eye on the ball. Advantage Melbourne.
Try! Melbourne 18-0 Parramatta
Melbourne have the Midas Touch tonight. Brilliant work from Vunivalu to keep the ball in play from a Hughes kick at the end of the set, leaving Hughes to follow up his own kick and cross for another try. And finally we have a conversion. This is one-way traffic.
19 mins: Parra finally get some good fortune, with the Eels getting a scrum feed 10m out thanks to a dog of a bounce that Bromwich couldn’t drag in. Parra try to string some passes together before Blake fumbles and is dumped. Gutherson then cleans up the corner post with a kick that wasn’t, um, meant for the corner post. The Eels are rattled.
Try! Melbourne 12-0 Parramatta
The Eels can’t take a trick and cough the ball up 20m from the line, Smith with a deft left foot kick that ricochets off a leg before Munster pounces on the loose ball for the Storm’s third try. But, jeepers creepers, Smith fails to convert again, this time from not far out from straight in front. He, after all, is human.
Try! Melbourne 8-0 Parramatta
Melbourne have had five of the first six sets and they have run galore out wide. The Eels give Melbourne way too much room, Jennings overcommits, and Vunivalu strolls over to make it two tries for the hosts - twice as many as they scored last week. Tight angle again for Cam Smith and he can’t convert. But a scintillating start from the Storm.
Updated
9 mins: Melbourne are dominating possession and stringing passes together. But, wow, one way to stop that is with a shoulder charge. Huge, huge hit from Sivo on Papenhuyzen. Sivo’s on report but not in the bin.
Try! Melbourne 4-0 Parramatta
Addo-Carr at his slick, swerving best, collects the ball from inside Parra’s end before getting in the clear and tossing a dummy just before the line before crossing. Smith, from a tight angle, can’t convert. But what magic from Addo-Carr. Like a knife through butter.
2 mins: Huge fend from Asofa-Solomona on Moses. Good pressure from Melbourne forces the turnover and they produce an excellent set that doesn’t trouble the scorer but puts Parra on notice.
We’re almost under way. Weather is a bit dicey in Bleak City. It’s a bit wet. Clean hands will be important. Strap yourselves in.
OK, to recap today. The Wallabies were given heart palpitations by Fiji. Collingwood were given the sweats by GWS, then gave the Giants the hurry-up, before taking leave from this season by less than a kick. This NRL final has more angles than a fly-fishing tournament. I ask you this: will Melbourne bounce back or will Parramatta prove last week’s landslide wasn’t a flash in the pan?
Team news: Eels unchanged but Curtis Scott to start with Will Chambers on the bench for the first time since Cam Smith was knee high to a grasshopper. Fair call?
Melbourne @storm captain Cameron Smith requires two goals to become the first player to kick 100 goals in finals 🏉#NRLStormEels #NRLFinals pic.twitter.com/YkzwxcNpTe
— NRL (@NRL) September 21, 2019
Evening, sports fans. Scott Heinrich here, reporting for duty. Thanks, first of all, goes to Geoff Lemon for racing back to Australia from the UK specifically to kick off this Sportwatch liveblog. Really commendable considering his plan was to spend a week in the Greek islands doing five-eighths of bugger all before he returned to this bronzed land. But the call came to kick off this blog and he answered the only way he knows how. That’s how much he loves you guys. And I kind of love you, too, in a distant, platonic kind of way. What I really love, is what this NRL final between the Storm and the Eels might produce. Whichever way you look at it, one of these teams will be done and dusted after tonight. My Lord, what if it’s Melbourne. Will the world end if they exit 2019 in straight sets?
Righto, that’s it for me. Next up it’s the NRL, with the Storm taking on the Eels. Electricity on both fronts. Scott Heinrich will be your companion for that.
If you want to follow the All Blacks and South Africa in the World Cup, we’re running a separate live blog on that here.
30 disposals for Haynes the best on the day, 28 for Howe, 27 for Kelly.
Cameron kicked three, two apiece for Stephenson, Thomas and Finlayson.
A low-scoring fight in the wet. The battle between Grundy and Mumford was a highlight. Taranto was important out of the backline and kicked a goal. Adams was a livewire for Collingwood. Mihocek, Reid, Davis and Hill were among the least effective. Reid, Mayne and Adams all had chances for late important goals for the Pies but missed. It’s another tough one for Collingwood, and a historic day for GWS.
