AFL fans make pilgrimage to Melbourne as grand final excitement reaches peak | AFL

For all the hand-wringing that comes with an all-interstate grand final, diminishing Melbourne's epicentrality in the football universe – this decider looks and feels like any other.

Sydney fan Ryan Coughlan is a man with a strong opinion: the Swans will win and Isaac Heeney will take the medal.

Coughlan, who played as a teenager on the central coast of New South Wales, remembers a particular young blonde ball-winner. “He’s a local boy from Cardiff so we always played him in the under-16s,” Coughlan told Guardian Australia on the sidelines of the grand final parade.

“He was good. He was a few years younger and still dominated us.”

“Coggo” – as he is keen to be known – decided to travel to Melbourne for Saturday’s grand final after the Swans got rid of Port Adelaide last week. He watched his first game at the MCG in the 2022 grand final, a dreary afternoon whose trauma he is trying to erase.

“It was bittersweet. It's a great atmosphere that comes down [to Melbourne] but then they were smashed. Afterwards I was a bit disappointed. That’s why we really want to get a win and I think we achieved it.”

Melbourne will again host two interstate clubs: the first decider without a Victorian team since 2006. To underline the 'Interstate Raider' style, both teams will wear home kits.

The city was flooded with long-distance arrivals. Airlines added thousands of additional seats, operated dozens of additional flights and swapped Boeing 737s for larger Airbus A330s. Friday was considered the busiest day at Melbourne Airport since an army of fans of one Taylor (Swift, not Adams) landed earlier this year.

Kirra Porter and her aunt Alana Duffin called three days ago to drive from Brisbane to the football festival around the MCG. “I’ve been to every home game this year,” Porter said. But she has never seen a game in Victoria.

Semi-final escapee Joe Daniher will secure the Premiership title for the Lions, she says. “He’s my favorite, he always does good things.”

Duffin is also confident of the result, but expects the margin to be narrow – in keeping with the tradition of interstate grand finals. “I think we’re eight points ahead,” she said.

While they are now based in impressive interstate stadiums, both teams of course have their roots in Melbourne, namely in the nearby, modest Lakeside and Brunswick Street ovals.

Much has been made of the long gap – 125 years – since these two clubs met in a grand final. In the final game of the 1899 season, Fitzroy won by a single point over South Melbourne, 3.9 to 3.8.

At the time they were neither Swans nor Lions (“Southerners” and “Maroons”), but the red-and-white and the maroon-and-yellow were recognizably from the same clubs.

The wind was so strong that day in 1899, blowing from Port Phillip Bay directly into the exposed Junction Oval, that no goals were scored at the south end of the pitch throughout the game and only six that day (also aided by incessant rains and the “inadequate intent” rule, which was less zealously policed ​​back then).

The BoM forecast for Saturday is for a much more pleasant dry and sunny 23°C.

“Warmer weather is expected in Melbourne on Saturday, with temperatures reaching lows into the mid 20s for the opening upswing,” said the bureau's senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury.

“These good matchday conditions are the result of a high pressure system moving across Victoria, bringing clear skies and moderate northerly winds.”

A cold front is forecast for Sunday. For one of these teams, it's a certainty for the long road home.