By Paul Daffey
The Victorian Country Football League expects the number of spectators at this season’s senior grand finals to top 300,000 for the first time.
There are 45 senior country footy grand finals. If the cumulative attendance figure reaches its expected figure after the last three grand finals tomorrow, an average of 6,500 will have attended every country footy grand final.
In recent years, the largest country grand finals crowds have been at the Ovens and Murray league and Goulburn Valley league deciders. A crowd of 15,500 attended the Ovens and Murray league grand final at Lavington last Sunday, when Wangaratta defeated North Albury to win its first premiership since 1976.
A similar crowd is expected in Shepparton for tomorrow’s Goulburn Valley league grand final between Seymour and Shepparton Swans at Deakin Reserve, Shepparton.
The Swans are going for their first premiership since 1970, when the club was known as Lemnos. The team includes former AFL-listed players Lochlan Veale (Hawthorn and Bulldogs) and Tim Looby (Port Adelaide), who are both key defenders.
The Seymour is coached by former Northern Bullants rover Bernie Haberman and features cult high-flyer Saad Saad. The Lions are going for their third consecutive flag.
Bendigo league legend Derrick Filo is expected to retire after the grand final between Eaglehawk and Gisborne at Bendigo’s Queen Elizabeth Oval.
Filo, 39, is Eaglehawk’s playing coach. He has played 413 senior games and not one reserves game at four clubs in the Bendigo league.
Tomorrow Filo and his teenaged son Brodie will become the first father and son to play in a Bendigo league grand final. Eaglehawk ruckman Nick Heath, 41, will be the oldest player on the field.
The Two Blues are slight favourites to win their first premiership since 1982 after defeating Gisborne by seven points in the second semi-final. Gisborne last week thrashed South Bendigo in the preliminary final.
Gisborne rover Matt Fitzgerald recently won his second Michelson Medal for the best player in the competition. Gisborne defeated Eaglehawk in the 2003 and ’05 grand finals and defeated Golden Square in the grand final last year.
Seaford is going for its first premiership since 1985 when it takes on Frankston YCW in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean league’s top division grand final tomorrow.
Seaford’s playing-coach is Channel Nine news reporter Paul Kennedy. Tony “Bugs” Barry coaches YCW, which defeated Karingal in the preliminary final.
Article first appeared: The Age September 29 2007
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