Geelong defeated St. Kilda by 12 points in the 2009 Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Both sides advanced after winning their Qualifying and Preliminary Finals.

The AFL finals series groups the best eight teams into two groups – the first through fourth and fifth through eighth. The winners of the Qualifying Finals (first v fourth, second v third) get a week off, the losers play the winners of the Elimination Finals (Fifth v eighth, sixth v seventh).

Australian rules football is played on a field 170-200 metres long by 140-170 metres wide. The two teams consist of 18 players a side. Scores are quoted as goals-behinds (total).

St Kilda finished top of the ladder after the 22 Home and away season with only two loses in rounds 20 and 21. They defeated Collingwood by 28 points in the Qualifying Final then the Western Bulldogs by seven points in the Preliminary Final.

Geelong finished second with four losses, all in the latter half of the season. They defeated the Western Bulldogs by 14 points in Qualifying Final then Collingwood by 73 points in the Preliminary Final.

Geelong player Gary Ablett Jr. won the Brownlow Medal earlier in the week but quickly “forgot” about it to focus on the Grand Final. “We’ve prepared well, we’ve prepared as good as we can and we have some important players back at the right time, it’s fantastic,” he said. “We’ll be going into the game with no excuses.”

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster James Taylor predicted that storms may pass over the MCG during the second, third or last quarters. “That’s when we expect most likely we’ll see shower activity spreading across Melbourne,” Mr Taylor told AAP. “Hopefully, the opening ceremony will escape the weather. Thunderstorms are certainly possible.” The police are also out in force, and will check all drivers leaving the ground are not drunk.

Geelong won the toss and kicked towards the City end. The predicted weather did not materialise in the first quarter Within the first eight seconds, the both teams had held up the ball causing another ruck contest.