Champswillbeamonggame’sfinest,saysMcLachlan

GILLON McLachlan has declared this year’s premiership team will be remembered as one of the greatest in the game’s history.

The league chief executive said the challenge to win this year’s flag could not be understated after a season of upheaval, hubs, uncertainty and quarantine. The AFL is hopeful 100,000 fans will attend the opening four finals this weekend, a prospect McLachlan admits felt far-fetched several months ago.

Queensland’s steady coronavirus situation is also fuelling optimism the Grand Final crowd at the G abba will exceed the 30,000 target set four weeks ago.

Three of this weekend’s finals are expected to sell out.

All 25,000 tickets to Thursday night’ s Port Adelaide-Geelong qualifying final at Adelaide Oval are gone, after more than 10,000 were snapped up inside 10 minutes.

Tickets for Friday night’s Brisbane-Richmond qualifying final at the G abba went on sale on Monday, with expectations of a 28,000- capacity full house.

The 35,000 seats for West Coast v Collingwood at Perth Stadium are likely togo quickly on Tuesday, while tickets for the St Kilda-Western Bulldogs elimination final at the Gabba also go on sale on Tuesday morning.

“The team that wins the premiership will go down as one of the all-time greats and I sincerely believe that,” McLachlan said.

It comes as the AFL on Monday confirmed Byron Pickett would present this year’s Norm Smith Medal, while Malcolm Blight will hand over the Jock McHale Medal to the premiership coach. Simon Black was unveiled as the premiership cup ambassador.