AFL Finals System - Venues

Venues

The AFL's contract with the Melbourne Cricket Club requires that at least ten finals matches (excluding Grand Finals) are played at the MCG every five years. This means an average of two finals must be played at the venue per year, plus each Grand Final. This is not normally expected to be a problem, but in the event that the non-Victorian clubs dominate the competition, the AFL would be forced to schedule a non-Victorian team's home match at the MCG to reach this quota; however, with the AFL's salary cap and equalization measures, this would be highly unlikely to occur.

This contract was put together in 2005 after significant criticism of the previous contract from 1994, which required that at least one final be played at the MCG during every week of the finals. This meant that in the event that interstate clubs were to host both semi-finals or both preliminary finals, one of these matches would be moved to the MCG; this happened in the 1999 First Semi-Final (West Coast v Carlton) and the 2004 Second Preliminary Final (Brisbane v Geelong). Finals in Victoria are usually played at the MCG, regardless of whether or not the home team normally plays its home games there. If Victoria is to host two finals on one day, the lowest-drawing final will be moved to Docklands Stadium.

The Grand Final must be played at the MCG until at least 2034, and has been in every year since 1902, except in 1924, when the round-robin finals series did not provide for a Grand Final, 1942 to 1945, when the ground was occupied by the military during World War Two, and in 1991, when construction work was taking place on the ground.