Ask Millie
Take the train. This is not negotiable.
The MCG fits nearly 100,000 people. On a big game day, driving anywhere near Jolimont is not a plan — it’s a choice to spend two hours in traffic after the siren.
The Jolimont / Flinders Street rail corridor is fast and frequent on match days. From the city it takes seven minutes. From Richmond station it’s a short walk. That’s the transport plan — everything else is what you do before and after the game while the stadium empties. Here’s how to structure the day.
The three precincts worth knowing are Richmond, East Melbourne, and the CBD. Each has different characteristics on game day, and the right choice depends on what you’re after — a proper meal, a quick drink before gates, or post-game debrief.
Richmond, East Melbourne, or the CBD.
Crowd buffer is the whole strategy.
The MCG crowds move in waves. The biggest pressure points are the ninety minutes before a popular game (when everyone is trying to get in) and the thirty minutes after the final siren (when everyone is trying to leave at the same time).
Pre-game plan: Arrive early enough to eat properly and get in without the gate crush. For a 1:45pm Saturday game, that means arriving in Richmond or East Melbourne by 11:30am, eating a proper lunch, and walking to the ground at 12:45pm. You enter before the main crowd hits, find your seats, and you’re settled by the time the majority arrive.
Post-game plan: The best post-game option is to either stay in your seat for thirty minutes after the siren and let the concourse clear, or exit and head directly to a venue you’ve already scoped out and wait the crowd out there. Trying to navigate the MCG concourse and then take the train in the first fifteen minutes post-siren is the low point of every big game day.
Tell PlanSorted the game time and how many people — the assistant will build a pre/post plan with timing and specific options based on current venue data.
Finals rewrite all of it. Plan the day earlier.
Every rule above still holds in September, it just runs harder. A final at the MCG draws a bigger, earlier, more committed crowd than a home-and-away Saturday — people arrive hours before the bounce because the day is the point, not just the game. Richmond and East Melbourne fill from late morning. The tables you could walk into in June need a booking, and the pubs that take walk-ins hit capacity before the gates open.
The 2026 Grand Final is at the MCG on Saturday 26 September, first bounce 2.30pm. The day before it — Friday 25 September — is a Victorian public holiday, and the Grand Final Parade runs that morning from Melbourne Park through Birrarung Marr and over the William Barak Bridge into Yarra Park. Check the current time on the AFL site before you build around it; the route has been stable for several years, the start time moves.
What that means practically: the whole sports precinct is a pedestrian event on the Friday, not just the Saturday. If you are not going to the parade, this is the worst morning of the year to have a quiet coffee near Jolimont and a very good one to be anywhere else. If you are, walk in from the city side and treat Richmond as the afternoon, once the crowd has moved on.
The public holiday also cuts the other way. Plenty of Richmond and East Melbourne cafés and small bars close or shorten hours on a public holiday, some add a surcharge, and public transport runs a holiday timetable rather than a weekday one. Ring ahead rather than assuming; the venues that stay open are the ones geared for the crowd, which is not always the ones you would otherwise pick.
Finals week also collides with the Victorian spring school holidays, which run from Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October 2026. The city is busier all fortnight, not only on match days.
Food before, drinks after. The crowd clears in an hour.
Common mistakes on game days.
- Driving. The MCG and surrounds have limited parking and heavy traffic for two hours pre and post game on any match over 50,000 attendance. Train from Flinders Street (Hurstbridge or Belgrave line) or tram to stop 11 on Route 48/75. You will not regret it.
- Eating at venues immediately adjacent to the ground gates. Every stadium in the world has overpriced mediocre food at the gates. The five-minute walk to Richmond high street is worth it every time.
- Leaving immediately after the siren. The concourse holds 100,000 people trying to do the same thing. Stay in your seat or head to a venue and leave thirty to forty minutes after the final whistle.
- Booking a restaurant for the post-game with a firm time. Games run over. Final sirens slip. A booking at 6:30pm for a 4:00pm game is always optimistic. Book something late or choose places that take walk-ins.
- Treating a September final like a round-nine Saturday. Same ground, different city. Book, arrive earlier than feels sensible, and pick somewhere that can absorb a group without a reservation as the backup.
- Underestimating the walk from Richmond station. It’s about fifteen minutes to the main ground entrance at a normal pace. In a crowd with 40,000 other people it’s longer. Add time.
