Now we've got SA pollies still sooking about the GF being at the 'G even though neither of their state's clubs even made the finals
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AFL grand final should be shared, MP saysDaniel Wills
State Political Editor, The Advertiser
September 25, 2019 A LIBERAL MP who played AFL football for Collingwood has joined the call for the MCG to be stripped of automatic grand final hosting rights to make the competition truly national.
Former Holdfast Bay mayor Stephen Patterson, who was elected to State Parliament last year in the bayside seat of Morphett, says Adelaide Oval has proven itself an exceptional venue for SANFL and AFLW grand finals and deserves the chance to host Aussie Rules’ grand final.
In a speech to Parliament on Tuesday, the former Norwood man paid tribute to Glenelg’s drought-breaking SANFL premiership win at the weekend.
It also comes ahead of this weekend’s AFL showdown between the Richmond Tigers and Western Sydney Giants.
“Congratulations to SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson and his team for putting on a fantastic grand final, coming in the same season as the AFLW grand final which saw a full house at Adelaide Oval,” Mr Patterson said.
“It is therefore disappointing to South Australians that the AFL has locked in the AFL grand final at the MCG until 2057 instead of being visionary and rotating the grand final across the nation.
“The 1990s saw the dismantling of the entitlement of the MCG to host a final each week and this last vestige of the VFL should go the same way.”
The AFL last year confirmed the MCG would be the permanent home of the grand final for the next four decades under a “$500 million mega-deal” involving the Victorian Government.
SA football legend Graham Cornes wrote in The Advertiser at the time that: “The AFL, which has taken so much from the American sports models, has succumbed to local political pressures and incentives (some would say bribery) to keep its marquee event at the MCG”.
“It seems almost every decision of the AFL is designed to benefit those incompetent, Victorian football clubs which long ago, without interstate money, AFL or Victorian government handouts, would have been bankrupted,” he wrote.
“The MCG? Victorian propaganda claims it is the best stadium in the world. It’s not.
“It is a concrete cauldron that has little of the aesthetic or cultural appeal of the Adelaide Oval or, despite its man-eating LED signs, the new stadium in Perth.”
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sa-liberal-mp-stephen-patterson-calls-for-mcg-to-lose-automatic-grand-final-rights-be-shared-with-adelaide/news-story/6931b5d8db6f23db50707a32d146cfde