Forget mowing the lawn and there’ll be no ducking down for sausages at Bunnings tomorrow. Unless somebody is getting married, there aren’t too many acceptable reasons for making plans between lunch and about 6pm tomorrow. Grand Final weekend has arrived.

Melbourne is awash with purple and maroon, blue and gold as Fremantle and Brisbane supporters descend on the city for one of the more intriguing AFL Grand Finals in years.

At one end, the Dockers are chasing something they have never experienced in 32 AFL seasons: a premiership. At the other, Brisbane is chasing football immortality.

The Lions have reached their fourth consecutive Grand Final and are attempting to win a third straight flag, something no club has managed since Hawthorn’s 2013-15 powerhouse.

First bounce is 2.30pm AEST at the MCG tomorrow.

But first, there was a parade today.

Melbourne turns on the party

Grand Final Friday began with The Wiggles performing at Melbourne Park  before the parade attracted masses of footy supporters this morning.

The players travelled through Melbourne Park and Birrarung Marr, across William Barak Bridge and into Yarra Park beside the MCG, with both teams and the premiership cup on the Footy Fest main stage around midday.

Yep, Fremantle and Brisbane have spent six months fighting their way to the biggest game in Australian football, only to risk being upstaged by Dorothy the Dinosaur.

Freo’s shot at history

This is only Fremantle’s second Grand Final.

The first came in 2013, when the Dockers fell 15 points short against Hawthorn and 13 years later, they return with the chance to finally put a premiership cup in the cabinet.

They haven’t exactly taken the easy route.

Fremantle has won only three quarters across its three finals, yet keeps finding a way. Against Sydney last Friday night, the Dockers trailed at three-quarter time before swamping the Swans with a 24-6 inside-50 count in the final term and kicking 5.4 to 0.1.

It was the eighth time this season Fremantle had come from behind at three-quarter time to win.

Freo also has one useful memory tucked away: it beat Brisbane by 25 points at the Gabba in Round 12. If you’re a Dockers supporter with blood-pressure medication, tomorrow might be a good day to remember where you left it.

Lions chasing rare company

Brisbane knows this stage rather well.

Four Grand Finals in four years. Premiers in 2024. Premiers again in 2025.

One more victory and Chris Fagan’s side becomes the first since Hawthorn to win three consecutive flags.

Its strength remains the contest. Brisbane ranks No.1 for clearance differential this season and kicked eight goals directly from centre clearances against Hawthorn last weekend, the most by a team in a final since 1999. And a rather important midfielder will be there.

He should be so Lachie

For much of the week, Lachie Neale looked destined to watch the Grand Final from the grandstand.

The dual Brownlow medallist received a one-match suspension for an off-the-ball strike on Hawthorn’s Jack Ginnivan. Brisbane challenged and lost at the Tribunal.

Then the Lions went again.

On Thursday night, the AFL Appeals Board overturned the suspension, finding Neale’s exemplary record amounted to exceptional and compelling circumstances. His penalty became a $10,000 fine.

Neale plays.

If nothing else, he’s enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing Grand Final week.

Heartbreak for Brennan Cox

Fremantle defender Brennan Cox wasn’t as fortunate.

Cox has recovered from the calf injury he suffered in Round 24 and trained strongly this week, but Fremantle has chosen not to bring him back. The Dockers go in unchanged, with Oscar McDonald retaining his place.

Brisbane defender Noah Answerth has endured similar heartbreak. He has recovered from his ankle injury but was named only as an emergency.

Grand Final selection night can be magnificent and it can also be brutal.

Kylie takes the ‘G

Before the football comes an all-Australian entertainment line-up headlined by Kylie Minogue.

G Flip opens proceedings before Kylie takes over for a set expected around 1.30pm. Mike Brady returns with Up There Cazaly during the retiring players’ motorcade, while Michael Paynter performs the national anthem before the bounce.

Mike Brady and Kylie Minogue on the same bill at the MCG.

Try explaining that to somebody in 1987.

Your Grand Final Day timetable

For anyone organising the barbecue, 2.30pm AEST is the important number.

Seven’s Grand Final programming starts at 7am, with pre-game coverage from 9am and the Grand Final Countdown at 10.30am.

From midday, attention moves inside the MCG before the retiree motorcade and Mike Brady, G Flip, Kylie Minogue and the national anthem.

Then, at 2.30pm, Fremantle v Brisbane. Game on.

The Grand Final Sprint returns at half-time, followed after the match by the Norm Smith Medal, Jock McHale Medal and premiership cup presentations and a television reminder: the Grand Final is live in Australia on Channel Seven and 7plus, not live on Fox Footy or Kayo.

What if it’s a draw?

Nobody comes back next week.

If scores are level, there is a six-and-a-half-minute break followed by two periods of three minutes plus time-on, with teams changing ends between them.

Still level? They go again until somebody wins.

Given what Fremantle supporters have already been through this September, perhaps we shouldn’t give the football gods ideas.

So here we are.

For Brisbane, victory means a three-peat and a place among the great modern dynasties.

For Fremantle, it means something entirely different: the first premiership in club history and the end of a 32-season wait.

Kylie will have sung, Mike Brady will have done his annual duty, somebody will undoubtedly burn the sausages, and by tomorrow evening, one set of supporters will have a story they’ll tell for the rest of their lives.