AFL Premiership Cup in Geraldton for Great Northern Football League grand final

Geraldton had a famous visitor for the Great Northern Football League grand finals on Sunday.

It wasn’t a player, however, or even a famous spectator — it was the AFL’s biggest prize, the Premiership Cup.

Harry Taylor, the GNFL’s operations manager and a Northampton player and two-time AFL premier with Geelong, said football fans were fortunate to have such a celebrated visitor in town.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “We probably don’t appreciate how big a thing it is.

“The cup doesn’t do a tour of our State every year. It’s a very rare thing — we’re very very fortunate to have it here.”

Onlookers lined up, keen for a view and a snap with the cup at the WA Country Builders Stadium as the Brigades took the GNFL premiership flag from the Railways.

Kylie Rogers, an executive general manager at the AFL, said the tour would help footy lovers in regional and remote areas get swept up in finals fever.

“WA has a strong football culture in communities from the grassroots to the elite level, so we’re delighted to be able to take the premiership cup to a number of these great football clubs and iconic WA locations,” she said.

The cup started in Broome before heading south through the Pilbara towns of Port Hedland and Karratha. The tour will also take in Kalgoorlie, Manjimup and Perth.

Local photographer and Yamatji man Tamati Smith is capturing the cup’s tour through WA by helicopter through the Ord Valley, in a plane over the Bungle Bungles, and among the locals in Halls Creek.