| 1991 AFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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 The remaining grandstand atWaverley Park, where the 1991 AFL Grand Final took place. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 28 September 1991 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Waverley Park | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 75,230 | |||||||||||||||
| Favourite | West Coast | |||||||||||||||
| Umpires | John Russo,Bryan Sheehan | |||||||||||||||
| Ceremonies | ||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Daryl Braithwaite | |||||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Angry Anderson | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Norm Smith Medallist | Paul Dear (Hawthorn) | |||||||||||||||
| Jock McHale Medallist | Alan Joyce | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | Seven Network | |||||||||||||||
| Commentators | Sandy Roberts (host) Bruce McAvaney (commentator) Dennis Cometti (commentator) Don Scott (expert commentator) Peter McKenna (boundary rider) Bernie Quinlan (boundary rider) Ross Glendinning (analyst) Ian Robertson (analyst) | |||||||||||||||
The1991 AFL Grand Final was anAustralian rules football game contested between theHawthorn Football Club andWest Coast Eagles, held atWaverley Park inMelbourne on 28 September 1991. It was the 95th annualgrand final of theAustralian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine thepremiers for the1991 AFL season. The match, attended by 75,230 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 53 points, marking that club's ninth premiership victory.
Reconstruction work at the largerMelbourne Cricket Ground, where most grand finals had been played since 1902, meant that the game was played at Waverley Park, marking the first and only time that this stadium hosted a premiership decider. The match was also the first grand final to feature a team (West Coast) based outside the state ofVictoria.
Hawthorn had played the grand final in seven of the previous eight seasons, having most recently won the1989 VFL Grand Final, while West Coast was playing in its first grand final ever, having entered the competition just four years previously. The Eagles came into the game as strong favourites, having played through the entire 1991 season as the leading team in the competition in which they won their first 12 games and finished three games clear on top of the ladder with a 19-3 record, earning their firstMcClelland Trophy. Hawthorn had finished second with a record of 16 wins and 6 losses. Though starting the season slowly, losing five of their first 11 games, they lost just one more game for the rest of the home and away season. The Eagles defeated the Hawks in both their home-and-away encounters during the season, by 82 points atPrinces Park in round 7 and 24 points atSubiaco Oval in round 22.[citation needed]
In the lead-up to the grand final, Hawthorn defeated West Coast by 23 points at Subiaco the qualifying final. The Eagles subsequently defeatedMelbourne by 38 points in the first semi-final, while Hawthorn defeatedGeelong by two points in the second semi-final, sending the Hawks to the grand final. The Eagles defeated Geelong by 15 points in the preliminary final to take their place in the premiership decider.[citation needed]
     Hawthorn |   West Coast |
The game was played with what appeared as a four-goal breeze towards the main scoreboard end. Eagles captainJohn Worsfold won the toss and kicked with the wind.
The ball moved up and down the field before the first of two 50-metre penalties conceded byLangford allowingSumich to kick the first goal after ten minutes. A second penalty by Langford after a Sumich mark gave Sumich his second goal. A snap fromWilson in the pocket followed by a relay free kick toHeady stretched the margin out to four goals. A minute laterPaul Dear ran into an open goal to give the Hawks their first. After the Hawks scored four behinds Sumich marked and kicked his third goal from outside 60 metres.Jason Dunstall scored a goal from aBen Allan centreline clearance, then again Dunstall scored his second for the term from a free kick on the siren. The Eagles' lead was nine points at the first change.
With Hawthorn now kicking with the breeze, Dear marked consecutive kick ins and started dominating at Centre Half Forward. Goals to Dear andDarrin Pritchard saw the Hawks take the lead. After a couple more behinds from the Hawks,Tony Hall snapped a goal and the Hawthorn lead was fourteen points.Paul Hudson added the Hawks' sixth unanswered goal before the Eagles, through Sumich andChris Lewis, reduced the Hawks' lead to ten points at the main break.
Both teams went goal for goal in this term, and the margin at three-quarter time was still ten points in Hawthorn's favour. Hawthorn hadStephen Lawrence winning the hit outs, and a dominating midfield negated any wind assistance the Eagles may have had. Heady kicked three goals for the quarter and Hawthorn'sDermott Brereton two.
