1989 VFL Grand Final- September 30, 1989- Final Quarter

• published: 23 Sep 2014
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The entire final quarter of the 1989 Victorian Football League (VFL) Grand Final, which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Saturday 30th September, 1989, between the Hawthorn Football Club (The Hawks) and the Geelong Football Club (The Cats). The 93th VFL Grand Final saw an official attendance of 94,796 spectators. The commentators for this Grand Final were Dennis Cometti, Ian Robertson, Don Scott, and Michael Roberts. The legendary Allan "Yabby" Jeans was Hawthorn's coach, and the legendary Malcolm Blight was Geelong's coach. The final score saw Hawthorn defeating Geelong by 6 points, to hand Hawthorn its eighth Premiership victory, and its fourth of the 1980s (1983, 1986, 1988, 1989), which was also the fourth of five Premierships of that great Hawthorn era (1991 being the fifth). Recorded on VHS from the broadcast of the 2001 AFL Grand Final Marathon, September 29, 2001, on the Seven Network (HSV-7). Vaxfacts: This was the last VFL Grand Final ever played. From 1990, the Victorian Football League officially changed its name to the Australian Football League, so as to become the official national competition, which had not existed in Australia prior to that point. The VFL was the natural choice to evolve into the AFL- not only was it the largest and richest competition in the country, it had become the first league to field a team from outside of its state jurisdiction, when the South Melbourne Swans, due to financial reasons, moved to Sydney, a Rugby League stronghold, in 1982. With the inclusion of the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears in 1987, the VFL had expanded from a primarily Melbourne metropolitan competition to a national one- the name change completed the transition. This Grand Final featured some of the best players of the last 30 years- for Hawthorn, Michael Tuck, Jason Dunstall, Dermott Brereton, Robert DiPierdomenico and John Platten took the field, while for Geelong, Gary Ablett (Senior), Garry Hocking, Barry Stoneham and Bill Brownless played. This Grand Final was quite a brutal one, with many players suffering some serious injuries- Brereton played most of the match with broken ribs, a bruised kidney and internal bleeding, Platten had suffered concussion, while DiPierdomenico played much of the match with broken ribs and a punctured lung. Hawthorn ended the match with only 13 fit players. Gary Ablett's nine goals equaled the record for goals kicked in a Grand Final, which earned him the Norm Smith Medal, awarded to the best player of the Grand Final.