BEST OF THE BEST

One of our very own, Elizabeth Grayland, recently won a national AFL footy tipping crown and scooped up the first prize!

This is the story of an unlikely winner claiming the prize against some of the country's most seasoned tipsters and analysts. David and Goliath if you like.

Serious footy tippers spend hours reviewing games, checking injury lists, considering travel issues, home ground advantages and key match ups. Not Elizabeth.

When the Year 7 students wanted a tipping competition, Year Level Coordinator Jarmin Paddick was all for it and students and staff signed up to tips.com.au to administer the local competition.

This however also enters you in the national pool where Newscorp provide a prize to the best in the land from all the local competitions and some 28,000 entries.

So that's how Elizabeth joined the party. As a Year 7 homeroom teacher she played along with her students for the fun of it.

But instead of stressing about this on a weekly basis, she entered all of her tips prior to round one - yes, for the whole year.

At round 4 the students noticed Miss Grayland had a '1' next to her name in the tipping results. She thought she was leading her homeroom, but Mr Paddick confirmed this was in fact 1 of 28,000 and so they started watching more closely.

Now in 2021 it certainly paid to be a Melbourne supporter and Elizabeth stuck with the Demons through thick and thin.

And in the end it was Melbourne and their captain Max Gawn who delivered her the title.

Going into the final round Elizabeth stuck firm to her original tips, despite urgings from some on staff for her to tinker with them.

Elizabeth was in a tie for first place nationally but would lose on a countback due to margin predictions if scores remained level. She hadn't taken much notice of that back in March. Second prize was $0 so the stakes were high.

You may recall the last round of the season when Geelong led Melbourne by seven goals late in the third quarter playing for top spot.

The Demons made a barnstorming run and it was a goal after the siren from Big Max that won the game and ultimately the tipping competition for Elizabeth.

Elizabeth admits she only watched parts of the match due to nerves and left the room several times. "I watched that last goal though", she said.

Having survived the ultimate near miss she chose well enough in the remaining games that week to win the crown by just one tip.

Then began a nervous wait for confirmation, and finally payment, before it became a reality and Elizabeth intends to put the money towards her mortgage.

Elizabeth was born near the MCG and was signed up to the MCC at birth by her father, but it wasn't until her 20's she started following the Demons with any real level of interest.

And didn't it pay off in 2021 - the top prize and a drought-breaking premiership!

"I really thought it was amazing to be leading, even if it was for just one week", Elizabeth said.

"Mr Paddick would send me messages some weeks asking me how I could possibly tip winners like Essendon in Perth, but I just picked them at the start and went with them."

For the keen footy tippers on staff the general reaction to the win was "disbelief". "I think they thought I'd won the Trinity tipping comp, but I didn't even go in that," she said.

Elizabeth's score in the 150s would have won pretty much any tipping competition in the country this year. The best of the best.

But there is another fact that goes a little unnoticed here. Another Year 7 homeroom teacher, and Melbourne supporter, Jess Van den Eynde finished 15th in the competition out of the 28,000 tipsters. Amazing!

So for those serious about footy tipping in 2022 you may want to shell out a little consultancy fee to Elizabeth or Jess and improve your chances considerably.