This was published 8 months ago
We are not even through to preliminary final weekend and already a television skirmish is developing over coverage of the grand final.
As many of you would know, the 2025 season marks the first year of the AFL’s new broadcast deal, which gives Fox Footy the right to televise every game of every round, live. Every game ... except the grand final.
But that hasn’t stopped Fox asking the question. Let me explain.
It’s not uncommon to want to keep the celebrations going into the night when your footy team wins, especially in September.
What is less common, however, is that the house you kick on to is Kirribilli. Yes, that’s right, Kirribilli House. As in the home of the prime minister.
But that’s exactly what happened last weekend when Anthony Albanese’s Hawthorn held off GWS in Sydney in an elimination final.
“Beers back at mine!” the PM exclaimed to the Hollywood Hawks.
Catch up on what we covered in the first couple of weeks of finals action.
And that’s just a taste. Catch up on every item here.
Welcome (back) to Scoop in September. Back in August (go with it, the spirit of September was upon us) Sam McClure kicked off your home for news, training whispers and glimpses behind the scenes during footy finals.
You can catch up on all of that here – from the talk in the room at the All-Australian dinner to Jack Ginnivan’s masterclass in handling the media in Adelaide.
But now, in preliminary final week, we are starting afresh to bring you the inside word on football as we head to the pointy end of finals. Stay tuned.
First up: like any Hawks fan, the Prime Minister was thrilled when Hawthorn won their elimination final over GWS. Sam has the details on how he celebrated.