Michael Osborne with almost 100,000 in attendance and millions watching on, will run on to the MCG today for an AFL grand final.

Osborne, a Labrador Tigers junior, will play game No.99 today, and is a crowd favourite. Fans yesterday chanted Ossie, Ossie, Ossie - Oi! Oi! Oi! as his car made its way through the Melbourne CBD in the grand final parade.

Wearing dark shades and looking as excited as a schoolboy, Osborne soaked up the hype.

“It is a long way from Labrador, but I am enjoying it and I’m really excited,” he said.

“Apart from today’s parade, it has been quite normal this week.

“We have just been looking at the opposition and getting our training right.”

Labrador could not sustain a brilliant first half display highlighted by four goals from leukemia survivor Shane Burn, succumbing to Southport by 48 points.

The Tigers showed plenty of heart to kick the first four goals of the game and lead by six points at the long break, but conceded 10 goals to one after halftime to lose 17.15 (117)-10.9 (69).

Burn had the Cooke-Murphy Oval faithful in raptures in the opening half, booting one goals in the first term and three in the second as the Tigers looked capable of producing their second big upset in the space of seven days.

Playing senior football again after his brave battle with leukemia, Burn led well and marked strongly, adding the sole goal in the final half to finish with five for the day.

So good was Burn that he had Southport great Clint Watts moved off him and gun defender Kurt Niklaus for company for the second half.

The Tigers were unable to put a lid on lively half-forward Justin Kahlefeldt, who worked hard up and down the ground to cut them to pieces.

Midfielder Jason Burge was just as lively, his sheer pace proving difficult for the Tigers to counter.

While Trent Knobel was very good for Labrador around the ground, he completed limited rockwork, allowing Broc McAulay to dominated the taps and give his running brigade first use of the ball.

The Tigers did have two good wins in the midfield, with Mark Reilly doing an excellent tagging job on Danny Wise and regular forward Corey Munson shading the in-form David James.

Southport workhorses Darren O’Brien and Fraser Pope took charge of the midfield in the second half, while Dayne Beams again found plenty of space inside the forward 50.

Beams kicked two goals and, like last week at Broadbeach, could easily have doubled that tally.

Labrador were delighted with the effort of stalwart Nathan Gurcuillo, who held gun full-forward Ben McEntee to just two goals despite a glut of ball in the second half.

Brett Sinclair and Russell Alleway had a good duel, with Sinclair kicking two goals and coming out on top on points, although he was nowhere near as damaging as the previous week.

Southport mixed up their attack and sent Kevin Tandogac forward in the final term and he responded with two goals.

AFLQ

Labrador turned the finals race upside down with a shock win over Morningside.

The Panthers tumbled out of the four, losing 20-16 (136) to 21-9 (135) in a game that was sealed when giant ruckman Trent Knobel kicked his fifth goal in the dying moments.

“He was massive,” said coach Byron Donnellan of Knobel. “But we had Nathan Gurciullo keeping Kent Abey to only three goals, we had Mark Reilly shut down David Lillico and we had Rusty Alleway do the same on Jarrod Price.”

Knobel, a former AFL player with Brisbane, St Kilda and Richmond, has been instrumental in two thrillers for Labrador this season.

In round 7, he snatched victory with two late behinds in a two-point win against Zillmere.