FROM operating the scoreboard to keeping the Sherrins safe, every AFL match relies on hundreds of people working behind the scenes to bring the game to life. Meet some of the people who help create the magic of match day at the MCG.
Eleanor Walters, MCG Staff Concierge Centre supervisor
FOR Eleanor, match day is all about people.
Starting as early as 6am, Eleanor and the Staff Concierge Centre team are responsible for supporting the thousands of staff who bring an MCG match day to life, and are the first point of contact when people arrive for their shift.
"On match day we tell people where to go, we store their bags, we help them with uniforms and what to wear, and we get them ready for their roles and responsibilities."
Having worked in the role since 2017, Eleanor says no two match days are exactly the same.
"A match day can be anything from a walk in the park to the busiest day known to man," she says.
For a finals match, around 1800 staff members pass through the Staff Concierge Centre, while Grand Final day can see that number climb beyond 2000.
"It's everyone. Front of house, back of house, runners, managers – everybody's role is important and we see them all," Eleanor says.
For some staff, particularly those working their first shift, the MCG can be an overwhelming place.
"For us, we have an overall understanding of the stadium, where things are and where staff need to go. But for some people, all they know is the name of the outlet they're working at," Eleanor says.
"We deal with people face-to-face every day. Sometimes we physically take them to where they will be working for the match. The stadium is massive and can be confusing, so we provide that personal touch."
For Eleanor, the people are what make the job special.
"The work is great, but it's the people I love most. We get young people doing their first job, and there are people who come in who I've known for 10 years. You really become part of their lives."
And there is another small perk: "We do like to have a peek at the footy when we can!"
Joshua Hopgood, Chef de Cuisine - Casual Restaurants
The build up to match day for Joshua Hopgood is very much like an AFL team's preparation for the big game.
"You get excited. Everything you've worked on during the week leads to match day. If you've prepared properly, everything should be in place and service should run smoothly," he says.
Josh's day begins at 7am, ensuring MCC venues, including the Trumble Bar and Cafe, The Paddock and The Pavilion, are prepared for the rush ahead.
"When the gates open, we go for it," Josh says.
The scale of match-day service in the Trumble Cafe is unlike a standalone restaurant. During a sold-out AFL Finals match, the venue alone can serve between 700 and 800 meals, along with around 200 bowls of chips.
Despite the volume, running out of food is not a concern.
"We've thankfully never run out of chips on a match day. There's a big freezer deep in the MCG that's full to the brim with chips to make sure that doesn't happen," he says.
Preparation is everything. Unlike a traditional restaurant, where meals are cooked to order throughout a service, match day requires every element to be ready before thousands of footy fans arrive in a short period of time.
"A restaurant service might run for two hours. Here you might have 15 minutes to serve most of your customers because everyone wants food at the same time," Josh says.
Most patrons eat before the game, with another rush arriving at half-time.
"I don't watch much of the game. I watch the clock to see when half-time is coming, and people are going to want food again," Josh says.
It's the sense of occasion that keeps Josh coming back.
"It's great working in a place where people are genuinely excited to be. Everyone who comes in, especially during finals, is looking forward to the footy, and that creates a great atmosphere," he says
Anne Fazakerley, MCG Event Day Staff member
Creating a positive match-day experience can start long before the crowd takes its seats.
While footy fans are making their way through Yarra Park, MCG Event Day Staff member Anne is walking the aisles of the MCC Members' Reserve, stopping at every seat in her assigned bay. Row by row, she checks each seat for faults.
"I'm doing a white level search," Anne explains. "This is my bay. I've got rows A to H and I'm checking if any of the seats are broken. If they're broken before the patrons come in, we'd have to call that through and get it fixed before the game starts."
Anne has been part of the MCG's event day team for more than four years and still considers herself fortunate to work at the ground.
"We're so very lucky to work here," she says, gesturing to the sea of orange-jacketed colleagues spread throughout the stand, each carefully checking their own assigned bay.
Checking seats is just one of many jobs Anne performs as part of the MCG's event day team. Depending on the day, she may work at the turnstiles, assist with corporate events or help supervise the sensory room.
"It's a varied role," she says. "I rotate through different positions."
From Anne’s vantage point while she does her inspections, there’s peace and quiet. Anne sees the ground from a perspective few supporters experience.
