It remains the highest-rating AFL game of all time (including 3.4 million metropolitan viewers) since the current OzTam measurement system was introduced in 2001. All told, a total average of 4.449 million people watched the game on TV nationally.[2][3] It is one of the most-watched television broadcasts in Australia since 2001, ranked 8th overall. Put another way, one in every 4.5 Australians watched the game live (22.25% of all Australians).
This was West Coast's first appearance in a grand final since winning the 1994 premiership, whilst it was Sydney's first since losing in 1996, and the Swans had not won a premiership since 1933 (as South Melbourne).
Two players from the Eagles' last premiership in 1994 were appearing in this grand final: Drew Banfield for the Eagles and Jason Ball for the Swans in his last AFL game.
At the conclusion of the home-and-away season, West Coast finished second on the AFL ladder behind Adelaide with 17 wins and five losses. Sydney finished third with 15 wins and seven losses. They met in the qualifying final at Subiaco Oval, and West Coast won by four points.
A major turning point in the Swans' season came when they lost to St Kilda at Telstra Dome in round ten, after which Swans coach Paul Roos came under heavy criticism from the entire AFL for his side's game plan.[4]
The Eagles then punched their ticket to the grand final by defeating minor premiers Adelaide in their preliminary final by 16 points. Meanwhile, Nick Davis famously rescued Sydney in their semi-final at the SCG against Geelong with four 4th-quarter goals including one just seconds before the final siren. The Swans then overcame St Kilda in their preliminary final at the MCG after overturning a 7-point deficit going into the last quarter into a 31-point win with a seven-goal barrage.
West Coast opened the game aggressively, with Sydney struggling to get the ball to their end of the field. However, better goal kicking accuracy by the Swans put them ahead by two points at the first change.
In the second quarter Sydney appeared to be asserting control of the game, kicking three goals while the Eagles got none. However, after the long break, West Coast put their stamp on the game, kicking three goals while the Swans went goalless.
Both teams had seemingly easy goals that were missed, but the Eagles most clearly would remember theirs from the fourth quarter. With just under five minutes remaining in the match, West Coast's Brent Staker almost cost his team the match following a 50-metre penalty to the Swans sending them out of their defensive 50 in a very costly play. With the Swans holding a five-point lead in the closing moments, Sydney's Tadhg Kennelly rushed a behind to blunt a ferocious Eagles attack. After the ensuing kick in, West Coast regained control of the ball and sent a long kick back to the half-forward line by Dean Cox. Sydney's Leo Barry responded by taking a mark in the midst of the pack full of Eagles players (with the commentator Stephen Quartermain saying a sequence of words made famous through frequent replays: "Leo Barry, you star!"), denying the Eagles an opportunity to kick a game-winner on or after the final siren, thus ensuring that the Swans would win their first premiership in 72 years (when they were South Melbourne), ending the longest premiership drought in VFL/AFL history.
The match has been labelled as a 'classic',[5] with the final margin being the closest since the 1977 drawn grand final. This was the first time since the 1989 VFL Grand Final that the grand final was decided by a goal or less.
Eagles player Chris Judd was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for being judged the best player afield, although he finished on the losing side; this is one of only four instances of a Grand Final player having won a Norm Smith Medal without being on the winning premiership team.
The same teams met again in the 2006 AFL Grand Final, in another close match, with the Eagles emerging victors by one point.
Sydney won their fourth Premiership – their first in Sydney, their first in the AFL era and their first since they won the VFL as South Melbourne in 1933.
Tadhg Kennelly became the first Irishman to become an AFL Premiership player. In 2009 Kennelly would go on to become the first man to be both an AFL Premiership player and an All-Ireland Senior (Gaelic) Football Championship winner, achieving this with his native Kerry. It would be 2022 before the second and third Irishmen won an AFL Premiership (Zach Tuohy and Mark O'Connor).[6]
Chris Judd became the fourth player to win the Norm Smith Medal despite being on the grand final losing team, joining Maurice Rioli (Richmond 1982), Gary Ablett Sr. (Geelong 1989) and Nathan Buckley (Collingwood 2002).
^In 1897 and 1924 there were no grand finals and instead the premier was decided by a round-robin system. In 1948 and 1977 there were grand final replays after initial draws.
