Grand final

A Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sporting term used to describe a final that decides a league champion. Terms such as Super Bowl and Championship Game may be used to describe equivalent events in other sporting competitions around the world. In some instances, the term may more loosely be used to describe the final and deciding game, race or match of an organised competition in any sport or contest, whether at amateur or professional level (such as the Inter Dominion harness racing series between Australia and New Zealand).

Notable competitions which play a Grand Final include the Australian Football League (AFL Grand Final), the National Rugby League, the Super League in European rugby league, the A-League, the Women's National Basketball League, and the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.

History

The use of the term "grand" to describe a sporting event in Australia dates back to the 1850s.

Use of the term in Australian Football dates back to the first organised and widely publicized match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College on August 7th, 1858 at Yarra Park, Melbourne (formerly Richmond Park). The game was advertised as the "grand football match" in the Melbourne Morning Herald and several other local newspapers. [Melbourne Morning Herald. August 7th, 1858]

A later cricket match in Sydney in 1862 was also described as "grand". [http://www.rl1908.com/clubcomps/grand-final.htm] Verify credibility|date=August 2008

ANFL

Possibly the first Grand Finals of any kind occurred in the sport of Australian rules football in the South Australian Football Association (SAFA, now SANFL), on October 7, 1889. At that time, premierships were decided simply upon end-of-season ladder placings, but the game was necessitated when Norwood and Port Adelaide finished equal on wins and goals. In promoting the decider match, local press dubbed the match a "grand final". Norwood won the game 7.4 (46) to 5.9 (39).

The following years saw two more Grand Finals necessitated by ties at the top of the ladder. In 1894, Norwood played South Adelaide; the game was drawn, leading to the first of only five Grand Final Replays in senior Australian football history.

VFA

Then, in 1896, in the (then) Victorian Football Association teams Collingwood and South Melbourne Football Clubs gave Victoria its first "Grand Final". [It was played because the VFA premiership system awarded the premiership to the team with the greatest number of wins and, if necessary, the highest (goals for)/(goals against) percentage — even though, ever since 1885, the match statistics recorded the behinds scored in a match, only the goals scored counted towards each season's premiership calculations — and then, if necessary, the actual number of goals scored. See The VFA Premiership for further details of the structure of the VFA finals system.] In 1896 two teams were ranked equal on each of the stipulated premiership criteria; and, so, in the last year of their participation in the VFA competition, Collingwood and South Melbourne played a hastily arranged, previously unscheduled elimination match in order to determine the premiership. [Despite the fact that this match is now univerally identified as a "Grand Final", it is unclear whether, in 1896, it was actually promoted by the VFA as a "Premiership Match" or as a "Grand Final".] The match was tied until the last moments, with Collingwood winning by 6 goals to South Melbourne's 5 goals. [Although the Collingwood team had kicked 9 behinds in addition to its six goals, and although the South Melbourne had kicked 10 behinds in addition to its five goals, the results of the match was 6 goals to 5. It was not until the inception of the VFL a year later (1897), that behinds contributed to a team's total score, with a goal earning six points, and a behind one.]

VFL

In 1897, when eight teams broke away from the VFA to form the VFL, the concept of finals football was high on the agenda, with teams buoyed by the success and attendances of the 1896 Grand Final. Over the following ten years, all top-level Australian football leagues had adopted a finals structure.

In 1931 the VFL adopted a system, the Page-McIntyre system, which ensured a Grand Final, and the concept became entrenched.

NSWRL

The New South Wales Rugby League experimented with a finals system in 1908, its inaugural year, but abandoned it the following season. Finals were reintroduced in 1926, and in 1954 the NSWRL adopted the VFL's Page-McIntyre system and began the use of the Grand Final term. The tradition was continued by the Super League (now defunct) and is maintained in the present day by the National Rugby League.

pread to Europe

The term Grand Final was introduced to Europe from Australia in 1998, two years after the start of Super League. The Super League Grand Final has now become an accepted part of the British scene, and the term 'grand final' is used to describe the final of leagues below Super League as well, such as the National Leagues and the Conference. Prior to this, a "Championship Final" was introduced to determine the winner of the British Rugby League Championship in 1904, though it only became a regular fixture from 1906 onwards and was known as the "Premiership Final" from 1973.

ee also

* AFL Grand Final
* Super League Grand Final
* Early VFL Final systems
* McIntyre System

External links

* [http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/the_first_grand_final.htm FullPointsFooty – The First Grand Final]
* [http://rl1908.com/clubcomps/grand-final.htm rl1908 The "Grand Final"]

Footnotes

References

* Ross, J. (ed), "100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported", Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0