"I love this stadium," she says. "I love it when it’s full of people and I know this doesn't make sense, but I love it when it's empty too."
Trevor Ruddell, MCC Librarian
While thousands of fans flood to food outlets, claim their seats or try to nab an autograph at the on-field player warm up, a quieter tradition unfolds inside one of the stadium's most unique spaces, the MCC Library.
Often described as one of the world's great sporting historical collections, including more than 150 years of Australian football history, the MCC Library connects members with the rich history behind the game they’re about to watch.
The library is also home to countless rare treasures, including a copy of Football, Volume 1, Number 1, a publication for which no second edition has ever been confirmed.
"We don't know if a Number 2 was ever produced, and at the moment we don't know of any other copy in a public collection," Trevor says.
One of the library's most popular match-day traditions is the Match Day Fact Sheet, a publication that traces its origins back to notes prepared for MCC Presidents' dining speeches.
"In the 1990s, it was thought it would be nice to share these notes with our members, so the Match Day Fact Sheets were born and became available from the library reference desk," Trevor says.
Available both in the library and online, today's fact sheets feature historical information, club records, little-known anecdotes and quirky stories about the teams taking the field.
"They're all quite individual and reflect the MCC Library volunteers who create them. A lot of them have their own style and I think that's pretty cool," Trevor says.
The library remains open during the lead-up to the match and throughout the first half, welcoming members to enjoy the collection, or the brilliant view of the CBD. Trevor is there to greet them and help with their curly sporting queries.
"It's great to have returning members. Some come every week, while others only visit for a big match or special event. For some people, visiting the library is part of their Grand Final routine," he says.
"Our volunteers are what make the library match-day experience. They even hold a fact sheet folding session on the Grand Final Eve public holiday. They help create the best possible experience for members coming to watch the footy. They are a wonderful group of people."
For Trevor, some of the best moments happen before the game even begins.
"You look out and see the beautiful snake of supporters winding through Yarra Park. Watching the crowd grow and the excitement build towards the match is really something," he says.
The on-field action doesn't completely pass him by.
"If I hear a roar from the crowd, I'll look at the television, as it's on a slight delay. That way, I can keep up with what's happening on the field," Trevor says.
Warrick 'Wazz' Veale, Grass Signage
The final rehearsals for the national anthem are underway near the interchange bench. While the singer fine-tunes their performance, another artist is at work on the turf.
Armed with paint, stencils and brush, Wazz is carefully applying the finishing touches to the grass signage that will soon be seen by approximately 90,000 fans inside the MCG and millions watching from home.
"We do grass signage for stadiums Australia wide," he says. "But the MCG is the most prestigious.”
For 29 years, Wazz has been painting commercial branding, Indigenous artwork and themed match designs onto the field of play.
The process has changed significantly over that time. While Wazz and the Ausign team make stencils for the logos today, it wasn't always so sophisticated, and with some of the larger logos on the MCG covering more than 140 square metres of turf, it wasn’t as practical either.
"We used to do it all by hand years ago and it took a long time. I used to make templates in the mezzanine of the MCG because it was the only place I could find with enough room," he says.
Wazz’s work is known for its precision. Social media users regularly marvel at the accuracy of the painted designs on blockbuster occasions such as Anzac Day and Grand Final day. But even after all this time, things don't always go perfectly.
"I have made one mistake," he says with a laugh.
"I was able to fix it. Because it happened in the drawn Grand Final in 2010, I got the chance to come back the next week and do it properly."
Looking out across the empty MCG, Wazz paints away, He doesn't need much time to explain why he keeps returning.
“It’s a pretty nice office to work in, I reckon," he says.
Melissa Forge, AFL Match Day Manager
When the first siren sounds, most eyes are on the centre square. Melissa Forge’s attention is elsewhere.
"When the game starts, I'm checking that all the boundary gates are shut and there's nothing left on the field of play," she laughs.
"It can take 10 to 15 minutes into the game before I even register what's happening on the scoreboard."
As an AFL Match Manager, Mel oversees game day operations from pre-match preparations through to the final siren. She works with clubs, umpires, venue staff and security teams to ensure everything runs smoothly.
After joining the AFL's football operations department in 2018, she brought with her six years of experience as team manager at North Melbourne.
Ask Mel what she enjoys most about her job and her answer isn't about the game itself.
