Updated by: May 11, 2026
One Day in September
It is September 27th, 2019. My family and our closest friends are in Koh Samui, Thailand, and we need to get to Phuket airport.
A ferry, a taxi, a bus and a plane with four kids under the age of five… It was no easy feat!
The destination wasn’t really the point however, what mattered, was what was awaiting me upon arrival the next day…
It was AFL Grand Final day in Melbourne.
AFL is an institution in Victoria — a winter sport unlike anything else on earth. Eighteen players per side on a massive oval field, an oval ball, and the simple objective of kicking it through large goal posts at either end. Players can run with the ball, handball it or kick it, but they can also be tackled or bumped at any moment. The game flows continuously with very few stoppages.
It’s physical, fast, skillful game and beautiful, when it flows. Think an elite runner’s endurance, a basketballer’s athleticism and an NFL player’s physicality — all on the one field simultaneously!
My team, the Richmond Tigers, were in the final. Established in 1885, they had been perennial losers for nearly four decades before winning the premiership in 2017 but then falling to our archrivals – Collingwood in 2018.
One hundred thousand people were packed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground — the MCG, or simply, ‘The G,’ the spiritual home of Australian football.
It was my first ever AFL Grand Final and the Tigers certainly put on a show!
Two moments stay with me. The first — a young Aboriginal player named Marlion Pickett, playing his very first AFL game, and in the Grand Final. He took a mark and kicked a brilliant goal from 50 meters. The second — our captain Trent Cotchin taking the ball from midfield, running half the length of the ground and splitting the posts.
The Tigers won by 89 points. A demolition.
Jetlag is temporary but those arrival memories will stay with me forever.
If you are ever visiting Melbourne in winter, let me know and I’ll take you to a Tigers game.
Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder
