2005 AFL Grand Final
Encyclopedia
The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football
game contested between the Sydney Swans
and West Coast Eagles
, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
in Melbourne
on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final
of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League
, staged to determine the premiers for the 2005 AFL season
. The match, attended by 91,898 spectators, was won by Sydney, by a margin of four points.
, whilst it was Sydney's first since losing the 1996 AFL Grand Final
. The Swans had not won a premiership since winning the 1933 VFL Grand Final
. Two players from the Eagles' last premiership in 1994 were appearing in this Grand Final - Drew Banfield
for the Eagles and Jason Ball, now playing for the Swans.
At the conclusion of the home and away season, West Coast had finished second on the AFL ladder behind Adelaide with 17 wins and five losses. Sydney had finished third with 15 wins and seven losses. West Coast entered the Grand Final having defeated Adelaide in the preliminary final by 16 points. Sydney had defeated St Kilda in their preliminary final by 31 points.
In the week leading up to the Grand Final, West Coast's Ben Cousins
was awarded the Brownlow Medal
.
In the second quarter Sydney appeared to be asserting control of the game, kicking three goals while the Eagles got none. However, after the long break, West Coast put their stamp on the game, kicking three goals while the Swans went goalless.
At the end of the day, both teams would remember seemingly easy goals that were missed, but the Eagles most clearly would remember theirs from the fourth quarter. With just under five minutes remaining in the match, West Coast's Brent Staker
almost cost his team the match following a 50-metre penalty
to the Swans sending them out of their defensive 50 in a very costly play. With the Swans holding a five point lead in the closing moments, Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly
rushed a behind to blunt a ferocious Eagles attack. After the ensuing kick in, West Coast again regained control of the ball and sent a long kick back to the half forward line by Dean Cox. Sydney's Leo Barry
responded by taking a mark in the midst of the pack full of Eagles (with the commentator Stephen Quartermain mentioning words made famous through frequent replays - "Leo Barry you star!"), denying the Eagles an opportunity to kick a game winner on or after the final siren.
The match has been labelled as a 'classic', with the final margin being the closest since the 1977 drawn Grand Final
. This was the first time since the 1989 VFL Grand Final
that the Grand Final was decided by a goal or less.
Eagles player Chris Judd
was awarded the Norm Smith Medal
for being judged the best player afield, despite the fact that he finished on the losing side. This is only one of four instances of a Grand Final player having won a Norm Smith Medal without being on the winning premiership team.
The same teams met again in the 2006 AFL Grand Final
, which was a similarly close and thrilling match with the Eagles emerging victors.
Three players from the Swans' 2005 premiership winning team, Darren Jolly
, Adam Schneider
and Sean Dempster
subsequently played in grand finals for other teams: Schneider and Dempster unsuccessfully for in 2009
and 2010
while Jolly won a second premiership with , St Kilda's opponents in 2010
. Jolly played a second grand final in 2011 for Collingwood but was unsuccessful, thus mirroring his first two years at Collingwood to his first two years in Sydney (in his first two years at Sydney, Jolly won a grand final in the first year and lost in the second).
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
game contested between the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
and West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...
, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, staged to determine the premiers for the 2005 AFL season
2005 AFL season
Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2005.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:...
. The match, attended by 91,898 spectators, was won by Sydney, by a margin of four points.
Background
This was West Coast's first appearance in a Grand Final since winning the 1994 AFL Grand Final1994 AFL Grand Final
The 1994 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 1 October 1994. It was the 98th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League,...
, whilst it was Sydney's first since losing the 1996 AFL Grand Final
1996 AFL Grand Final
The 1996 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the North Melbourne Football Club and Sydney Swans, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 28 September 1996. It was the 100th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football...
. The Swans had not won a premiership since winning the 1933 VFL Grand Final
1933 VFL Grand Final
The 1933 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Richmond Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1933. It was the 37th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
. Two players from the Eagles' last premiership in 1994 were appearing in this Grand Final - Drew Banfield
Drew Banfield
Drew Banfield is a former AFL football player.Selected as the number 1 pick in the 1992 AFL Draft, Banfield was recruited to the West Coast Eagles, where he became one of their best clubmen and hardest-working defenders and utility players.He won the Eagles' Club Champion Award in 1996, as well as...
for the Eagles and Jason Ball, now playing for the Swans.
At the conclusion of the home and away season, West Coast had finished second on the AFL ladder behind Adelaide with 17 wins and five losses. Sydney had finished third with 15 wins and seven losses. West Coast entered the Grand Final having defeated Adelaide in the preliminary final by 16 points. Sydney had defeated St Kilda in their preliminary final by 31 points.
In the week leading up to the Grand Final, West Coast's Ben Cousins
Ben Cousins
Benjamin Luke "Ben" Cousins is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his 270-game career with and in the Australian Football League ....
was awarded the Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
.
