{"id":168973,"date":"2025-09-25T21:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168973\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:37:20","slug":"geelong-fans-saturate-city-in-blue-and-white-ahead-of-afl-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168973\/","title":{"rendered":"Geelong fans saturate city in blue and white ahead of AFL grand final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Superfans like Thomas are preparing for Saturday\u2019s grand final at the MCG \u2013 the first seniors AFL or VFL grand final between the Lions and Geelong. Both teams have multiple premierships and are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5mxmv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">competing in their seventh grand final of the 2000s era.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Sporting Globe Bar and Grill in Geelong already has 400 people booked in for Saturday afternoon and manager Jordy May is predicting a record turnout.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cats fan Jordy May is preparing for a busy grand final night at the Sporting Globe Bar &amp; Grill in Geelong. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/7cae1a9897b31cfc4dad4ed385f95fdee216b3b9.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cats fan Jordy May is preparing for a busy grand final night at the Sporting Globe Bar &amp; Grill in Geelong. Credit: Simon Schluter <\/p>\n<p>A self-described diehard Cats fan, May has spent the past few days helping decorate the bar with navy streamers, banners and balloons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m feeling nervous but excited for Saturday,\u201d she says. \u201cWe beat Brisbane a few weeks ago, so I think we can do it. But it\u2019s a bit nerve-racking being so close to a premiership. I reckon we can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2022, when we won, we did astronomical sales and hit our record,\u201d she says. \u201cSo it\u2019s a bit stressful getting ready for such a big event, but we feel prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are no words in the English language to describe how excited the Dodds family are about the grand final.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Geelong fans Soli, 2, Parker, 6, Hemsley, 6, Atley, 8, Florence, 6, Teddy 4, Wilbur, 6 and Zeally, 3, will be cheering on the Cats in the grand final.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6e873183f876c886b53efa8f8a2a35792e2aae2d.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Geelong fans Soli, 2, Parker, 6, Hemsley, 6, Atley, 8, Florence, 6, Teddy 4, Wilbur, 6 and Zeally, 3, will be cheering on the Cats in the grand final.Credit: Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n<p>Eight-year-old Atley, six-year-old Hemsley and three-year-old Zeally have spent all week decorating their Highton home with navy streamers and balloons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids have been looking forward to it all week so hopefully Geelong win,\u201d their mother Stacey says with a laugh. \u201cWe are going to the game, and the kids will head over to a friend\u2019s place to watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fellow Geelong superfan Carol Hague snagged coveted tickets to the grand final and will head to the MCG on Saturday with her friend.<\/p>\n<p>The die-hard supporter has a gigantic Geelong Football Club sign stationed outside her home \u2013 a good luck charm for another premiership.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Geelong fan Carol Hague has a giant Geelong sign outside her home. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/05092038125478fff640b067a076b71ff9bc5c75.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Geelong fan Carol Hague has a giant Geelong sign outside her home. Credit:  Simon Schluter <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe put the sign up in 2022 and it worked,\u201d she says. \u201cSo hopefully, that means the same thing will happen this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p56jp7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superfans like Thomas are preparing for Saturday\u2019s grand final at the MCG \u2013 the first seniors AFL or&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-168973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}