GWS Giants are in the grand final!
There’s a big big sound in the west of the town – it’s the sound of the mighty siren. It’s over. The Giants hang on.
For the first time in their history, the Giants will play off for a premiership. They’ve won at the MCG tonight, and they could do it again in a week’s time.
Collingwood kicked three straight to start the match, then couldn’t find a goal in a half of footy. GWS kicked seven in the meantime. Then Collingwood finally came back and kicked five in a row. They had no right to still be in it, really, but they found their fight at the end. A great finish to three quarters of a very dour match.
Full time: Coll 7.10 (52) to GWS 8.8 (56) – The Giants hang on! Mumford was huge in that last minute (he’s always huge, but you know what I mean). He clears the ball out of the goal square with a kick, and GWS wrestle it to the 50. Then it comes back in and Mumford is fighting at ground level, trying to lock it in. Wrestle after wrestle, a couple of ball-ups. Eventually Haynes gets a clearing kick. Collingwood bounce back in, to full forward. Need a mark, but it’s spoiled! Haynes runs the ball towards the boundary! Clocks counts to zero!
4Q: 1 min remaining: Coll 7.9 (52) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Giants clear to the wing! Pies get back forward! Can they score? It’s out of bounds at half-forward with a minute to go.
4Q: 3 mins remaining: Coll 7.9 (52) to GWS 8.8 (56) – How big is that Jeremy Cameron miss now? Collingwood within a goal. They stream forward again, Adams has been in everything, he kicks long and... hits the post! Four points, three minutes!
4Q: 5 mins remaining: Coll 7.8 (51) to GWS 8.8 (56) – A goal! But it isn’t! The score review overrules on this occasion. Chris Mayne again, steaming out of the goalsquare to mark on the lead in heavy traffic. Goes back from 40, pokes at his set shot a bit, and after many replays the officials rule the goal was touched on the line.
4Q: 7mins remaining: Coll 7.8 (50) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Too much happening to relate! Mumford takes a ball out of the ruck and tries to scrub a goal, but it gets chopped off. Everyone is injured now. Bodies hitting the ground. Stephenson, was it, or Treloar? Off the ground through the middle, chips to his teammates’ advantage. The ball gets forward, big fly, no mark, Giants defend, but eventually it comes to Josh Thomas. The unlikely star! Snaps his second for the night! One goal the difference.
4Q: 11mins remaining: Coll 6.8 (44) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Collingwood on fire! Ben Reid takes a huge pack mark 20 out from goal! The long kicks in have suddenly started to happen, and they’re creating scoring chances. But Reid misses his set shot! Pushes it to the right. Had the chance to put the Pies within 7. Instead it’s still 12 points the difference.
4Q: 12mins remaining: Coll 6.7 (43) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Miracle goal! Chris Mayne! He earns a lot of money for playing not a lot of games, but he’s earned his cheque tonight! Again the long kick is spoiled, one attempted soccer is smothered, the ball is surely going to be punched over, but Mayne arrives with a toe! From a crazy angle! And slots it off the ground!
4Q: 13mins remaining: Coll 5.7 (37) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Another driving ball to the teeth of Collingwood’s goal, and it’s punched over by the Giants’ defence. One more point. The difference is 19.
4Q: 14mins remaining: Coll 5.6 (36) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Two in a row for Collingwood! Quick movement forward, into a pack, Taylor Adams scrambling the snap, and it’s through! Survives a score review for being touched. Collingwood still in it.
4Q: 15mins remaining: Coll 4.6 (30) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Stephenson goals for Collingwood! Any life in the Pies yet? A short pass just inside 50, and the tipster is on the lead up towards the arc. He goes back to shoot and makes sweet contact.
4Q: 16mins remaining: Coll 3.6 (24) to GWS 8.8 (56) – Hill marks in the centre of the ground, kicks forward for Cameron to mark just inside 50. This time his set shot floats wide. Collingwood clear their defence. Mihocek gets his first kick of the night running through the centre, on to Elliott, but his shot at goal misses. Collingwood started with three goals straight, but just eight points since the second quarter.
4Q: 17 mins remaining: Coll 3.5 (23) to GWS 8.7 (55) – Jeremy Cameron! What a player! A mass of players, a free kick for him on the forward flank. Just inside 50, on the right-hand side of the forward line. It’s a tough kick, 50 metres on the angle, but he nails it! Bends it home!