Match summary
West Coast opened the game aggressively, with Sydney struggling to get the ball to their end of the field. However, better goal kicking accuracy by the Swans put them ahead by two points at the first change.In the second quarter Sydney appeared to be asserting control of the game, kicking three goals while the Eagles got none. However, after the long break, West Coast put their stamp on the game, kicking three goals while the Swans went goalless.
At the end of the day, both teams would remember seemingly easy goals that were missed, but the Eagles most clearly would remember theirs from the fourth quarter. With just under five minutes remaining in the match, West Coast's Brent Staker
Brent Staker
Brent Staker is an Australian rules footballer in the AFL, who plays for the Brisbane Lions.-Early life:Staker grew up in Broken Hill in remote country New South Wales....
almost cost his team the match following a 50-metre penalty
50-metre penalty
In the sport of Australian Rules Football, the 50-metre penalty is applied by umpires to a number of different infractions when a free kick or mark has already been paid.Some leagues and competitions use a 25-metre penalty...
to the Swans sending them out of their defensive 50 in a very costly play. With the Swans holding a five point lead in the closing moments, Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly
Tadhg Kennelly
Tadhg Kennelly is an Irish sportsperson known for his top level careers in both Gaelic football and Australian rules football....
rushed a behind to blunt a ferocious Eagles attack. After the ensuing kick in, West Coast again regained control of the ball and sent a long kick back to the half forward line by Dean Cox. Sydney's Leo Barry
Leo Barry
Leo Barry is a retired Australian rules footballer in the AFL with the Sydney Swans.Originally from Deniliquin, New South Wales, he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview before being drafted as a zone selection in the 1994 National Draft and making his debut in the final round of the 1995...
responded by taking a mark in the midst of the pack full of Eagles (with the commentator Stephen Quartermain mentioning words made famous through frequent replays - "Leo Barry you star!"), denying the Eagles an opportunity to kick a game winner on or after the final siren.
The match has been labelled as a 'classic', with the final margin being the closest since the 1977 drawn Grand Final
1977 VFL Grand Final
The 1977 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the North Melbourne Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 1977...
. This was the first time since the 1989 VFL Grand Final
1989 VFL Grand Final
The 1989 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and the Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1989. It was the 93rd annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine...
that the Grand Final was decided by a goal or less.
Eagles player Chris Judd
Chris Judd
Christopher Dylan "Chris" Judd is a professional Australian rules footballer and current captain of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League ....
was awarded the Norm Smith Medal
Norm Smith Medal
The Norm Smith Medal is the award given in the AFL Grand Final to the player adjudged by an independent panel of experts to have been the best player in the match.-History:The Norm Smith Medal is named after former Melbourne player and coach, Norm Smith...
for being judged the best player afield, despite the fact that he finished on the losing side. This is only one of four instances of a Grand Final player having won a Norm Smith Medal without being on the winning premiership team.
The same teams met again in the 2006 AFL Grand Final
2006 AFL Grand Final
The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to...
, which was a similarly close and thrilling match with the Eagles emerging victors.
Three players from the Swans' 2005 premiership winning team, Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly is a professional Australian rules football player currently playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League . Jolly has previously played for Melbourne, the Sydney Swans...
, Adam Schneider
Adam Schneider
Adam Schneider is an Australian rules footballer playing for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League...
and Sean Dempster
Sean Dempster
Sean Dempster is an Australian rules football player from the state of Victoria playing for St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League . He has also played senior AFL football with the Sydney Swans.-Before AFL:...
subsequently played in grand finals for other teams: Schneider and Dempster unsuccessfully for in 2009
2009 AFL Grand Final
The 2009 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the St Kilda Football Club and the Geelong Football Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26 September 2009...
and 2010
2010 AFL Grand Final
The 2010 AFL Grand Final is either of two Australian rules football contests between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. Together they are considered the 114th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, and were staged to determine the...
while Jolly won a second premiership with , St Kilda's opponents in 2010
2010 AFL Grand Final
The 2010 AFL Grand Final is either of two Australian rules football contests between the Collingwood Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club. Together they are considered the 114th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, and were staged to determine the...
. Jolly played a second grand final in 2011 for Collingwood but was unsuccessful, thus mirroring his first two years at Collingwood to his first two years in Sydney (in his first two years at Sydney, Jolly won a grand final in the first year and lost in the second).
Teams
Scorecard
Match statistics
| Team Stats | (Syd Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney... ) | (WCE West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Kicks | 188 | 182 |
| Marks | 84 | 68 |
| Handballs | 105 | 104 |
| Tackles | 62 | 59 |
| Hitouts | 29 | 43 |
| Frees | 12 | 13 |
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