Grand final replay

A Grand Final Replay is necessitated when the Grand Final is drawn.

Australian rules football

Drawn games in the home and away season are recorded as drawn games in the ladder. However, until 1994, Australian football had no structure in place to break a tied finals game. As such, the teams would reconvene the following week to replay their game, pushing back the schedule by one week. This caused controversy in 1990, when a drawn qualifying final between Collingwood and West Coast meant the minor premiers Essendon had a two-weekend bye instead of one. Insisting that the extended layoff had caused their losses to Collingwood, both in the Second Semi-Final and in the Grand Final (thus temporarily ending the Colliwobbles), the AFL initiated the use of extra time (5 minutes each way) to decide drawn finals, except for the Grand Final; Grand Final Replays are still used for drawn Grand Finals.

In the event that the replay is also drawn, extra time is played rather than playing a second replay.

Criticism

The 2010 Grand Final Draw raised debate about the practice of a staging full-length replay instead of playing extra time. After the game, the two captains, Nick Maxwell of Collingwood and Nick Riewoldt of St Kilda, both stated that they would have preferred an extra time period; Maxwell was particularly scathing of the arrangement, labelling it an "absolute joke" in an interview immediately after the final siren. But the full replay was not without its supporters, with Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse pledging his support to the traditional arrangement in his post-match press conference.

Australian Football Grand Final Replays

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• 1894, SANFL
  • Grand Final: Norwood 4.8 drew South Adelaide 4.8
  • Grand Final Replay: Norwood 4.7 d. South Adelaide 3.5
• 1919, SANFL
  • Grand Final: Sturt 5.9.39 drew North Adelaide 5.9.39
  • Grand Final Replay: Sturt 3.5.23 d. North Adelaide 2.6.18
• 1948, VFL
  • Grand Final: Essendon 7.27.69 drew Melbourne 10.9.69
  • Grand Final Replay: Essendon 7.8.50 def. by Melbourne 13.11.89
• 1958, VFA
  • Grand Final: Williamstown 6.15.51 drew Moorabbin 7.9.51
  • Grand Final Replay: Williamstown 13.18.96 d. Moorabbin 8.16.64
• 1977 VFL Grand Final
  • Grand Final: Collingwood 10.16.76 drew North Melbourne 9.22.76
  • Grand Final Replay: Collingwood 19.10.124 def. by North Melbourne 21.25.151
• 2010 AFL Grand Final
  • Grand Final: Collingwood 9.14.68 drew St Kilda 10.8.68
  • Replay to be played on October 2nd, 2010

Rugby league

Both the 1977 and 1978 New South Wales Rugby League Grand Finals ended in draws, and were subsequently replayed. The 1977 replay was held one week later, the 1978 replay three days later.

In the 1977 decider, 20 minutes of extra time was played, this proviso was dropped for the following season. However, after two games were drawn in the 1978 finals series and hence necessitated replays, extra time was re-instated in 1979. In 2003, the system of golden point overtime was adopted, Grand Finals are now decided on the day.

NSWRL Grand Final Replays

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• 1977
  • Grand Final: St. George 9 drew Parramatta 9.
  • Grand Final Replay: St. George 22 d. Parramatta 0.
• 1978
  • Grand Final: Manly 11 drew Cronulla 11.
  • Grand Final Replay: Manly 16 d. Cronulla 0.