2017 AFL Grand Final

2017 AFL Grand Final
File:2017 AFL Grand Final logo.png
The view from the Great Southern Stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground prior to the match.
Adelaide Richmond 8.12 (60) 16.12 (108)
1 2 3 4 ADEL 4.2 (26) 4.7 (31) 5.10 (40) 8.12 (60) RICH 2.3 (15) 6.4 (40) 11.8 (74) 16.12 (108)
Date	30 September 2017, 2.30 pm
Stadium	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Attendance	100,021
Umpires	Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith, Shaun Ryan
Coin toss won by	Adelaide
Kicked toward	City End
Ceremonies
Pre-match entertainment	The Killers, Mike Brady
National anthem	Dami Im
Post-match entertainment	The Killers
Accolades
Norm Smith Medallist	Dustin Martin
Jock McHale Medallist	Damien Hardwick
Broadcast in Australia
Network	Seven Network
Commentators	Bruce McAvaney (commentator) Brian Taylor (commentator) Wayne Carey (special comments) Cameron Ling (special comments) Tim Watson (boundary) Matthew Richardson (boundary) Leigh Matthews (analyst) Nick Riewoldt (analyst) Daisy Pearce (analyst) Samantha Lane (reporter) Hamish McLachlan (host) Basil Zempilas (host)
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The 2017 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Crows and the Richmond Tigers, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 30 September 2017. It was the 121st annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the premiers of the 2017 AFL season. Richmond defeated Adelaide by 48 points, marking the club's eleventh premiership, their first since 1980. Richmond's Dustin Martin won the Norm Smith Medal as the best player on the ground. The match was attended by 100,021 people, the highest crowd since the 1986 Grand Final.

Background

See also: 2017 AFL finals series

Adelaide claimed the minor premiership for the second time in their history, finishing on top of the 2017 AFL ladder with 15 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw. The Crows recorded two dominant wins in the finals series, defeating Greater Western Sydney by 36 points in the qualifying final and then overwhelming Geelong to win the preliminary final by 61 points. Richmond had to overcome a tough first qualifying final against the higher ranked Geelong by 51 points, which earned them a week's break and a home preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney, which they won by 36 points. Both were played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before crowds in excess of 90,000, despite the first final being a home game for Geelong. The Tigers finished the home-and-away season in third place on the AFL ladder, with 15 wins and 7 losses, 3 of which were by less than six points.

This was Richmond's first grand final appearance since 1982 (the club having last won a premiership in 1980) and Adelaide's third appearance in the grand final (the club having won their last two grand finals in 1997 and 1998). This marked the first grand final since the inaugural VFL grand final 119 years earlier where neither team had any players to have previously played in a grand final. Shortly after both teams qualified for the match, the AFL announced that Richmond would wear their rarely worn clash guernsey of predominantly yellow with a black sash, a decision which received severe criticism from ex-Richmond player Kevin Bartlett. Richmond captain Trent Cotchin was scrutinised for an incident involving Greater Western Sydney midfielder Dylan Shiel in the preliminary final, though was cleared of any charge by the AFL Match Review Panel on the Monday of grand final week.

The two teams met only once in the home-and-away season in 2017, in Round 6, with Adelaide streaking to a 76-point win at the Adelaide Oval. Bookmakers installed Adelaide as the favourites to win the grand final, with the Crows regarded by Sportsbet as $1.72 favourites compared to Richmond valued at $2.15 for the win.

Media coverage

The match was televised by the Seven Network. The match commentary line-up included Bruce McAvaney and Brian Taylor as play-by-play commentators, Wayne Carey and Cameron Ling were the analysts, while Tim Watson and Matthew Richardson were on the sideline as boundary riders. Hamish McLachlan and Basil Zempilas rotated hosting duties and Leigh Matthews, Nick Riewoldt and Daisy Pearce provided punditry as part of the pre-game panel.

This would be the first Grand Final commentated by Brian Taylor, replacing veteran broadcaster Dennis Cometti who retired from television duties at the end of the 2016 season. McAvaney called his seventeenth Grand Final. It was also the first Grand Final in which Daisy Pearce was a member of the broadcast team.

Radio coverage

Station	Region	Play-by-play commentators
ABC Grandstand	National	Gerard Whateley, Clint Wheeldon
Triple M	National	James Brayshaw, Luke Darcy
1116 SEN	Victoria	Anthony Hudson, Matt Granland
3AW	Victoria	Tim Lane, Tony Leonard
5AA	South Australia	David Wildy, Stephen Rowe
6PR	Western Australia	Adam Papalia, Mark Readings
KROCK	Geelong, Victoria	Tom King, Darren Berry
AFL Nation	National (regional only)	Stephen Quartermain, Peter Donegan
NIRS	National (regional only)	Bary Denner, Peter Cardamone

International coverage

Region	Rights holder(s)
Asia & Pacific	Australia Plus
Canada	TSN2
China	GZTV
India	Australia Plus
Ireland	BT Sport, ESPN
Middle East	Orbit Showtime Network
New Zealand	Sky Sports, TVNZ
Russia	VIASAT
United Kingdom	BT Sport, ESPN
United States	Fox Soccer Plus
Worldwide	WatchAFL.com.au

Entertainment

As has become custom in recent grand finals, the 2017 AFL Grand Final featured both pre-match and post-match entertainment on the ground. Several weeks before the match, the AFL announced that American rock band The Killers would headline the entertainment line-up, and would be joined by prominent Australian football singer Mike Brady. Former Australian representative at Eurovision Dami Im sang the national anthem.