4Q: 18 mins remaining: Coll 3.5 (23) to GWS 7.7 (49) – Last chance saloon for Collingwood. The ball is bounced. Grundy rucks, Mumford roves! The GWS ruckman stays down and takes the tap. GWS make a couple of forward forays immediately.
Three-quarter time: Coll 3.5 (23) to GWS 7.7 (49) – A mark just before the siren for Noble, who kicks from just outside 50. But going for the distance sees him push his kick wide to the left after the siren. No team-lifting goal for the Pies.
3Q: 2 mins remaining: Coll 3.4 (22) to GWS 7.7 (49) – A free goal for GWS! Everyone sweeps up the ground, except Cameron stays at home. Another Collingwood turnover in midfield, fast movement back, and Cameron is all on his own! Goes back and slots the set shot for the team’s seventh. It’s out to 27 points.
3Q: 3 mins remaining: Coll 3.4 (22) to GWS 6.7 (43) – This is so, so scrappy. I’m not sure we’ve seen more than two disposals in a row hit a target. Maybe we haven’t even seen two. Stephenson has made a lot of blues for Collingwood. Heath Shaw is desperate in contest after contest. Eventually Collingwood break clear, Crisp fires from outside 50 and kicks a point.
3Q: 5 mins remaining: Coll 3.3 (21) to GWS 6.7 (43) – At the bottom of a pack on the GWS forward flank, Bobby Hill traps the ball between his ankles to keep it in, but not be done for holding the ball. That’s an elite ankle move.
3Q: 8 mins remaining: Coll 3.3 (21) to GWS 6.7 (43) – Almost some good moves from the Pies up forward, but the marks don’t quite stick and the pick-ups don’t quite pick up. GWS players are in everyone’s pocket. Josh Thomas gets a hurried snap away but it hits the post, and so does Heath Shaw with his face while trying to mark the ball.
3Q: 10 mins remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 6.7 (43) – It could have been five in a row, with a soft 50-metre penalty as Tomlinson is pushed after receiving a free kick. But he misses his set shot from 40. Ball back into the Giants forward line immediately from the kick-in. Collingwood can’t get away. All the players are appealing for deliberate out of bounds but it isn’t given. A second throw-in follows the first. Grundy! Gets monstered! Shoved out of the ruck contest by Mumford, who grabs the ball first pluck, and check-sides a goal!
That was a push in the back, probably. Mumford was trying to push him in the side but it wasn’t a subtle move. Still, you can’t score review for a potential free kick.
The rain is coming down again, and it’s a long time since Collingwood scored.
3Q: 13 mins remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 5.6 (36) – Four in a row for GWS! In this game that’s a big lead. Rooty Hill will be pumping! Penrith will be electric! Throw-in in the forward pocket, Finlayson tips it over the back, and Taranto is lurking to run onto that ball and dribble a goal!
3Q: 15 mins remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 4.6 (30) – Another goal for the Giants! A bunch of pressure acts along the 50 arc in the GWS forward line, fights and drops and snaps and ricochets, and finally one clean brushstroke among the Jackson Pollock – it’s Zac Williams who picks up the loose ball and slots it home from 40!
3Q: 17 mins remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 3.6 (24) – Away in the third quarter. Quickly forward to the Giants’ end, and Finlayson has a long high shot at goal that drifts wide on the air currents way up there. They’ve got a goal the hard way, in the form of six behinds. The ball goes down to defence, but there’s a good relieving mark. Back they come up the wing. Hill has had a quiet day in for Greene, but manages to trap the ball against the paint and get a handball away to Hopper. It ends up with Daniels, who snaps from the left forward pocket and goals! Giants in front!
NRLW: Brisbane Women are leading Sydney Roosters Women 16-0 with a few minutes to go.
My colleague Adam Collins has sent an email about the toss. “It mattered quite a bit in the 1987 prelim when Tuck’s decision essentially meant that Hawthorn kicked with the wind for three quarters!” He does things like this.
Half-time: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 2.5 (17) – There’s the break, and thank heavens for that. What an drudge of a display. It started hammering down rain in Melbourne in the last little while. “It’s a terrific game,” says Paul Roos, who loved coaching Sydney to wins where they only kicked two goals.