The Hawks blew the game open in the final term, kicking eight goals to one. Brereton took two marks in the goal square in the first three minutes to put the Hawks 23 points ahead. Fatigue was now taking its toll on the Eagles, and four later goals to Dunstall and one to Sumich saw the Hawks win by 53 points.
TheNorm Smith Medal was awarded to Hawthorn'sPaul Dear for his workmanlike performance, especially in the tight first half. After the Eagles had started well, Dear was shifted to the half-forward line and not only kicked Hawthorn's first goal, but managed to quell the influence ofAndrew Lockyer andGlen Jakovich by providing a foil forDermott Brereton. He also backed up in the ruck whenStephen Lawrence had to be rested. Dear ended up with 18 kicks, eight handpasses and eight marks - 11 of those disposals and six of those marks came in the second quarter.[1]
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West Coast coachMichael Malthouse said after the game that "Hawthorn had been first to the ball and clearly won in the air".[citation needed]
Hawthorn's experience was seen as the decisive factor in their victory, and sparked a new club T-shirt: "Too old. Too slow. Too good."[citation needed] (Some commentators had previously thought the Hawks were 'too old and too slow' to ever win another premiership.[citation needed]) Hawthorn defenderGary Ayres made sarcastic reference to this in his post-match interview.[citation needed]
By failing to win the grand final, West Coast tied the record for the most home and away wins by a non-Premier (matching the record of 19 wins set byCollingwood in1973).[citation needed] This record was subsequently broken byGeelong in2008.[citation needed]
Hawthorn's flag closed a period in which the club won five premierships in nine years. The game also represented the final game of VFL/AFL football played byMichael Tuck. His record includes[citation needed]
Before the gameDaryl Braithwaite sang both "Waltzing Matilda" and "Advance Australia Fair".
The day was also memorable for the half-time entertainment which featured a parade of sporting celebrities inFord Capris to celebrate the upcoming1992 Barcelona Olympics. Included in the parade were the 1991 Brownlow medallistJim Stynes, theOarsome Foursome,Jeff Fenech,Fighting Harada,Lionel Rose,Lisa Ondieki and her husbandYobes, andSusie Maroney.[2] Champion marathon runner and then Head of theAustralian Institute of Sport,Robert de Castella, and rock singerAngry Anderson were transported to the middle of the ground in a blueBatmobile-like vehicle with the AFL logo prominently displayed.[2] De Castella gave a brief speech honouring Australia's Olympians and other sporting heroes before Anderson jumped from the Batmobile and took centre stage, belting out his hit song "Bound for Glory" and encouraging the crowd to sing along. However, Anderson notably struggled vocally during the performance, with Yobes Ondieki caught on camera laughing uncontrollably at Anderson's act.[3] De Castella believed Anderson struggled with the venue's poor acoustics,[4] while Anderson claimed he could not hear himself over the engine noise of the "Batmobile".[3] Anderson's performance has since become the subject of derision,[5] and footage of the performance featured in asatirical 2008Carlton & United Breweriestelevision advertisement, with the caption stating that "CUB is a proud supporter of AFL footy since 1877 (except for 1991)".[6]
| Grand final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September (2:50 pm) | West Coast | def. by | Hawthorn | AFL Park (crowd: 75,230) | Report |
| 5.1 (31) 7.2 (44) 12.5 (77) 13.8 (86) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 3.4 (22) 7.12 (54) 12.15 (87) 20.19 (139) | Umpires:Sheehan,Russo Norm Smith Medal:Paul Dear Television broadcast:Seven Network National anthem:Daryl Braithwaite | ||
| Sumich5 Heady4 Lewis2 Wilson,Pyke1 | Goals | 6Dunstall 4Brereton 2Dear,Pritchard,Hudson 1Condon,Hall,Anderson,Morrissey | |||
| McKenna,Pyke,Mainwaring,Heady,Sumich | Best | Dear,Lawrence,Morrissey,Condon,Platten,Brereton,Mew,Ayres,Dunstall | |||
| Wilson (corked thigh) | Injuries | Nil | |||
| Nil | Reports | Condon (striking),Lawrence (striking) | |||
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