The AFL grand final parade will float along the Yarra River this year, forcing excited footy fans onto the river’s banks in a major shake up of the event after two years of pandemic cancellations.
Traditionally, a motorcade of grand final footy players and the premiership cup travel through Melbourne’s CBD the day before the match, but this year’s parade will travel on boats from Southbank to Birrarung Marr.
An artist’s depiction of the 2022 AFL grand final parade on the Yarra River.
Fans will then be able to catch a glimpse of the premiership cup as the procession moves by car through Yarra Park and across the William Barak Bridge towards the MCG.
Premiership players will be presented to supporters on arrival at the ’G as part of the traditional pre-game build-up. The day before the grand final – September 23 – is a public holiday in Victoria.
Victoria’s Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the parade would be just one part of a “four-day festival of footy” in Melbourne, which includes Auskick events, food trucks and four AFLW games on grand final eve.
He said the new parade route would provide a “lot more vantage points for fans” and would be a “beautiful gift” for Victorian football fans who missed out on hosting the grand final for the last two years.
“We appreciate the fans’ commitment to the game over many years, and particularly over the last couple of years,” Dimopoulos told reporters outside the MCG on Saturday.
“But also it [provides] a boost for business in the CBD and surrounds, and with the amount of people that will come to this precinct, it will be pumping. There will hopefully be capacity crowds.”
The journey down the Yarra will be the fifth route taken since the grand final parade was first held on grand final eve in 1977.
The original parade went along Bourke Street Mall before making its way from the Arts Centre to Town Hall. It then ran from the Arts Centre to Treasury Building before being moved in 2015 to head from the Treasury Building to the MCG.
AFL executive general manager of customer and commercial Kylie Rogers said on Saturday she was hoping to see “hundreds of thousands” of AFL fans at the parade.
“We’re just mixing it up … after two years of not being able to have it in Melbourne. we wanted to do things differently and really focus on family-friendly activities,” she said.
“Were being very optimistic and we believe the weather gods will be on our side.”
When asked if the change of venue for the parade was due to COVID-19, Rogers said “no, not at all”. The state government hopes crowd numbers will surpass the 300,000 who attended the event in 2019.
Rogers joked that she was hoping outgoing AFL chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan might be coaxed onto a jet ski as part of the event.
Media personality Eddie McGuire in July hinted at plans to hold a floating parade on commercial radio, saying the idea was to bring people into the city “to kickstart Melbourne” after multiple lockdowns due to COVID-19.
English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams has been locked in as the major pre-show entertainment before the first bounce at the grand final on September 24.
With Peter Ryan
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