| 1976 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 25 September 1976 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 110,143 | |||||||||||||||
| Umpires | Kevin Smith,Bill Deller | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Jock McHale Medallist | John Kennedy Sr. | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | Seven Network | |||||||||||||||
| Commentators | Mike Williamson Lou Richards | |||||||||||||||
The1976 VFL grand final was anAustralian rules football game contested between theHawthorn Football Club andNorth Melbourne Football Club at theMelbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September 1976. It was the 79th annualgrand final of theVictorian Football League, staged to determine thepremiers for the1976 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.
This was the third of five successive grand final appearances for North Melbourne, and North Melbourne was the reigning premier after having defeated Hawthorn in the1975 VFL grand final.
At the conclusion of thehome-and-away season, Hawthorn had finished second (behindCarlton) 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 defeatingGeelong by 33 points in the first semi-final. They then met Carlton in the preliminary final which they won by 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.
      Hawthorn |   North Melbourne |
The umpiring panel for the match, comprising two field umpires, two boundary umpires and two goal umpires is given below. This was the first VFL grand final to feature two field umpires.
| Position | Emergency | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field: | Bill Deller(2) | Kevin Smith(2) | |||
| Boundary: | Howard Fox(1) | Kevin Mitchell(6) | |||
| Goal: | Kevin Barker(1) | Brian Pratt(1) |
Numbers in brackets represent the number of grand finals umpired, including 1976.
North Melbourne went into the match with a defensive gameplan; captainKeith Greig was minding Hawthorn's dangerous roverLeigh Matthews, and similarly attacking-minded playersMalcolm Blight andSteven Icke also found themselves playing in defence.[2] Hawthorn started the better, withLeigh Matthews kicking the first goal of the game after five minutes. Late in the first quarter, Matthews struck Greig on the forehead sending him to the ground, and was reported. Greig was knocked out again later in the match, yet in spite of these heavy blows still played well enough to be among North Melbourne's best players on the day.
The second quarter was for the most part even as both sides went goal for goal, butKelvin Matthews and captainDon Scott kicked vital goals to give Hawthorn a 19-point lead at half time. Had they kicked for goal more accurately – star forwardJohn Hendrie was especially inaccurate, kicking one goal and six behinds for the match – Hawthorn could easily have opened a six-goal lead.[3]
After 10 minutes of the third quarter, North Melbourne coachRon Barassi made the move of substitutingBrent Crosswell on forPeter Keenan, which immediately provided North Melbourne with a forward target. Hawthorn continued to be inaccurate in the forward line, kicking one goal and six behinds for the quarter, and by three-quarter time North Melbourne and managed to close the margin to just ten points.
In the final quarter, Hawthorn kept North Melbourne goalless. Greig suffered another heavy blow from Matthews, whilePeter Knights andDavid O'Halloran each took big marks for Hawthorn. Hawthorn added three goals for the quarter and eventually ran out 30-point winners. It was the club's third premiership win under coachJohn Kennedy.
Hawthorn's win was dedicated to former captainPeter Crimmins, who was dying fromcancer at just 28. Before the game, Crimmins sent a telegram which Kennedy read to the team:
"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.[4] The night of the grand final, some players took the premiership cup to Crimmins' house to let him share in the celebrations.[5] A press photographer accompanied them, and a famous photo was published in the newspapers showing a wasted, reclining, yet beaming Crimmins holding the premiership cup surrounded by his jubilant teammates.[6] The victory became popularly known as 'Crimmo's Cup' in recognition of the inspiration Crimmins provided to his team. Crimmins died just three days after the game, aged 28.[5]
This was Kennedy's last game as Hawthorn coach. He was later appointed coach of North Melbourne in 1985, and in his five seasons there he coached the club to the finals twice.
The 1976 grand final was North Melbourne's third of five consecutive grand finals, while Hawthorn's next appearance in a grand final was two years later (again against North Melbourne), in1978.
| 1976 VFL grand final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 25 September 2:30pm | Hawthorn | def. | North Melbourne | MCG (crowd: 110,143) | |
| 5.6 (36) 9.12 (66) 10.18 (78) 13.22 (100) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 4.2 (26) 7.5 (47) 10.8 (68) 10.10 (70) | Umpires:Smith,Deller Television broadcast:Seven Network | ||
| 3Moncrieff 2K. Matthews,Hendrie,Goad 1L. Matthews,Scott,Rowlings,Martello | Goals | 2Cable,Icke,Burns 1Cowton,Byrne,Moore,Melrose | |||
| Knights, Hendrie,Douge, Rowlings | Best | Dench,Greig, Cable, Icke,Blight | |||
| L. Matthews for striking Greig | Reports | ||||
"John Kennedy just simply read that telegram out to us prior to the '76 Grand Final and the rest was always going to be history, there was no way we were going to lose that game. We won that premiership and it's called 'Crimmo's Cup' to this day," saidKnights.
