Thank you very much, and can I start by acknowledging all of our friends at North Melbourne who make today possible, to James, to Eugene, and of course to that well known Shinbone supporter Simon Crean, my very great friend.
Can I also acknowledge our friends from Geelong who are here today, Colin Carter and Brian Cook, a great day for Geelong. And can I acknowledge all of the people from Collingwood as well, and when I say people there's really only one person, it's Eddie McGuire.
Eddie McGuire likes to be known as a man of the people, but of course he's football royalty. This came through to me very, very strongly at last year's grand final, where an AFL assistant was out with another assistant saying ‘We should get some water to people. There's Andrew, we'll get a water bottle to Andrew. There's Eddie, we'll just get this woman to pass a water bottle to Eddie.'
It was a member of my security team who said ‘That woman's the Governor-General and she's not here to pass water to Eddie McGuire'. He's definitely football royalty.
I sat at the grand final last year next to Andrew Demetriou, who barracked for a draw from the moment the ball bounced, right ‘til the end. I've never sat at the footy before when someone is screaming, absolutely screaming ‘hit the boundary' when the scores are level. That's what I had to put up with last time. So no one's saying draw today, we don't want a draw.
But it did give me the opportunity to go and spend the second grand final with our troops in Afghanistan and I know when the national anthem is sung today we'll all be spending a moment thinking about them.
But I do want to say that I've got some problems, Andrew, that I wanted to raise today with you. I've got some problems with the new teams, I've got some problems that we're using Kevin Sheedy, as much as I love him, as the person to take the great game of AFL to Western Sydney. After all, he talks like Yoda - no one is going to understand him.
And what about Gary Ablett? He can't even win the tipping competition. I did better than him in the tipping competition. Well, I suppose that's what happens when you have to tip the Suns every week.
Andrew, you've got these new teams wrong. I gave you the advice a few years ago and it's not too late to take it. One of the new teams should be called The Rangas, that's what we need a team of rangas. A few stalwarts on the ball, Dustin Fletcher down back, he's going to play forever. Bluey McKenna in the coaching box and Brownlow winning captain Adam Cooney, the original ginger ninja himself. The Rangas could be a great team, Andrew. It's not too late.
But there are no rangas and no Dogs playing today, so I've had to make a decision between the two teams available - Collingwood and anyone but Collingwood. So yes, I've gone for anyone but Collingwood. I'm going for Geelong. I'm consoling myself that I'll get to see Podsy play. We used to watch him at the Werribee Tigers, he was a legend then and he's going fantastically now. So Geelong for Podsy, Geelong for today.
I've had some great footy moments this year, even if I haven't had the grand final that I wanted. I did get to teach President Obama how to handball, I did get to spend some times at the Presidents Lunch at the Werribee Tigers, as well as some Dogs games. So I've has some great footy moments.
But I'm actually here for another great footy moment, because it's my incredible honour to be able to announce to you the Football Personality of the Year. Everybody would say he's big, some would say he's bad, I would say he's beloved. The Football Personality of the Year - Barry Hall.
[ENDS]