In downtown Toronto, in a century-old building at 539 Bloor Street West, can be found the noted watering hole Paupers Pub.

The three-floor boozer, once home to a branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, offers “a warm atmosphere” according to the website blurb.

On Grand Final day this year, Paupers accommodated players, officials and supporters of Toronto’s Central Blues - a nine year-old outfit which fields teams in Ontario’s Australian Rules competition.

The Central Blues, by way of their President Jen Nicholls, and Treasurer and founder Bruce Parker, pre-promoted the night via their social networks thus;

“For those who don’t know a lot about Australian Rules football; the Grand Final is Super Bowl of AFL. The two best clubs closing out the season with a chance to win it all. The game’s first bounce doesn’t usually happen until around 11 30 pm Toronto time and goes late into the night. Traditionally we play a pre-lim game at doors open to get everyone amped up for the main event. So come down, join the blues, bring your friends, have a few pints and watch one of the most amazing sports spectacles there is.”

Amongst those frequenting the bar at Paupers on Grand Final day was Carlton’s very own Cameron Wood, who parted with $10 of his hard-earned to be part of the festivities.

Here, the big bloke recounts what happened at Paupers in this, the second of his “postcards” series.

Just before my recent trip, I caught up with Marnie McManus, who is involved with broadcasting at the AFL. I met her a couple of years ago through Tyson Goldsack, whose girlfriend Chelsea is a friend of hers.

I remember saying to Marnie “Where in Toronto can I watch the Grand Final?” and she said “I’ll let you know”. Anyway, I must have been in San Diego when I got her list of a few places, all of which revolved around a few of the local footy clubs like the Toronto Dingoes and Toronto Central Blues. So I looked up Toronto Central Blues on Facebook and the first thing I saw was the Carlton jumper with the maple leaf around it.


When I was at Collingwood, I remembered that Collingwood had an affiliation with New York Magpies, so I texted Luca (Gonano, Carlton Football Club Digital Manager) to ask whether Carlton had any affiliation with the Toronto Blues - and he said “Yeah, they came out here six or seven years ago and we looked after them”. Anyway, he chased down the details for someone at the Central Blues, Bruce Parker his name was.

When I got to Toronto I rang Bruce and he gave me a heads up, saying “Yeah, we’d love to have you down for the GF”.

On Grand Final day I went to a baseball game in Toronto that wound up at about 10.30pm local time and then I headed to Paupers as the Grand Final came on at about midnight. By then rumours had been tweeted around that I was lobbing and I bought in, saying “Yeah, I’m coming”.

Before I walked in, one of their guys chucked a Toronto jumper at me, saying “Whack that on – they’ll love it.” I put the jumper on and walked into the joint and it was packed.


There were a fair few Australians there - some wearing Carlton jumpers, others wearing jumpers of Geelong and Richmond - and there were Irish, English, Americans and obviously Canadians. Some of the Central Blues players were also there. They told me they remembered walking past this ground in Toronto, seeing blokes playing footy and asking them what it was – and then joining up.

Grand Final night at Paupers was a great night. There were drinks on offer, and prizes for first goalkicker, Norm Smith Medallist and all that - and they got me to draw the raffle at half-time.

At one stage we sang the Toronto song – it’s the same song (Lily of Laguna), and I stood on the table and led the way with da-da-da-da-da.

The night ended late at around 4am, which made my daytrip to Niagara Falls the next morning quite an effort. Pick up from my hotel was at 9am but thankfully I made the bus and had a fantastic day taking in one of the wonders of the world.