Ratings show a total TV audience of 4.286 million for the thrilling Sydney Roosters versus Newcastle Knights NRL Grand Final, with bottle shops the big winners as footy fans stocked up.

Bottle shops in Newcastle even got into the spirit by decorating their stores, including Cellarbrations Adamstown and McCauley’s Bottle Shop at Soldier’s Point (both pictured main).

Around 22,500 tickets were also snapped up for the McDonald Jones Stadium Grand Final live site in Newcastle within three minutes of going on sale. During the event, fans are expected to consume around 15,000 bottles of water and soft drinks, 5000 litres of beer, 1.25 tonnes of hot chips, 375 kilograms of chicken, 2500 meat pies, 1750 hot dogs and 1750 sausage rolls.

As Aussies look for ways to save, Coles customers declared Grand Final season a home game, with 86% saying they expected to watch the footy at home. 

Coles research found that one in five customers love a beer or wine on game day. Beer sales at Liquorland increased by more than 10% in the two weeks leading up to AFL Grand Final day, with the retailer selling more than 6.5 million litres of beer in the period.

Liquorland Business Category Manager for Beer Nick McArdle said: “Footy finals are a big social occasion, with friends and families coming together to watch the game, fire up the barbecue and enjoy the atmosphere at home.

“As the finals build, we see that translate into stronger demand for beer, with customers looking for a range of options to suit different tastes and occasions.”

Sales of pizza, pies, sauce and easy entertaining products also skyrocketed at Coles.

Coles’ data revealed 45% of surveyed customers nationally crowned the meat pie the ultimate footy food, Victorians were the greatest loyalists with more than half (55%) giving the pie top billing, compared with just over one third of NSW (36%) and Queensland (38%) voters.

When fans settled in to watch the game from home however, the field opened up with pies (30%), pizza (28%) and chips and dip (27%) among the favourite choices.