| 1987 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 26 September 1987 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground,Melbourne, Australia | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 92,754 | |||||||||||||||
| Favourite | Carlton | |||||||||||||||
| Umpires | Robinson,Sawers | |||||||||||||||
| Coin toss won by | Hawthorn | |||||||||||||||
| Kicked toward | City End | |||||||||||||||
| Ceremonies | ||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Daryl Somers | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Norm Smith Medallist | David Rhys-Jones | |||||||||||||||
| Jock McHale Medallist | Robert Walls | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC (Victoria only) and Broadcom (on sold rights to different TV stations in different states) | |||||||||||||||
| Commentators | ABC: Tim Lane (host and commentator) Drew Morphett (commentator) Doug Heywood (commentator) Kevin Bartlett (expert commentator) Ian Robertson (boundary rider)Broadcom: Dennis Cometti (host and commentator) Peter McKenna (commentator) Bob Skilton (expert commentator) Barry Breen (boundary rider) | |||||||||||||||
 | This articleis missing information about Quarters 3 and 4 (they are blank as of writing). Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(December 2023) |
The1987 VFL Grand Final was anAustralian rules football game contested between theCarlton Football Club andHawthorn Football Club, held at theMelbourne Cricket Ground inMelbourne on 26 September 1987. It was the 91st annualGrand Final of theVictorian Football League, staged to determine thepremiers for the1987 VFL season. The match, attended by 92,754 spectators, was won by Carlton by a margin of 33 points, marking that club's 15th premiership victory.
At the conclusion of thehome-and-away season, Carlton had finished first on the VFL ladder with 18 wins and 4 losses. Those four losses were by a combined total of just 56 points. It had been a tumultuous year off the field for the Blues; premiership defenderDes English was in an ongoing health battle since being diagnosed with leukemia the previous year, and rising starPeter Motley nearly lost his life in a serious car accident early in the season.
Hawthorn finished second, with 17 wins and 5 losses.
Carlton had only beaten Hawthorn in two of the last twelve games in which the two teams had met, although they had defeated them most recently in the Second-Semi Final leading up to the Grand Final. The Hawks had advanced to the Grand Final after defeatingSydney in the first Qualifying Final, and, after the Second-Semi Final, defeatedMelbourne by just two points in the Preliminary Final (with a goal kicked after the final siren) to advance to the Grand Final. The Blues had an easier finals run, earning a weeks rest before the Second Semi Final and then advancing straight to the Grand Final after their Second-Semi Final win.
It was Hawthorn's fifth successive Grand Final appearance and it had beaten Carlton in theprevious season's Grand Final by 42 points. Carlton had not won a flag since winning the1982 VFL Grand Final.
In the week leading up to the Grand Final, Hawthorn'sJohn Platten was awarded theBrownlow Medal.
     Carlton |    Hawthorn |
The umpiring panel for the match, comprising two field umpires, two boundary umpires and two goal umpires is given below.
| Position | Emergency | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field: | Ian Robinson(9) | Rowan Sawers(3) | |||
| Boundary: | Adrian Ryan(2) | Christopher Sporton(2) | |||
| Goal: | Douglas Purss(1) | Michael Roache(1) |
Numbers in brackets represent the number of grand finals umpired, including 1987.
The game was played on a very hot day, with temperatures reaching 30.7 degrees Celsius.[2] It broke the previous record for the warmest Grand Final day temperature set in1944 and would remain the warmest on record until the2015 AFL Grand Final. Such was the heat thatStephen Silvagni, who for most of his career wore a long-sleeved guernsey, started the match without sleeves. It was also the only time in 426 games that Hawthorn captainMichael Tuck wore a sleeveless jumper, with he and Carlton'sMark Naley both starting the game wearing long sleeves and changing to short-sleeves part way through the game. The heat was thought to favour Carlton after Hawthorn had finished a very tough finals campaign. Hawthorn were also withoutJason Dunstall[2] who had kicked 94 goals for the year and 6 against the Blues in the previous year's Grand Final but was out of the game with an ankle injury. Instead the Hawks playedPaul Dear at full-forward.
In the pre-match festivities, the coin was tossed byWimbledon champion and Hawks fanPat Cash. Michael Tuck won the toss and chose to kick to the City End.
Carlton were switched from the beginning when renowned finals specialistWayne Johnston alerted umpireIan Robinson (who was officiating in his ninth Grand final and final VFL game) that Hawthorn had one extra player in the centre square before the ball had been bounced. Umpire Robinson blew the whistle to begin the game and promptly handed the ball to Johnston to take the free kick. His long kick into attack was marked strongly byHunter 35 metres from goal directly in front, but he missed the opening shot at goal. Carlton managed to retrieve possession from the kick-in, and Johnston was awarded another free kick for being tripped byCollins and duly converted his set shot for the first goal of the game. Barely a minute later, Carlton went into attack again throughDennis andDorotich butMeldrum was unable to finish accurately.
