September in Melbourne has a sound to it. It is the roar that rolls out of the MCG on a Friday night and drifts across the parklands, the tram bells on Swan Street, the argument at the next table about whether the umpires have been getting it wrong all year. For four weekends the city organises itself around the finals, and if you are coming from interstate, or from the other side of Victoria, the question is not whether to come but where to base yourself so the whole trip works. This guide is the St Kilda East answer to that question, written from Kimberley Gardens at 441 Inkerman Street, six kilometres from the ground and a world away from the CBD scrum.

How finals September actually works

The finals series follows the same shape every year, which makes planning easier than it looks. Week one is the qualifying and elimination finals, four games across the first weekend of September, two of them in Melbourne if the ladder falls the right way. Week two is the semi finals, week three the preliminary finals, and then the whole state exhales for Grand Final week, which ends with the game itself on the last Saturday of the month.

The catch is that nothing is confirmed until it is confirmed. Venues and times for the first two weeks are announced by the AFL at the end of the home and away season, and each later week is fixed once the previous round is done. If your team is in the mix, you are planning around a maybe. That is exactly why flexible accommodation matters more in September than in any other month, and why the smart move is to secure a base with free cancellation terms and a car park, then let the footy sort itself out.

Victoria also gets a public holiday on the Friday before the Grand Final, which turns the last weekend into a four day event whether or not your side is playing. The city fills, the parade rolls through, and every cafe from Fitzroy to Balaclava runs hot from breakfast. If you only come for one weekend, that is the one, but it is also the weekend where staying a little outside the CBD pays for itself several times over.

Getting to the MCG from St Kilda East

This is the part people worry about and the part that is genuinely easy. Kimberley Gardens sits on Inkerman Street, a short walk from Balaclava station on the Sandringham line. That line runs straight into the city and stops at Richmond, and from Richmond the MCG is a well signed ten to fifteen minute walk through Yarra Park with thirty thousand other people heading the same way. Door to gate, allow about forty minutes on a normal day and a little more on a final, because trains fill from Balaclava onward and you may wait for a second one.

Trams work too. Routes along Carlisle Street and Balaclava Road connect to the city and to the Swan Street precinct, and on finals days the tram is the slower but more scenic option, rolling past the pubs that will be full by the time you come back. The route to avoid is the car. Yarra Park parking is limited, Richmond streets are permit only on match days, and the post-game exodus can add an hour to a ten minute drive. Leave the car in the free car park at the hotel, which is one of the reasons people who have done a finals trip from the CBD before choose townhouse accommodation in St Kilda East the second time around.

Two small habits make the day smoother. Load your myki or set up contactless payment before you leave, because the ticket machines at Balaclava will have a queue at 5pm on a Friday. And travel earlier than you think you need to, then use the spare half hour in the parklands rather than the platform. Yarra Park before a night final, with the light going and the ground lit up in front of you, is one of the better free experiences in Melbourne.

The ticket question

Finals tickets are released in stages and the order matters. Members of the competing clubs get the first window, AFL members next, and only then does the general public sale open, usually early in the week of the game. For the first three weeks that means tickets are hard but not impossible for a general fan, particularly for the Melbourne games where the MCG holds a hundred thousand people. Set an alarm for the on-sale time, use the official ticketing site only, and have a second choice of seating category ready, because the cheap bays go in minutes.

Grand Final tickets are a different beast. The public allocation is small and heavily balloted, most seats go to club and AFL members and to corporate packages, and if you are reading this without a membership the honest advice is to plan for the atmosphere rather than the seat. Grand Final week in Melbourne is worth the trip on its own, and the section below on where to watch is written with that in mind.

If you are travelling as a group, one person should hold the tickets and the group should book accommodation that keeps everyone together. The two and three bedroom serviced townhouses at Kimberley Gardens were built for exactly this: separate bedrooms so nobody shares with the snorer, one kitchen so the pre-game feed is easy, and a lounge big enough to argue about the selection table in.

Where to watch when you do not have a ticket

Half the fun of a finals trip is the games you watch from a bar stool. St Kilda East and its neighbours are well served here. Carlisle Street in Balaclava has a strip of pubs and wine bars that screen every final, most of them with a local crowd that has opinions and is happy to share them. It is a five minute walk from the hotel, which means you can leave the car, leave the coats and roll home when the siren goes.

Head toward the bay and the options widen. The pubs around Acland and Fitzroy Streets in St Kilda are bigger, louder and closer to the water, and on a Saturday night in September they are packed with interstate supporters in club colours. If you want the big screen and the big crowd, this is where to go. If you would rather eat well while you watch, the best restaurants in St Kilda guide has the rooms that put a game on quietly in the corner without turning dinner into a pub night.

