There is an art to hosting a grand final BBQ. Get it right, and your mates will love you. Get it wrong and you’ll be a social pariah. Here’s our guide to being the host with the most.

Whether your code is AFL or NRL, the Grand Final weekend is a sacred day on any Australian’s calendar. Part of the time-honoured tradition involves having a BBQ with your mates. But hosting is a responsibility that is not to be entered into lightly.

The television

Perhaps the most important point is – how big is your TV? If it’s less than huge your mates might just turn on their heels and head to the nearest pub. If you don’t have a massive flat screen, you need to ask yourself – should you really be hosting a Grand Final BBQ at all? Find a TV service and installation expert here.

To achieve the status of "legend" among your mates, consider setting a second TV up outside, especially if it’s a nice day.

This isn’t a regular social gathering – the whole point of it is to spend half the day watching TV, so make sure everyone has a comfortable chair with a good view of the game.

The catering

The second rule of hosting a Grand Final BBQ? You cannot over cater. At a minimum, hosts are expected to supply meat, potatoes, salad, plenty of ice buckets, soft drinks and nibbles. Guests will bring their own alcohol (unless they are university students), but you should have some back-up beer, just in case. The food doesn’t need to be fancy – just make sure there’s lots of it.

While the pre-game entertainment starts at about 1.30pm AEST, you should expect guests to start rocking up around noon. Fire up the BBQ as soon as the first guests arrive. There should be chips and nibbles to keep them busy until the food is cooked.

While food options range from expensive seafood and rib eye to sausages in bread, you can’t go wrong with sausages, lamb cutlets, skewers and chicken wings – they are all easy to eat standing up (Check out our guide on buying a BBQ) Add a big dish of scalloped potatoes, crusty white bread, plus a couple of salads and you’ll satisfy the hungriest footy fan. 

You can keep cooking food all the way through the pre-game entertainment – you won’t miss much. Traditionally, the Grand Final entertainment is always a disaster. Your guests will chuckle while as they wave a lamb cutlet in the air and reminisce about the time Meatloaf played at the "G".

However, the BBQ must be finished by the time the footy kicks off at 2.30pm AEST.  Who wants to be manning the BBQ while the game is underway? Don’t feel like you need to feed anyone that turns up after kick off – latecomers deserve nothing more than leftover chips.

At half time, you need to bring out the finger food – sausage rolls, mini pies, nachos (want our recipe for perfect nachos?) – don’t forget the tomato sauce.

After the game, people won’t leave straight away. In fact they will probably hang around for most of the evening. You’ll need more drinks for the post-game analysis, and you’ll probably find yourself firing up the BBQ again at about 7pm. At this point you will well and truly have achieved legend status.

Etiquette

Chances are, with only two teams making the Grand Final, your team didn’t make it.

It doesn’t matter – you still have to pick a side, and stick with them for the whole game. There is nothing worse than a guest at a Grand Final BBQ who doesn’t care who wins. You won’t be invited back – guaranteed.

Footy is a great social lubricant, and you don’t need a lot of insider knowledge to join in. With only a few clichéd gems such as yelling "BALL!" when there’s a tackle, or suggesting that the "third quarter is the decider"; you’ll fit right in. Just make sure that no one – and we mean no-one – stands in front of the TV at any given point.