‘Highly abnormal’: Grand final heatwave tipped to be ‘favourable’ to Lions

The 2023 grand final is tipped to be one of the hottest on record, with Melbourne forecast for a top of 29C on Saturday.

While not quite reaching the 31C degree heat back in 2015 for the decider between West Coast and Hawthorn, Saturday’s match is still predicted to be a swelter out on the field.

“Interestingly with the weather this weekend, expected to be very hot – we played in 2015 in the hottest grand final on record against Hawthorn,” Eagles premiership winner Will Schofield said on AFL Tonight.

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“(I remember) 2015, it being just so hot and the crowd being enormous from the Hawthorn point of view.”

AFL 360’s Gerard Whateley said the forecast top of 29C was a “curious factor” for the decider.

“We’ve had ‘87 as the one that immediately comes to mind … so does 2015 Hawthorn-West Coast. This is highly abnormal that it would be this hot on grand final day,” he said.

“It will affect someone or a team … it will be discussed, and it’ll be maybe used as an excuse or reason – who knows,” Mark Robinson added.

Saturday is tipped to be Melbourne’s hottest day in more than five months, with March the last time the mercury soared past 29C.

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan said he hoped the warmer weather would work in his side’s favour.

“It sits around 24-30 (degrees) most days of the year so we are accustomed to the warmer weather, albeit we tend to play at night so it’s not that hot,” he said at the grand final parade on Friday.

“Not used to the sun beating down on us.

“In terms of adapting to the conditions, I think it’s favourable to us that we can train in that sort of weather more often than not.”

Fagan admitted the heat factor did come into the club’s decision not to select Jack Payne for his first game back from injury, and instead opt to stick with Darcy Gardiner who did the job against Charlie Curnow last week.

“At the end of the day it’s going to be hot out there tomorrow, the bodies are going to be bashing in pretty hard. Just felt it was a wiser decision to go with the guy that was a little bit more match hardened,” he revealed.

Rival coach Craig McRae said his side had the same mindset when they opted to include small forward Jack Ginnivan in the starting 22 and move Pat Lipinski to the sub role.

When asked if the weather was a factor in the sub call, McRae replied: “It was to some degree”.

“That certainly influenced some of it. Charlie, my seven year old daughter, said to me, ‘Dad it’s going to be hot’. I said ‘oh that’s OK’. She goes, ‘that’s OK Dad because that’s why you got Collingwood a lot of fans. So the players will be pretty cool’.

“That was a good joke from my daughter.”