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Pies on track early
The season isn’t officially over yet – there’s still one, pretty big you’d say, game left – but that hasn’t stopped some players hitting their pre-pre-pre season.
Collingwood players Pat Lipinski, Nick Daicos, Tom Mitchell and Isaac Quaynor are all out training, as reportered by Jon Pierik on the ground.
Daicos has been completing 100m sprints and doing some ball work with Mitchell
Collingwood players Pat Lipinski, Nick Daicos and Isaac Quaynor training, on the morning of the 2024 AFL grand final parade.Credit: The Age
Melbourne players are also out and about on deck. When asked about taking a break, Jack Viney said “I can’t do it”.
When and where is the parade?
Here’s what’s going down today at the grand final parade.
2024 AFL grand final parade
10am: Coach and captain press conference commences.
10.30am: Parade commences from Melbourne Park Oval
11.30am: Parade arrives at Footy Festival main stage
12pm: Main stage live music performance
12.30pm: Sydney’s last training (at MCG)
1.30pm: Brisbane Lions’ last training (at MCG)
For those who can’t attend, the grand final parade will be broadcast live on Fox Footy from 10am-12pm.
AFLW today
12.05pm: Collingwood v Gold Coast, Swinburne Centre (Punt Road Oval)
2.05pm: Essendon v Melbourne, Windy Hill
4.05pm: St Kilda v Fremantle, RSEA Park (Moorabbin)
7.15pm: Western Bulldogs v Sydney, Mission Whitten Oval
‘He just brings the energy’: The soundtrack to the Swans’ September march
By Vince Rugari
There aren’t many things Sydney would be keen on replicating from their grand final experience of two years ago when they got battered on the AFL’s biggest stage by Geelong. But there’s one aspect Errol Gulden is glad has returned: the soundtrack.
The theme song to Sydney’s run to the 2022 decider was, courtesy of mad Liverpool fan Gulden, ripped straight from Anfield’s famous Kop end: a chant dedicated to their captain, Virgil van Dijk, sung to the tune of the Pogues’ Dirty Old Town.
Errol Gulden (in the blue boots) as the Swans sing their team song after beating the Giants earlier this month.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Introduced to the rest of the group by the then-20-year-old while they were on the beers one night, it happened to catch on and became one of a few Liverpool songs that Swans players would belt out in the rooms after a win.
Katy Perry prays special Aussie guest helps make grand final show a winner
By Meg Watson
Pop superstar Katy Perry has teased that a special Aussie guest star will sing I Kissed a Girl with her at this weekend’s AFL grand final, though she stopped short of revealing their identity.
Perry revealed the news to a select group of media and fans at the MCG on Thursday morning, after being asked about her “amazing, extra raunchy” performance at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month and whether she would be “toning it down” on Saturday.
Praying for a positive reception: Katy Perry at the AFL grand final press conference on Thursday.Credit: Eddie Jim
“Which part of it was raunchy?” Perry asked the male journalist with a grin. “I will be singing I Kissed a Girl – with an Australian artist that you don’t know about.”
That artist, she said, would only be announced when coming on stage this weekend.
But speculation has been rife all week, partly because Perry has dropped clues, leading many to assume it is Melbourne’s own Tina Arena.
‘I had faith’: From Friday nights in Frankston to another grand final for Luke Parker
Luke Parker’s AFL career has been smooth sailing from pretty much day one. Since making his debut for Sydney in mid-2011, he has barely missed a game, except for a couple of minor injuries here and there and a single, one-match suspension he served last year.
That was all before this year.
A bit like buses, so many bigger challenges have come at once for Parker in 2024: the broken arm he suffered in pre-season, the most significant physical ailment he has ever had to deal with as a footballer, and then his weeks-long battle to break into Sydney’s best 23 once he’d recovered.
Luke Parker has had a tough 2024, but has come out the other side of it with a fourth grand final appearance.Credit: Getty Images
You might say it got the better of him, if his high hit on Frankston player Josh Smith in the VFL back in May – on the same night the Swans smashed Carlton in front of a packed SCG – was an expression of his inner frustrations.
Parker was sidelined for six weeks, and his long exile from the Swans’ AFL ranks prompted a previously unfathomable thought: that it might be in his best interests to wear a different guernsey next year.
As his younger teammates were flying high on top of the ladder, he couldn’t get a look-in, and speculation was rife that a team like North Melbourne, who could do with his veteran expertise, would come in for him at the end of the year.
They still might, and Parker has done little to douse such chatter in the few times he’s been asked about it.
Welcome
Can you feel the excitment and anticipation in the air?
Welcome to our live blog for today’s AFL grand final parade and final training sessions as we count down to the AFL grand final on Saturday. Vibes are, quite frankly, very high.
We will be bringing you the colour and fun from the parade, the captain’s run for both sides and then the AFLW matches, which begin in the afternoon and run through to the evening.
Enjoy the hours to come.
