Napa Yard To Host Australian Rules Grand Final

It’s one of the most anticipated events on the sporting calendar for the many Australian ex-pats who live in the Napa Valley, and beyond, with the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final taking place on Friday, Sept. 29. The game will be shown live at Napa Yard, located next to the South Parking Lot at Oxbow in downtown Napa with the “first bounce” scheduled for 9:30 p.m. PDT.

Aussie Rules or “footy” as the game is known colloquially, is a game played professionally solely in Australia, with social leagues of varying skill levels in existence around the world. The closest league to Napa Valley is in San Francisco where the Golden Gate Australian Football league is based.

The Grand Final is the Australian equivalent of the Super Bowl here in the United States with millions tuning in to watch the game live on Saturday afternoon on the last weekend of September. The final has been held at the magnificent Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) almost every year since the early 1900s and the Grand Final itself dates back to 1898 when the match was played at the Junction Oval in the Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda. Even with a capacity of just over 100,000 at the MCG, tickets for the Grand Final are in demand and often change hands for many times the face value.

"It will be a first for us to show Aussie Rules here at Napa Yard," said Bar Manager Nate Stearns "It will be great to experience a new sport that obviously has such a passionate following. We’re excited to welcome lovers of Aussie Rules and those looking to learn about the game for what I’m sure will be a great evening."

Aussie Rules traces its roots to 1858 in Melbourne and is generally thought to be a hybrid sport that draws its origins from other ball sports including soccer, rugby and Gaelic Football — from Ireland — and is played on an oval-shaped field similar to a cricket field. The earliest leagues date back to the mid to late 1870s and, at the highest professional level, the sport was concentrated mainly around Melbourne from then until the late 1980s. Up until that time the sport went by the moniker VFL for Victorian Football League and was made up of clubs exclusively from the Australian state of Victoria.

In 1990 the VFL became the AFL and a number of clubs from outside of Victoria were added to the league’s roster. One of the first clubs to be added was the West Coast Eagles, based out of Perth in Western Australia, who went on to win the Grand Final in 1992, and again in 1994. There are now AFL teams in five Australian states — Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland — and the Brisbane Lions from Queensland will face Collingwood from Melbourne in the 2023 edition. It will be the Lion’s first Grand Final appearance since 2004 when they lost to Port Adelaide in the first Grand Final not to feature a team from the state of Victoria.

Aussie Rules differs from many other field sports in that interchange substitutions are allowed during the game and these are controlled by a match official on the sideline. The oval-shaped ball is slightly rounder on the end than a rugby ball or an American football. This allows it to be both bounced while the player is running and kicked end over end so that it’s easier to be caught by a teammate.

A player can score either six points (a goal) for kicking the ball through the middle two of four posts, or one point (a behind) if they kick the ball between the outer and inner of the four posts. The game is four quarters long with each quarter lasting 20 minutes of playing time, which often stretches to 30 minutes with the addition of stoppages, and each team has 18 players on the field with four interchange subs on the sideline.

Australian-born Phil Bourke is a huge Aussie Rules fan and the president of the Napa Valley Cricket club. For years, he and fellow Aussie, Rob Bolch, held Grand Final watch parties at their homes. But as these events grew to a size they could no longer manage at home, it made sense to find somewhere local to screen them.

"We’re excited to be showing the Grand Final at Napa Yard this year as it’s the perfect venue in downtown Napa," Bourke said. "The team at Napa Yard has been very accommodating and we’re looking forward to enjoying a great night of footy."

Bolch added: "I'm looking forward to my beloved Pies (or Magpies, Collingwood’s nickname, due to the colors of their playing uniforms) lifting the trophy at the end of the game as we haven’t done so since 2010. It will obviously be a gathering of Australian ex-pats but we’d love inquisitive locals to come down and watch the game too. Entry is free and anyone who needs to know more about what’s happening on the screens can ask any of the folks wearing the colorful Aussie Rules jerseys of their favorite teams.”

Watch to learn more: What is AFL? Aussie Rules explained video.

The Napa Valley Cricket Club wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following sponsors: 19 Crimes Wine, ASL Print FX, Bill Wagner Realtor, CLARET by vinoEZ, Crown Hill Stone Supply, GVM Law, John Fearless, Napa Yard - Oxbow Gardens, St. Helena Optometry, Seguin Moreau, 3 rock marketing, Blue Jean Black Design, Four Pillars Gin, Left Coast Wine Packaging, Napa Gourmet Foods, The Shade Home, GTG Financial, Golden Limo.