page_title: 2007 AFL Grand Final
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 AFL Grand Final / Background
context_page_description: The 2007 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Port Adelaide Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 29 September 2007. It was the 111th annual grand final of the Australian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 2007 AFL season. The match, attended by 97,302 spectators, was won by Geelong by a margin of 119 points, the biggest in VFL/AFL grand final history. The victory marked Geelong's seventh premiership win, and ended its 44-year premiership drought.
context_section_description: Geelong entered the season after finishing 10th in 2006. Geelong was the best performing side of the home and away season, finishing 12 points clear of second-placed Port Adelaide, with an 18–4 record and a percentage of 152.76, thus winning the McClelland Trophy. Geelong had lost only one game since Round 5: by five points to Port Adelaide at Skilled Stadium in Round 21 when Domenic Cassisi goaled with 3 seconds remaining. The grand final was Geelong's first appearance in a premiership decider since 1995 AFL Grand Final, where they lost to Carlton. Geelong defeated the Kangaroos in their qualifying final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 106 points, earning them a second week bye, before they met Collingwood in a preliminary final showdown at the MCG. Geelong won a tight contest with the Magpies by 5 points in front of a crowd of 98,002.
  Port Adelaide, having finished 12th the previous season, rose 10 places to become 2nd on the ladder in 2007, with a 15–7 record and a percentage of 113.54. Port Adelaide had hosted reigning premiers West Coast Eagles at AAMI Stadium in their qualifying final, winning by three points after trailing all night. Having also earned a second week bye, they proceeded to the third week and hosted the Kangaroos in a preliminary final at AAMI Stadium, winning by 87 points. The 2007 AFL Grand Final was Port Adelaide's first since winning the 2004 Grand Final.
  This was the first grand final fought between two teams that missed the finals the previous year since 1997.
caption: 2007 Brownlow Medal-winner Jimmy Bartel of Geelong (2008)
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