First things first; I'm only putting this in both NFL and NASCAR since I make reference to them...it's not a post about either so if you don't want to read it knowing that now, then you don't have to.

We had the AFL Grand Final on Saturday afternoon which led nicely into the NRL Grand Final on Sunday night. The only shame about both matches was that they were a bit one-sided in the end.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (or MCG as those in the know refer to it is) was the venue for the Aussie Rules matchup between the Geelong Cats and the Port Adelaide Power. Port won the premiership back in 2004, snapping the hopes of the Brisbane Lions winning four in a row, while Geelong haven't tasted success since, well, I can't remember...they usually lose the GF anyway.

But this season was different, Geelong were the minor premiers by quite a way (something I believe NASCAR should do with the Chase and give the driver leading after 26 races a nice little trophy or whatever) and were the favourites to win. Port were second on the ladder after the round robin games and went in as the marginal underdog despite thumping North Melbourne the week before in their semi. Geelong were under a bit more pressure due to the fact that one of their players, Jimmy Bartel, had won the Brownlow medal earlier in the week. The Brownlow is given to the best player, that hasn't been given any suspension, as voted by the umpires for the season (not including playoff games).

However, the Cats played like they had all season and kicked away from Port by halftime. The lead was over 50 points and they extended that to over 100 by fulltime (final score ended by being 163 to 44). That would probably be the equivalent of the Superbowl being won by 50+ points, or a NASCAR race by 5 laps.

So congratulations Geelong on a well-earned victory and I'll bet those Crown Lagers sure tasted sweet on Saturday night.

To Sunday then, where again we had the two best teams playing each other; the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles.

Stadium Australia in Sydney was the place to be as the game kicked off around 7:30pm local time. The first 20 minutes were a bruising affair as both teams seemed intent on smashing each other at every available opportunity. The Storm were the better team as they dominated territory, yet by halftime Manly had stayed in touch as they scored right on the buzzer to cut the lead to six points (10-4), just a converted try behind.

However, that was as close as they got as Melbourne, and Greg Inglis in particular, ran riot in the second half as they won the game by the scoreline of 34 to 8. This went some way to avenge their GF loss last year to the, very much underdogs, Brisbane Broncos and was just desserts for the team that has been the benchmark in the game for the past two seasons.

That was pretty much how I spent my weekend; watching two great showcases of Australian sport...I just wish both games had been a touch closer in the end.