2024 AFL Grand Final: Swans, Lions decider a watershed moment in the spirit of Ron Barassi for northern states
West Coast and Fremantle supporters won’t have any skin in the game, but at least they can take solace from the absence of a Victorian team.
Sydney v Brisbane at the ’G in a watershed lap of honour for the northern AFL states. The Bloods now with a representative coat hanger on their jumper. The Lions, still the Boys of Old Fitzroy but shipped to Brisbane town in 1997, the pride defending a new patch at the Gabba.
Sydney v Brisbane, the first grand final played between two non-Victorian teams since 2006, when the Swans were also involved — in a loss to West Coast. Timely then that for the first time, the winning captain will be presented with the Ron Barassi Medal.
A six-time premiership player and four-time flag-winning coach, Barassi died just over a year ago aged 87. His story is Victorian with a Big V. But there is also a capital A for Australia.
Barassi considered Aussie rules one of the world’s “great inventions” and wanted to share the love on a national and international scale.
Long before the AFL Commission was formed, he urged clubs to agree on a ruling body that would rise above self-interest. Among his “left-field” ideas were ground sharing, more umpires, a 50m square and a professional women’s competition.
And, most importantly, a national league, that was launched in 1987 when the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears joined.
There is an argument it did not become a true national competition until five years later when the Eagles, led by a barnstorming Peter Matera with five goals from a wing, became the first team to win the premiership from outside Victoria.
The most rusted-on of West Australians will be cheering for five homegrown players — Sydney pair Chad Warner and Logan McDonald, and Brisbane trio Charlie Cameron, Brandon Starcevich and Callum Ah Chee.
Or for Lachie Neale, who spent seven seasons at the Dockers before crossing to the Lions where he has collected an avalanche of contested possessions and two Brownlow medals.
Barassi was always a forward thinker, creating a new on-field position, the ruck-rover, along the way in his famous No. 31.
He ventured into coaching, first as a captain-coach and then as an off-field mentor, inspiring Carlton with a “handball, handball, handball” plea when they trailed Collingwood by 44 points at half-time of the 1970 grand final. The Blues won, 19th man Ted Hopkins kicking four goals.
He later morphed into commentary and then as a sage, philosopher and friend to the media who would always take a phone call so he could promote the game. What is often forgotten, particularly outside Victoria, is Barassi was a fierce advocate of a national competition long before South Melbourne shifted to the SCG in 1982.
It’s a paradoxical tribute to the late footy icon that an unofficial geographical divide which divides areas where Australian Rules and rugby league flourish is named after him.
Espoused by historian Ian Turner in a 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture, the Barassi Line is an imaginary geographical divide that separates areas where the two dominate as the most popular football codes and where crowds, media coverage and participation rates are skewed in favour of one or the other.
The line follows Queensland’s western border, drops south-east through western NSW and ends at Cape Howe on the border of NSW and Victoria at the Pacific Ocean. It divides NSW, with rugby league dominating in the State’s eastern population centres but dropping off in the south-west and west.
Camera IconRon Barassi. Credit: Getty Images/Getty Images
The line also runs through the ACT, where Greater Western Sydney now plays four of its home games each season, and where each sport has had periods of prominence at different times.
“Advantages” handed to the four clubs above the Barassi Line have been hotly debated this year as the AFL took part in a competitive balance review.
The most discussed were the rules around the northern States’ four academies, established in 2010, whose goals were to develop high-end talent and strengthen the AFL’s identity in non-traditional AFL markets.
Their academy picks were protected, leading to outrage in last year’s national draft when Gold Coast took four locally developed high-end prospects.
Other clubs, including West Coast and Fremantle, were offered no “protection” for rival bids on Next Generation Academy prospects. They will have protection on their first selection from this year’s draft.
Lions co-captain Harris Andrews is Brisbane’s highest-profile academy success taking part in this year’s grand final, with Eric Hipwood and Jack Payne others, while father-son selections Jaspa Fletcher and Will Ashcroft were also involved in the club’s programs.
For the Swans, Isaac Heeney tops the academy list, ahead of Nick Blakey, Errol Gulden and Braeden Campbell — and sidelined co-captain Callum Mills.
Camera IconIsaac Heeney. Credit: Michael Willson/AFL Photos
“That review is continuing, but I bet there will be no knee-jerk action to a one-off grand final,” said AFL chief Andrew Dillon.
According to the AFL, participation numbers in Queensland are up 6 per cent this season, off the back of consecutive record years, while NSW held its 2023 numbers, to collectively boast a combined total of more than 120,000 participants.
Queensland hit more than 64,000 registered players and NSW more than 56,500, making up almost 25 per cent of the overall national total.
Despite all of this, the Barassi Line remains intact, though the imaginary dots are bending and fading.
Broadcaster Channel 7 has already revealed all eight finals so far in 2024 have rated No.1 in their timeslots, despite four of the eight teams coming from outside Victoria.
Two of the best-performing TV grand finals ratings in history were the 2005 Sydney-West Coast thriller and last year’s Collingwood-Brisbane epic.
Camera IconRon Barassi looks on during the Melbourne Demons 2014 team photo. Credit: Michael Willson/AFL Media
Mr Dillon forecast the 2024 grand final will be the third decider in the past decade to top four million average TV viewers.
“I think this will be one of the highest-rating grand finals — if not the highest-rating grand final we’ve had,” he said.
Ron Barassi would be delighted.
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