The third option is the one most visitors forget until they have tried it. Every townhouse and villa at Kimberley Gardens has a full lounge with a television and a kitchen a few steps away. For a group that has already spent a day in the stands, watching the Saturday evening final at home with a platter and a bottle from the Carlisle Street shops is a genuinely good night, and nobody has to nominate a driver. The AFL and the City of Melbourne also announce public live sites in the lead up to the Grand Final, so keep an eye on those if you want the outdoor crowd without the ticket.

Eating around the footy

Finals days run on a strange clock. A Friday night game means a late dinner or an early one, a Saturday afternoon final means lunch at eleven, and a Sunday match eats the middle of the day. The trick is to eat where you are staying rather than where the game is, because Richmond and the CBD are the most expensive and most crowded places to eat in Melbourne in September and the queues are not a sign of quality, just of proximity.

St Kilda East does the pre-game meal well. The cafes and bakeries along Carlisle Street open early and do a proper breakfast, and the Jewish delis and bagel shops around Balaclava are the right kind of fuel for a long day in the stands. Our guide to St Kilda's most popular eateries covers the standouts, and most of them are within a short walk or a two stop tram ride of the hotel.

The post-game feed is where the townhouse kitchen earns its keep. Stock up at the Carlisle Street shops on the way in, keep it simple, and eat at midnight in your own lounge rather than hunting for a kitchen that is still open. For a group of six after a preliminary final, that beats any restaurant in the city.

A finals day, hour by hour

Take a Saturday twilight final as the template. Breakfast in Balaclava around nine, then a swim in the indoor heated pool while the day warms up. An early lunch at the townhouse, a walk to Balaclava station by half past two, and you are in Yarra Park with time for a wander before the gates open. After the game, let the crowd clear for twenty minutes, take the train back to Balaclava, and finish with a drink on Carlisle Street or at home. No car, no surge pricing, no midnight taxi queue.

The non-footy day

Even the most devoted supporter needs a day off, and September is a good month to have one. The weather is turning, the bay walk from St Kilda to Brighton is at its best in the early spring light, and the little penguins on the St Kilda breakwater are out most evenings. Our guide to St Kilda's little penguins covers when to go and where to stand.

If you have the family along, the mid-week gap between finals is when Melbourne is quietest. The things to do in Melbourne with kids guide is built around a St Kilda East base, from Luna Park and the foreshore to the city museums, and most of it can be done on the same train line you will use for the footy. The indoor heated pool under the glass ceiling at the hotel is the easiest entertainment of all on a rainy Wednesday.

For couples doing the trip as a long weekend, the spa rooms are the right call: a quiet room with its own spa bath, a short walk from the Carlisle Street cafes, and no need to share a bathroom with a group. Book the game night in a pub, the second night somewhere good in St Kilda, and let the third day take care of itself.

Grand Final weekend, done properly

The last weekend of September is Melbourne's biggest party and it is a four day event. The Friday public holiday brings the Grand Final parade through the city, the Saturday is the game, and the Sunday is the collective hangover. If you are coming for the atmosphere rather than a ticket, this is the weekend, and it is also the weekend where being outside the CBD matters most. City hotels are at their most expensive, the streets around Federation Square are shoulder to shoulder from Thursday, and getting a taxi after the game is a sport in itself.

From St Kilda East the weekend is easier. Watch the parade on the Friday, then retreat to a quieter suburb for the evening. On Saturday, pick your venue early: a Balaclava pub for the local feel, a St Kilda beer garden for the crowd, or the townhouse lounge for the group who wants to actually hear the commentary. On Sunday, the bay is right there for the walk everyone needs.

If you are organising a club function, a supporter group dinner or a corporate table for the weekend, the event space at Kimberley Gardens takes private bookings and sits a short walk from the townhouses, which solves the problem of getting a group of forty home afterwards.

Why one suburb back wins in September

There is a version of the finals trip that costs twice as much and delivers half the sleep, and it is the one where you stay in the CBD because the ground is there. The maths does not hold. The MCG is not in the CBD, it is on the eastern edge of it, and a train from Balaclava takes about the same time as a walk from a Collins Street hotel and a lot less time than a taxi from Southbank on Grand Final night.

What you gain by staying in St Kilda East is a quiet street, a free car park, a kitchen, a pool and a neighbourhood that is not trying to sell you a fifteen dollar beer. For the same money as a single city room, a group can take a three bedroom townhouse with a laundry and a lounge, which changes the trip from a series of hotel rooms into a base camp. The MCG basecamp guide goes deeper on the logistics if you want the full version.

And when the finals are done, you are still in one of the better corners of Melbourne. The cafes are open on the Monday, the bay is a tram ride away, and the city will have gone back to its normal pace. The accommodation at Kimberley Gardens runs from spa rooms for two to villas for six, and the team on (03) 9526 3888 can match a layout to your group and your match dates.