Joel Selwood moment at AFL grand final goes viral in America

Joel Selwood's beautiful moment after Saturday's AFL grand final has gone viral in the United States.

The victorious Geelong skipper melted hearts around Australia after celebrating his side's 81-point grand final win over Sydney with one of the Cats' biggest fans.

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The Geelong captain tasted premiership success for the fourth time on Saturday as Geelong dismantled the Swans 20.13 (133) to 8.4 (52) in front of a full house at the MCG.

In what could have been the final game in the Geelong veteran's glittering career, Selwood instead made it about much more than himself with a beautiful gesture for a die-hard Cats fan.

Selwood was walking around the MCG celebrating with fans when he spotted the club's honorary 'waterboy' Sam Moorfoot in the crowd, who he promptly made a beeline towards.

Moorfoot has Down Syndrome and has been acting as the club's water boy during training sessions for a number of years.

He is well known at the Cats and has been performing various volunteer roles with with his beloved club for the last seven years.

In a lovely post-match moment on Saturday, Selwood embraced Moorfoot and asked if he wanted to join him on the field, picking him up and helping him over the boundary fence.

Jeremy Cameron then draped his premiership medal around Moorfoot's neck as Selwood put his arm around him and saluted the crowd.

The beautiful scenes captured the hearts of footy fans all around Australia, with the AFL sharing the video on its official Twitter page.

Since it was posted, the video has been viewed more than 6.8 million times.

Better still, American broadcasting giant ESPN also picked up on the heartwarming occasion, despite the majority of the country probably having no idea what AFL is.

"This is awesome," the network's SportsCenter program captioned on their video of the incident, which has been viewed more than 178,000 times.

Moorfoot was working as a volunteer at the Cats bistro until it was closed due to the redevelopment of Geelong's home ground at GMHBA Stadium.

He was then given the honour of being the team's water boy on their main training day, with Selwood detailing his bond with Moorfoot in the past.

“We share a very special friendship, and I consider him like family. He has my back and I have his," Selwood told The Age.

Joel Selwood 'like a brother' to Sam Moorfoot

Moorfoot praised Selwood for being a "great real model" but says all of the Geelong players have been incredible to him.

“I think Joel is amazing. A great role model but also a little bit cheeky. He treats me like a brother and always looks out for me,” Moorfoot said.

“There isn’t one player at Geelong that isn’t kind and supportive. They are all my mates.”

Saturday's victory was Selwood's first premiership as captain and adds to his triumphs in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

The explosion of emotion when Selwood scored his goal in the dying minutes indicated the Cats are prepared for the possibility of their skipper calling time on his illustrious career.

But Selwood was adamant the result had "zero" bearing on a call he is yet to make, while delighting in claiming his first flag since 2011.

"(Premiership No.4 is) special. I'm a little bit older. The work that goes into them is just huge," he said.

"I look around, I've pictured these boys as premiership players for a long time. So to be there and get there, it's remarkable.

"I've played nearly 200 games with Mark Blicavs and Cam Guthrie, for them to get a premiership medal now, that's what I go to work for to be honest."

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