| 1989 VFL Grand Final | |
|---|---|
| Home Team | Hawthorn |
| Away Team | Geelong |
| Date | 30 September 1989 |
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| City | Melbourne |
| TV in Australia | |
| Network | Seven Network |
| < 1988 • AFL Grand Final • 1990 > | |
The 1989 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and the Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1989. It was the the 93rd annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1989 VFL season. The match, attended by 94,796 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 6 points, marking that club's 8th premiership win. It is regarded as one of the greatest Grand Finals of all time.[1]
Hawthorn were the reigning premiers, having defeated Melbourne in the 1988 VFL Grand Final by a record margin of 96 points, while for Geelong it was their first appearance in a Grand Final since losing to Richmond in the 1967 VFL Grand Final.
At the conclusion of the regular home-and-away season, Hawthorn had finished on top of the ladder with 19 wins and 3 losses. Geelong had finished third (behind Essendon) with 16 wins and 6 losses.
In the finals series leading up to the game, Geelong lost the Qualifying Final to Essendon by 76 points, before beating Melbourne by 63 points in the First Semi-Final, and then defeating Essendon by 94 points in the Preliminary Final to advance to the Grand Final. Hawthorn had a much easier run, defeating Essendon in the Second Semi-Final to advance straight to the Grand Final.
In the week leading up to the Grand Final, Geelong's Paul Couch was awarded the Brownlow Medal.
It was a physical game right from the start when Geelong's Mark Yeates ran through Dermott Brereton at the opening bounce, bruising Brereton's kidney, and causing him internal bleeding and broken ribs. Brereton threw up on the ground after getting up. In a courageous display, Brereton refused to leave the ground and marked and goaled several minutes later to stem Geelong's attempt to establish superiority. Later heavy clashes would see John Platten concussed and Robert DiPierdomenico suffer broken ribs and a punctured lung, sending them both to hospital after the game.[2]
Geelong's attack on the man and not the ball backfired in the first quarter, as they went into the quarter time break having scored two goals to Hawthorn's eight. The Hawks' opening term of 8.4 (52) is the record for the best first quarter score in Grand Final history (equalling the same score set by Carlton against Richmond in the 1972 VFL Grand Final). Despite nine goals from Geelong champion Gary Ablett and a spirited final quarter fightback by the Cats, Hawthorn held on to win by six points to take back-to-back flags, and cement their status as the most successful team of the 1980s. Jason Dunstall, Dean Anderson and Gary Buckenara each kicked four goals for the Hawks.
Ablett's nine goals set the record for most goals kicked by a player in a losing Grand Final side, beating the previous record of 8 set by Hawthorn's Brereton the 1985 VFL Grand Final, and tied Gordon Coventry's overall record of goals in a Grand Final set in the 1928 VFL Grand Final. The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Ablett for being judged the best player afield. This is only one of four instances of a Grand Final player having won a Norm Smith Medal without being on the winning premiership team.
Scottish soccer player Ray Stewart observed the game, and was recorded to have said "I would not play this game for a million dollars."[2]
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