The Hawks had their first score on the board when a snap fromSchwab from a restart bounce in attack missed to the left. From the kick-in, Hawthorn's enforcer wingmanDiPierdomenico collected the ball and was charging forward when Johnston caught him flush with an elbow to the jaw, for which he earned a report. Carlton continued to struggle with accuracy whenNaley's snap missed to the right, until finally Johnston picked up the ball after Schwab had lost it in a tackle and dashed forward before steadying and kicking truly on his trusty left foot for his second goal at the 12-minute mark. And when Hunter compensated for his early miss a few minutes later by converting his set shot from nearly the same position, Carlton had kicked three goals to set up a 20-point lead.
But the battle-hardened Hawks were too experienced to panic.Kennedy, who had been playing on Hunter, was moved forward and kicked Hawthorn's first, swooping on to a kick forward from Collins and snapping truly on his right as time-on began.Platten and DiPierdomenico added further goals from set shots, and when Kennedy kicked his second after the quarter-time siren, the Hawks had grabbed a three-point lead, despite having been outplayed for much of the term. As that day's Norm Smith MedallistDavid Rhys-Jones recalled in an interview many years later:
I couldn't believe it, as we had dominated the play. It just shows what a great team Hawthorn was. We knew we had to play 100 minutes to beat the Hawks because they would keep coming at us.[3]
Carlton again started strongly whenKernahan and Hunter combined to findBradley in open space and running hard towards goal, enabling him to easily score his first for the game and restore Carlton's lead. At the 4-minute mark, Carlton added another goal after a grubby kick across the backline fromMew putAyres under pressure from Meldrum, allowing Dorotich to pounce on the ball and kick his first.
| Thisis missing information about the third quarter. Please expand the to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(April 2023) |
| Thisis missing information about the final quarter. Please expand the to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(April 2023) |
TheNorm Smith Medal was presented by former Melbourne champion and premiership captainJohn Beckwith to Carlton'sDavid Rhys-Jones.[4] Normally a wingman, he instead lined up in defence on Hawthorn's key forwardDermott Brereton in what many considered a mismatch. Rhys-Jones only collected 17 disposals and four marks for the game (9 kicks, 8 handpasses); however, in keeping Brereton goalless for the only time in the 1987 season and marshalling his fellow defenders throughout the game, he was unanimously considered best on ground.[2] It was sweet revenge for both Carlton and Rhys-Jones; in the previous season's Grand Final defeat, his direct opponent had beenGary Ayres, who went on to win the first of his two Norm Smith Medals.
After the presentation of the premiership medals,Craig Bradley walked across to injured teammatePeter Motley, who had been left disabled following a car accident earlier in the year. Bradley presented Motley with the premiership cup and his medal.[2]
Victorious Carlton coachRobert Walls credited the hard work and improvement of his players:
It was very satisfying that we won the premiership, because the players have worked very hard. There are kids who have come into the side and are a pretty good blend and a lot of players have improved.[5]
Just two months after the disappointment of losing the grand final, Hawthorn were dealt another blow when coachAllan Jeans was admitted to hospital with abrain haemorrhage. Although surgery to repair an aneurysm was successful, the health scare was serious enough to force Jeans to stand out of football for the whole of the1988 VFL season.[6] After not being picked for the grand final, club stalwartRodney Eade left the club and went toBrisbane.
For Carlton, the victory was atonement for last year's defeat, and it served as a tribute to the fighting spirit shown byDes English andPeter Motley (as English was having treatment for cancer, while Motley suffered permanent injuries from a car accident), who joined the celebrations in the dressing room. However, Johnston and Madden had both been reported for striking. They would both miss the first two matches of the1988 season. After losing toMelbourne in the 1988 Preliminary Final, the Blues would not play in a grand final again until1993.
| Grand Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September (2:50 pm) | Carlton | def. | Hawthorn | MCG (crowd: 92,754) | Report |
| 3.5 (23) 6.8 (44) 10.11 (71) 15.14 (104) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 4.2 (26) 4.9 (33) 7.13 (55) 9.17 (71) | Umpires:Robinson,Sawers Norm Smith Medal:David Rhys-Jones Television broadcast:ABC National anthem:Daryl Somers | ||
| Kernahan,Bradley3 Johnston2 Dorotich,Gleeson,Murphy,Hunter,Naley,McKenzie,Meldrum1 | Goals | 3Kennedy 1Curran,Collins,Pritchard,Platten,DiPierdomenico,G Dear | |||
| Rhys-Jones,Johnston,Alvin,Aitken,Naley,Madden,Hunter,Silvagni,Glascott | Best | Langford,DiPierdomenico,G Dear,Tuck,Collins,Ayres,Greene | |||
| Nil | Injuries | Nil | |||
| Johnston (strikingDipierdomenico),Madden (strikingTuck) | Reports | Nil | |||
