All you need to know about Grand Final Week in Australia!

Wondering why your Australian contacts seem to be in OOO-mode this week?

It’s probably because it’s Footy Grand Final Week.

The next two weekends see the grand finals for Australia’s two most popular winter sports:

• The final Saturday of September (26 September in 2026) is the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final in Melbourne
• The first Sunday of October (4 October in 2026) is the National Rugby League (NRL) Grand Final in Sydney

Many Aussies are truly sports-mad and there’s no better time in the year to see this in full display. Fans of the teams competing in the two finals will be wearing their team’s colours, while businesses and shops in the teams’ place of origin will be outdoing themselves festooning their premises in support of their local team.

But there’s a catch. Most Aussies will be interested in only one out of these two grand finals. And granted, there are many Aussies who aren’t interested in either.

Australia may be quite uniform when it comes to many things, but nothing is as polarising as “football”, otherwise known as footy. In Queensland and eastern New South Wales, the main footy code is rugby league, whereas the rest of Australia goes for the Australian Football League, more commonly known by its initialism AFL, or previously known as Australian Rules, a uniquely Australian sport. Its closest equivalent is Gaelic football in Ireland.

Despite moves by both codes starting in the late 1980s to become truly national, there’s still a deep divide (the Barassi line, named after the recently deceased AFL legend Ron Barassi) separating Australia between rugby and AFL territories. In most cases, people on either side of the Barassi line have no knowledge of, let alone any interest in, the other side’s footy. This is important to know for you rugby fans – most Aussies not from NSW and Queensland are oblivious to the fortunes of the Australian rugby team. For the record, I’m from AFL territory, and so I lost count of the times Welsh people (in particular) click I’m Aussie and want to talk rugby with me, only to be bitterly disappointed – sorry, my Welsh friends, but I and most Aussies from AFL Land haven’t the foggiest about rugby.

More about the complicated nature of what is “football” in Australia, how soccer fits into this, plus why Aussies don’t “root” for teams, here.

This year’s AFL grand final, always held in the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), sees the Fremantle (Freo) Dockers from Perth, Western Australia for the second time ever at an AFL final (disclaimer: this is my parents’ team and they’re going to be at the grand final – they paid a bomb for the tix!) up against last year’s premiers the Brisbane Lions, a team from deep inside rugby territory but with five premierships under its belt (2001–2003, 2024 and 2025). Yes, some die-hard AFL fans in Melbourne are fuming that yet again none of the 9 Melbourne-based AFL teams (out of a total of 18) are in the final again. Cue conspiracy theories involving the white maggots (the derogatory nickname for AFL umpires, who traditionally wore all-white uniforms).

The NRL grand final is held in Sydney at Stadium Australia – you might know this venue better as the main stage of the 2000 Olympics. Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, may make it to both finals – while its venerable team the Broncos are no longer in the running to grab the flag this year, its other team, the upstart Dolphins, are still in for a chance, along with the Penrith Panthers, the Sydney Roosters and the Newcastle Knights (yes, Aussie sports teams usually have nicknames)

If you’re living anywhere in AFL territory, and especially in Melbourne, the epicentre of it all, it’s best to have an idea of what’s going on this week.

The Monday night before Saturday’s Grand Final saw the televising of the Brownlow Medal. Now here’s something very Aussie – this is the award for AFL’s best and fairest footballer of the year.

Now you’ll hear the term best and fairest being used quite a bit when it comes to Australian sport. This award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. Usually it’s awarded as part of a ceremony at the end of the season, which in this case for AFL is September at the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter. The term best and fairest, uniquely Australian, was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2025.

When it comes to awarding the Brownlow Medal, it goes to the player who receives the most votes from the umpires for being the fairest and best player in games throughout the season. In each and every game, the umpires award three votes to the player they judge to be the best afield in that game, two votes to the second-best player and one vote to the third-best player. These scores are then announced, in a very officious way, at the Bronwlow Medal dinner function. It’s serious business.

But there’s a catch! Keeping with the “fairest” side to things, and fitting with the ultimate Australian behavioural virtue of “a fair go”, a player has the possibility of receiving the most votes from the umpires… but if that player has been suspended for any time during the season for poor behaviour, then that cancels any chance of them winning the medal.

The Brownlow Medal is broadcast on TV for all to see, and has become a red-carpet event with the football player stars with their WAGs dressed in their glad rags. Prior to the late-1980s it was a blokes-only event – all well behaved when the cameras were running, but once off, the blokes would turn into larrikins and a proper piss-up ensued. Once the female plus-ones were allowed to attend (no footballer has turned up with a male partner as yet), the event transformed into a proper gala reception and pap event. It became such a running joke that the footballers seemed to have a major thing for blonde partners that sports satirist Elle McFeast (aka Libbi Gorr) released her 1992 song Only Brunette at the Brownlow.

The 2026 Brownlow Medal winner is Nick Daicos, son of football legend Peter Daicos, otherwise known as the Macedonian Marvel. His father comes from the village down the road from my grandmother’s. OK, I just had to add that one in.

The Friday before the big game sees the AFL Grand Final Parade weave through the streets of Melbourne. Tens of thousands of footy fans turn out to see the players of the two teams in the following day’s grand final appear, along with other celebs (such as the Wiggles, who’ll be performing at the parade this year) being driven in open-top cars. This parade has been a tradition now for almost 50 years and just gets bigger. In fact, the Friday of the parade is now that impirtant that since 2015 it’s been a public holiday in Melbourne – yes, everyone in this city of over 5 million people theoretically gets the day off to prepare themselves for the upcoming big game. Don’t laugh – Melbourne also has the day off for its premier horse race six weeks later in the beginning of November.

The game itself at “the G” (yes, even saying “MCG” is just too many syllables for many Aussies) is one of the highest rating TV events in the country, drawing a viewing audience of up to 3 million (in a country of 27 million). Much like equivalent big matches in North America, the pre-game entertainment tends to feature big-name stars… of varying quality… and yes, Katy Perry, we’re looking at you! If there’s ever been a AFL grand final entertainment highlight, then Kath and Kim doing their appearance in front of their home crowd in 2004 certainly rates as a classic.

If you haven’t seen an AFL game before then this weekend’s grand final is your best chance as it’s broadcast worldwide on sports networks such as ESPN and Eurosports. I caught the 2013 AFL Grand Final in the Balkans complete with well improvised commentary... in Serbian. It’s an exhilarating, often high-scoring sport where a team’s fortunes can change within minutes. And please name another sport where you get a consolation point for missing the wide open goal? C’arn the Dockers!

Picture right: MCG, site of the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne, Australia Photo by Joshua Williams