Soggy fans welcome Swans

Ashley Browne – AFL Media

This article first appeared on afl.com.au

The Sydney Swans spent much of this year celebrating the 30th anniversary of their migration from the shores of Albert Park Lake to the heart of Sydney.

It was the start of a 30-year process to transform the parochial and insular Victorian Football League into the enormous national entity that is the Australian Football League.

In 2012, as the start-up Greater Western Sydney Giants completed the painting of the AFL’s national landscape, the League adopted the marketing slogan of Australia’s Game.

But the day before the Grand Final, when the competing sides take part in the Grand Final parade, the game becomes Melbourne’s once more. The parade route, which takes in St Kilda Road, crosses over the Yarra River, traverses up Swanston Street before turning right at Collins Street and finishing up outside Old Treasury House, is unmistakably Melbourne.

The spread of Australian football across the length and breadth of Australia is the state of Victoria’s greatest gift to the rest of the nation (with apologies to the Melbourne Cup, Barry Humphries, AC/DC and decent coffee), but for the final two days of the season, the game returns home and is feted by those who invented it, grew it and still to this day, largely nurture it.

There was also another distinctive Melbourne feature to the 2012 parade – the age old question of whether to pack an umbrella. Hawthorn’s final training session on Thursday was held in glorious sunshine. Shorts, T-shirts and sunscreen were the order of the day.

But then came the cold front, the dark clouds that hinted of a coming apocalypse and plenty of rain. The open-topped cars were mothballed for the parade and the players sat in the back seats of their Toyotas.

Smart move.

You can follow AFL Media senior writer Ashley Browne on Twitter @afl_hashbrowne