2002 Grand Final (What They Can Do Next Week)

The 2002 AFL Grand Final was an Australian Rules Football game contested between the  Port Adelaide Football Club and Adelaide Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on the 28 September 2002. It was the 106th annual VFL/AFL Grand Final, staged to determine the premiers of the 2002 AFL season. The match, attended by 91,149 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 40 points, marking it's first premiership.

Background
For the second year in a row, Port Adelaide made it into a Grand Final, finishing this year as minor premier also. Behind them was their arch rivals, the Adelaide Crows, who finished the season in second with a last round win over the third place Sydney, and finally rounding out the top 4, was the up-and-coming Melbourne Football Club.

The on field of dominance of the minor premiers was put to the test against Melbourne, as they came close to losing in the first qualifying final, winning only by 8 points. Adelaide, however, bagged 18 goals against the team from the West, as they also won their qualifying final. 2 weeks later, the two teams faced off against each other again, this time Adelaide going up against the beleaguered Melbourne, and Port Adelaide against the West Coast. Both winning against their two opponents, the two clubs set up a date for the "one day in September", with the media hyping the match, declaring it was "The Showdown of Grand Finals".

Match Summary
Despite the media's hype of a tight contest, the game was anything but. The struggling Port was to go without it's captain Matthew Primus, and faced an uphill battle against the much more experienced players from Adelaide. The Crows scored 5 goals in the opening term to only 3 behinds, and after that, the Adelaide Crows stormed away from the Power.

Whilst a comeback was perceived by many critics, it was unlikely, as Adelaide continued it's march away from it's opposition in the second quater, and by the final change, they led by 50 points. During the fourth wuater, Port Adelaide managed to drag the margin back down to 40, however, it was too late, and the Crows won the premiership.

Mark Ricciuto was given the Norm Smith medal as being judged best on ground, having a 2 goals, 36 disposal performance, followed by his fellow team mate Andrew McLeod, who scored 2 goals during the game, and having 30 disposals.