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Relax Everybody, Adele Has Not Ruined The AFL Women's Grand Final. Or Has She?

The Lions could have had it all. And hopefully they still will.
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Adele performed a couple of concerts at the Gabba in Brisbane over the weekend. This could be problematic for the AFL Women's grand final, which is scheduled for March 25, and here's why.

This inaugural AFL Women's season is a brief affair. Each team plays each other once and then there's no final series. The leading two teams simply face off in the grand final, with the top team to host.

That team looks increasingly likely to be someone like the Brisbane Lions, especially after they won a thriller against the Adelaide Crows on Saturday night. The preferred location for the match is the Gabba. But will the famous ground be ready to say 'hello' to the big match?

Rumour has it the Adele concert required boards to be placed across the surface of the ground. The turf must now be relaid, and the plan was always for it to be ready for footy by April 1, when the men's Lions team hosts Essendon. But will the ball be rolling in the deep grass a week earlier?

"I don't think they see any problems," Steele Tallon, the Lions communications manager, told The Huffington Post Australia.

There's a bit of Adele in all of them.
Jason O'Brien via Getty Images
There's a bit of Adele in all of them.

But there are no guarantees. A footy-ready surface in less than three weeks is very much a race against time. It's basically a case of chasing grass rather than chasing pavements.

It's uncertain where the grand final would be played if the Gabba is not ready. The obvious choice would be Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, where the Lions are playing the Gold Coast Suns that same evening.

But while the one and only women's grand final will be played on Saturday afternoon, Tallon said it was the club's preference that the match not be a curtain raiser to a men's game.

"They'd get a crowd anywhere between 10 and 20 thousand and we think they deserve a stand-alone match."

The Lions will put on a bunch of free buses for fans who want to catch both the women's grand final and the blokes' match down at the Gold Coast.

Here's hoping they get to experience a little hometown glory.

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