1976 VFL Grand Final

The 1976 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 25 September 1976. It was the 80th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1976 VFL season. The match, attended by 110,143 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 30 points, marking that club's third premiership victory.

Background

This was North Melbourne's third successive Grand Final, and were the reigning premiers after having defeated Hawthorn in the 1975 VFL Grand Final.

At the conclusion of the regular home-and-away season, Hawthorn had finished second (behind Carlton) on the ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses. North Melbourne had finished third with 15 wins and 7 losses. During the season Hawthorn played North Melbourne in two home and away games, winning by 22 and 8 points respectively.

In the finals series leading up to the Grand Final, North Melbourne lost to Hawthorn by 20 points in the Qualifying Final before defeating Geelong by 33 points in the First Semi-Final. They then met Carlton in the Preliminary Final which they won by just one point to advance to the Grand Final. Hawthorn, after their win in the Qualifying Final, defeated Carlton by 17 points in the Second Semi-Final to advance to the Grand Final.

Both teams made six changes to their respective teams from the 1975 Grand Final.

Match summary

Hawthorn took the initiative from the start, with Leigh Matthews kicking the first goal of the game after 5 minutes. Late in the first quarter, Matthews struck North Melbourne captain Keith Greig on the forehead sending him to the ground. Greig stayed on the ground but had little impact for the rest of the first half.

However, as the game progressed the Hawks were wasteful. They could have been further ahead had it not been for some wayward kicking, scoring 9.12 by half time to only lead by 19 points that the main break.

After 10 minutes in the third quarter Kangaroos coach Ron Barassi made the move of putting Brent Crosswell on for Peter Keenan, which immediately provided North Melbourne with a target. The Hawks continued to miss opporutnites, kicking 1.6 for the quarter, and by three-quarter time the margin between the teams had closed to just ten points.

However, in the final quarter the Hawks kept the Kangaroos goalless. Greig suffered another heavy blow from Matthews, while Peter Knights and David O'Halloran each took big marks for Hawthorn. The Hawks added three goals for the quarter and eventually ran out easy winners. It was the club's third win under coach John Kennedy.

This was the first Grand Final to be played under two field umpires.

Epilogue

Hawthorn's win was dedicated to former captain Peter Crimmins who was suffering from cancer. Crimmins, 28, sent a telegram which Kennedy read out before the players took the field: "Good luck to you and all the boys. It will be a long, hard, 100 minutes but I am sure you will be there at the end. Regards, Peter Crimmins." Kennedy implored his players to "Do it for the little fella", and later stated that he believed his team was never going to lose.^[1] Crimmins' team mates carried the premiership cup to Crimmins' hospital bed on the night of the Grand Final win. He would die three days after the game.

This was Kennedy's last game as Hawthorn coach. He was subsequently appointed coach of North Melbourne in 1985 and in his five seasons there he coached the club to the finals twice.

Hawthorn's next appearance in a Grand Final would be two years later (again against North Melbourne), in the 1978 VFL Grand Final, while North's next appearance would be against Collingwood in the 1977 VFL Grand Final.

Five players from the Hawks premiership team would later be named in the Hawthorn team of the century: Don Scott, Michael Tuck, Leigh Matthews, Kelvin Moore and Peter Knights. Six playeers from the North Melbourne team would later be named in that club's team of the century: Malcolm Blight, Wayne Schimmelbusch, Keith Greig, Barry Cable, David Dench and Brent Crosswell.

Teams

Goalkickers

References

• The Official statistical history of the AFL 2004
• Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

See also

• 1976 VFL season