"After being in the industry so long, the thing I love most about match managing is getting to know so many people across the AFL and clubs," she says.
"In the office they might just be names and emails on your computer, but at a match you get to know and work with them much more closely."
Mel considers herself lucky to be so close to the action around all her responsibilities, even if she's not always watching the game.
"Finals are special," she says.
"When the crowd is up and about, the atmosphere is really hard to ignore."
Cameron Wedemeyer, Scoreboard Operations
The scoreboard is where fans relive a crucial moment, whether it's a spectacular mark, a goal review or a contentious free kick. Behind every replay is Cameron and his team from Lumen8.
Surrounded by screens, flashing buttons and headsets, the scoreboard control room is already busy hours before the match as the staff inside prepare to co-ordinate live vision, replays, graphics and the stadium's broader audio-visual presentation.
For Cameron, there’s no better place to be when the game gets under way.
"Nothing gets the heart pumping quite like making a stadium full of people react instantly to something you've put on the big screen,” he says.
“We feed off that energy. Our crew love it. We feel like we're helping drive the atmosphere. It's exciting."
But live production isn’t all smooth sailing. In a room managing dozens of live elements at once, something unexpected is bound to happen. Despite the risk of content errors or technical glitches, the show must go on.
"There are always hairy moments in here," he says with a grin.
"But as long as it looks calm out there on the scoreboard, it doesn’t matter that we might be kicking our feet like crazy underneath.” Cameron says.
"We don't get bogged down in what went wrong. We fix it, move on and support each other."
For Cameron and his team, finals football is their Christmas.
"It's a long season to get to this point," he says.
“But now it’s the big games, the teams have it all to play for. The buzz around the ground and energy in the city is contagious. It just feels different."
Connor Petrie, Ball Steward
Many claim to have the best seat in the house, but ball steward Connor Petrie makes a compelling case.
His job is managing the six match footballs used throughout the contest and helping keep the game moving.
"It's an important role. Without the footy, you can't play!" Connor laughs.
Now in his second season in the role, Connor also goal umpires in the VFL, experience he says has helped him immensely with ball stewarding. While he has worked at big games before, finals football brings another level of excitement.
"You want to do a good job and not screw it up. There's a little pressure when you first start, but once you get a few games under your belt, you get used to what's expected and it’s just a lot of fun," he says.
Ball stewards walk onto the ground alongside the goal umpires before taking their position at either end of the field. Their job requires constant attention, ensuring footballs are returned to players after a point and to boundary umpires after a goal in accordance with AFL rules.
"Sometimes a player is keen for us to hurry up and give them the ball after a point is scored, and I get that because they want to get the action going quickly, but we have rules to follow just like everyone else on the field," Connor says.
"If a point is scored, we have to wait until the player has actually crossed the goal line before we can hand it to them."
And despite the temptation for some fans to hold onto a match ball, Connor says supporters usually understand the importance of getting it back quickly and happily throw the Sherrin back onto the field, although their attempts can occasionally be a little off target.
"The fans have respect and throw the ball back because most understand that without the ball, the game won't run as it’s supposed to," he says.
Being in the thick of it is part of the appeal for Connor.
"You literally couldn't get any closer to the action. It's a pretty special spot to sit," he says.
Michael Yates, Game Development Officer – Half-Time Auskick
A couple of hours before the AFL match begins, Michael is already at work.
Inside the Auskick changerooms, he sorts tiny footy jumpers into tubs, separating them into tonight's eight grid teams. Three will wear red, and three will wear black. Two will run out in the colours of the match’s contesting AFL sides.
For generations of young footballers, Auskick is their first experience of the game. For those selected to play at halftime on the MCG, it's a chance to kick a goal on the same ground as their heroes, in front of family and a few tens of thousands of others.
Michael has helped deliver that experience for 11 years. His own four children came through the Auskick program and long after they outgrew the tiny jumper, he stayed.
"It wouldn't bother me whether we got paid or if this was a volunteer role," he says. "I absolutely love it."
"I still get butterflies. There's a fair bit of responsibility in making sure the kids get where they need to go, have fun and stay safe."
The moment he looks forward to most, however, lasts only a few seconds. As the half-time siren sounds, the excited young Auskickers run through the race and onto the field.
"It's quite emotional," he says.
"All of a sudden, they look around wide-eyed and just go, Wow!"