It is not a terrific game, Paul. It is decidedly unterrific.
No one can pick up the ball. No one even tried in that last few minutes. And the one method of opening up the play in these conditions – the free kick – has been abandoned by the umpires. The league should just give Richmond the cup now on moral grounds alone.
Q2: 1 min remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 2.5 (17) – How is that not a free kick? Hoskin-Elliott is being manhandled by Haynes, and never took possession of the ball but is held off it obviously on the half-forward flank. The umpires are letting anyone do anything at the moment. GWS go forward, switch play, but Collingwood’s defence comes right back out again.
Q2: 4 mins remaining: Coll 3.2 (20) to GWS 2.5 (17) – Goal! Pendlebury with one of his classic snaps in traffic. And you can mark half of that goal down to Brodie Grundy. The Giants were about to get a clearance, but Grundy lying on the ground shoots his arms out from under the pack and grabs the ball, rips it away, gets it clear.
But we’ve had a score review now, and the ball was touched! Off the boot. Just got a finger from... I think it was Kelly?
Q2: 6 mins remaining: Coll 3.1 (19) to GWS 2.5 (17) – Callum Brown! Has a fresh air shot from off the deck, 10 metres out from goal. Runs over it completely, after the ball spilled from a dangerous centring ball from Tom Phillips. Ball stays inside 50 for Collingwood. Reid drops a mark, a couple of throws go unpunished from either team. Adams snaps and misses. This is... not good football, ladies and gents.
Q2: 10 mins remaining: Coll 3.0 (18) to GWS 2.5 (17) – The Giants just can’t get through half-forward. They’ve had the bulk of the possession but can’t find a path. Reid gets a free kick on the half-back flank and moves Collingwood the other way. There’s a run through the middle of the ground, then a switch of play to the right forward flank. Inside 50 in the middle, Adams fighting at ground level, but the Giants lock it up. They win it back, run the length of the ground, and Cameron is running onto the loose ball inside 50 but gets scragged by Darcy Moore all the way back, and can only soccer a behind. Could have been about three free kicks there. One point the difference.
Updated
Q2: 14 mins remaining: Coll 3.0 (18) to GWS 2.4 (16) – Goal for GWS! They finally find a way through. Cameron leads into the pocket, the lead is honoured, and he marks on an angle to kick from 40 out. No problem for the left-footer from the right pocket.
Q2: 16 mins remaining: Coll 3.0 (18) to GWS 1.4 (10) – The Giants nearly find their second, but desperate defending from Collingwood sees Hill tackled in the goal square as he tries to snap in dense traffic, and the kick skews wide. It all started with Taranto’s hard work in defence, then a couple of tough contests on the wing. Finally GWS get forward with a chain of handballs under immense pressure, but Collingwood hang on.
Q2: 18 mins remaining: Coll 3.0 (18) to GWS 1.3 (9) – Second quarter is away. GWS with the early movement forward, but Howe again wins the free for being infringed in the marking contest. Collingwood get the quick transition, up the flank on the Members side of the ground, into the forward line and Ben Reid uses his strength to protect the drop, then leaps forward to mark in front of the goal square. Goal! Slots it from 15 out.
Quarter time: Coll 2.0 (12) to GWS 1.3 (9) – A handsome long kick from Lloyd with 20 seconds left, from a set shot outside 50. But it fades right just at the end of its run, and misses for a point. A tight first quarter, scrappy and with finals intensity. The game might open up a bit now that the early exchanges are done.
Q1: 1 mins remaining: Coll 2.0 (12) to GWS 1.2 (8) – Ian Hill marks hard on the boundary line in the forward pocket, but Jeremy Howe is given a free kick. Goes long up the wing, then the ball comes back, and Howe comes flying above the pack to punch it 40 metres forward. A better spoiler than the one on any Commodore. Pies lose possession again, and back it comes to Hill’s advantage again, marking deep in the pocket. But he shanks the kick to the right, out on the full.
Q1: 3 mins remaining: Coll 2.0 (12) to GWS 1.2 (8) – Another long point for GWS, rolling through and escorted at the last second from Lloyd’s kick.
Q1: 5 mins remaining: Coll 2.0 (12) to GWS 1.1 (7) – Stephenson takes the lead back for the Pies! Fast movement through the centre, a fumble at centre-half forward as Stephenson tackles, chases up the loose ball, gathers, runs to 30 and snaps truly. Great individual goal, and shepherded through well by Elliott.
