The AFL Grand Final isn’t just about the sport — it’s also a place for the great and the good of the nation to rub shoulders. There was of course the striking moment when the cameras cut to AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan flanked on either side by Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Kerry Stokes, a man whose dominates Western Australia’s media landscape in a way that greatly exceeds the Murdoch share Australia-wide.
But one notable absentee was the guy who decided everyone in the state should get a day off the day before the Grand Final (which manages the impressive feat of being both one of the world’s dumbest public holidays and somehow only the second dumbest observed exclusively in Victoria).
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was not among the politicians attending, unlike out-of-towners like acting Queensland Premier Steven Miles, Tasmania’s Jeremy Rockliff and South Australia’s frighteningly ripped Premier Peter Malinauskas.
Was Andrews prepping for November’s Victorian election (which we assume just involves approving the design of billboards that consist of Matthew Guy’s blocked list on Twitter and a campaign to get Michael O’Brien reinstated as opposition leader)? We understand Andrews watched the game at home and sent some local constituents in his place.
It put one tipster in mind of the time then NSW premier Neville Wran reportedly turned up to the Sydney Cricket Ground in the late ’70s and one of the notorious “green coats” who used to man everything at the SCG (apparently a classic case of a uniform giving the wearer a disproportionate sense of power) refused to let Wran’s car into the member’s area. Wran ended up in the public stands, and was greeted with the yell “Don’t piss on the premier” when using the facilities. The SCG Trust was apparently mortified and had Wran back the next year to do an honorary kick-off. It appears Andrews suffered no such indignity this year.