Match summary

First quarter

Adelaide started the game strongly, with Matt Crouch finding Rory Sloane who kicked the Crows' opener. Shortly afterwards, Nick Vlastuin slipped over near the Adelaide goal mouth and Eddie Betts kicked the Crow' second. Richmond' full forward Jack Riewoldt missed a string of chances for goal, and it took until the 16-minute mark for the Tigers to score their first goal when Josh Caddy marked in the left forward pocket, ran round and converted. Sloane and Hugh Greenwood answered with majors for Adleiade to give the Crowas a lead of 11 points at quarter-time.

Second quarter

Riewoldt finally got on the board, but he needed some sloppy defending from Adelaide, letting his kick bounce through with no one on the line. Jacob Townsend was then awarded a free kick in a marking contest just inside the 50 metre arc, and he converted the set shot to put Richmond within two points. Jack Graham kicked Richmond's fifth deep in time on, and a minute later Martin marked and goal for the Tigers' fourth straight to put Richmond nine points up at the main break.

Teams

The teams were announced on 28 September 2017. Both sides went into the match unchanged from their preliminary final teams. Injured Adelaide forward, Mitch McGovern failed to recover in time for selection, with Crows coach Don Pyke ruling him out of contention on the Wednesday of grand final week.

Richmond players celebrate on stage following the 2017 AFL Grand Final

Adelaide Crows B: 29 Rory Laird 15 Kyle Hartigan 6 Jake Lever HB: 11 Paul Seedsman 12 Daniel Talia 16 Luke Brown C: 14 David Mackay 9 Rory Sloane 21 Rory Atkins HF: 23 Charlie Cameron 4 Josh Jenkins 18 Eddie Betts F: 27 Tom Lynch 13 Taylor Walker 26 Richard Douglas Foll: 24 Sam Jacobs 2 Brad Crouch 44 Matt Crouch Int: 3 Riley Knight 8 Jake Kelly 20 Hugh Greenwood 22 Andy Otten Coach: Don Pyke

Richmond Tigers B: 5 Brandon Ellis 18 Alex Rance 2 Dylan Grimes HB: 14 Bachar Houli 12 David Astbury 1 Nick Vlastuin C: 33 Kamdyn McIntosh 9 Trent Cotchin 21 Jacob Townsend HF: 23 Kane Lambert 4 Dustin Martin 22 Josh Caddy F: 40 Dan Butler 8 Jack Riewoldt 17 Daniel Rioli Foll: 25 Toby Nankervis 3 Dion Prestia 6 Shaun Grigg Int: 10 Shane Edwards 34 Jack Graham 35 Nathan Broad 46 Jason Castagna Coach: Damien Hardwick

Umpires

The umpiring panel, comprising three field umpires, four boundary umpires, two goal umpires and an emergency in each position is given below. All three field umpires, Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith and Shaun Ryan have umpired in previous AFL grand finals.

2017 AFL Grand Final umpires

Position						Emergency
Field:	9 Matt Stevic (5)	21 Simon Meredith (5)	25 Shaun Ryan (6)			Brett Rosebury
Boundary:	Mitchell Lefevre (1)	Matthew Konetschka (1)	Rob Haala (4)	Damien Cusack (1)		Brett Dalgleish
Goal:	Luke Walker (7)	Adam Wojcik (4)				Matthew Dervan

Numbers in brackets represent the number of grand finals umpired, including 2017.

Scoreboard

	Grand Final
Saturday, 30 September (2:30 pm)	Adelaide	def. by	Richmond	MCG (crowd: 100,021)	Report
	4.2 (26) 4.7 (31) 5.10 (40) 8.12 (60)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	2.3 (15) 6.4 (40) 11.8 (74) 16.12 (108)	Umpires: Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith, Shaun Ryan Norm Smith Medal: Dustin Martin Television broadcast: Seven Network National anthem: Dami Im
2: Sloane, Walker 1: Betts, Cameron, B. Crouch, Greenwood		Goals	3: Graham 2: Riewoldt, Martin, Townsend 1: Houli, Prestia, Caddy, Butler, Castagna, Grigg, Lambert
M. Crouch, Jacobs, B. Crouch, Sloane, Laird		Best	Martin, Rance, Houli, Astbury, Prestia, Edwards, Graham, Grimes
Nil		Injuries	Rioli (ankle)
Nil		Reports	Nil
Richmond won their first premiership in thirty-seven years, breaking the club's longest premiership drought; the last coming in 1980. Dustin Martin became the first player in VFL/AFL player in history to win a premiership, the Brownlow Medal and the Norm Smith Medal in the same season.

External links

• Official website