Q1: 7 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 1.1 (7) – Finally a clear shot on goal. Jeremy Cameron traps the ball by the boundary line on the forward flank. Centres to Finlayson, who kicks from 50 and slots the goal!
Q1: 9 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Mumford should be having a shot from inside 50 but he spills the chest mark. Collingwood rebound with dash and pace all the way to their forward line, but some desperate last-line defending from the Giants makes space to run the ball out. Back to centre wing, which is where we all live now.
Q1: 10 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Stephenson to Elliott on the flank, but his kick inside 50 is touched off the boot. Mihocek tries to run through a pack but is brought down. Should be holding the ball but it isn’t paid. The ball gets over the boundary from the bounce.
Q1: 11 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Lots of back and forth on the wing, but very little clean possession. A few throw-ins.
Q1: 13 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Mumford on centre wing gets a massive punch forward from a throw-in, but with more high-tempo footy, the ball is eventually kicked back under the pack it just came out of. Grundy is working well at ground level, his agility his advantage. But Collingwood turn it over with a throw. Heath Shaw wide to Haynes, up to forward 50, but Daniels, the hero of last week, can’t handle the footy. No one wants possession, it’s too hard to hold onto the ball.
Q1: 15 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.1 (1) – Lots of hard tackling by Collingwood around the GWS half-back line. Eventually there’s a free kick for Mumford, advantage paid as Hopper takes a flying shot at goal but misses to the left from 50.
Q1: 16 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Nick Haynes for the Giants goes up for a flyer at half-back but misjudges it and has landed on his head and neck. He gets up eventually but looks the worse for wear.
Q1: 18 mins remaining: Coll 1.0 (6) to GWS 0.0 (0) – Holding the man paid to Grundy against Mumford, but his kick into the forward line is pulled back for taking it too early. He tries again, but Taranto cuts it off with a intercept mark. Giants get to half-forward, but eventually it comes back on a stream of passes, the last of them into the Collingwood forward pocket where Jamie Elliott marks. He converts with a kick sliding left to right, but sneaking in by the near post.
Anthems have been sung, Collingwood have won the toss (I think? who cares about the toss in football?) and several of the various sirens have gone. Let’s go.
Teams
Some big outs for both sides: Jordan de Goey (hamstring) and Levi Greenwood (knee) for Collingwood, Lachie Whitfield (appendix) and Toby Greene (stupidity) for GWS.
Collingwood
John Noble Jordan Roughead Jeremy Howe
Jack Crisp Darcy Moore Brayden Maynard
Tom Phillips Scott Pendlebury Steele Sidebottom
Josh Thomas Brody Mihocek Will Hoskin-Elliott
Jamie Elliott Ben Reid Jaidyn Stephenson
Brodie Grundy Adam Treloar Taylor Adams
Bench: James Aish Chris Mayne Callum L. Brown Rupert Wills
GWS
Phil Davis Heath Shaw Sam Taylor
Aidan Corr Nick Haynes Zac Williams
Tim Taranto Josh Kelly Jeremy Finlayson
Lachlan Keeffe Ian Hill Harry Perryman
Brent Daniels Jeremy Cameron Matt de Boer
Shane Mumford Sam J. Reid Jacob Hopper
Adam Tomlinson Harry Himmelberg Daniel Lloyd Adam Kennedy
Here’s the classic and best version of the GWS song.
For the neutral, there is only one option to support. We need a Richmond-GWS grand final purely so we can have the two best club songs on the day. Everyone knows the Tigerland / yellow & black bit, and you can be jaded about it but it’s a classic for a reason. Fewer people appreciate the Moscow Olympics / brass-band bombast of the Giants, the most upbeat and hearty tune of them all.
Here is the definitive ranking of the best AFL club songs:
1: GWS
2: Richmond
3: Sydney
That is all. All the rest are awful.
Preamble
Welcome to Sportwatch. Cricket season in England is just finishing, and cricket season in Australia is about to begin, but this week is all about football. We’ll check on the rugby league and the Rugby World Cup as we go, and throw to the Storm v Eels game when we’re done, but for the next couple of hours it’s going to be the AFL preliminary final between Collingwood and Greater Western Sydney.
