| 2008 AFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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 Hawthorn running through the banner prior to the match. They would win the match against the defending premiers, winning their first premiership in 17 years. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 27 September 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 100,012 | |||||||||||||||
| Favourite | Geelong | |||||||||||||||
| Umpires | Scott McLaren (11),Michael Vozzo (2),Shaun Ryan (25) | |||||||||||||||
| Coin toss won by | Geelong | |||||||||||||||
| Kicked toward | City End | |||||||||||||||
| Ceremonies | ||||||||||||||||
| Pre-match entertainment | Powderfinger, AC/DC, Ian Moss, Lucy Durack and Amanda Harrison | |||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Amanda Harrison andLucy Durack | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Norm Smith Medallist | Luke Hodge (Hawthorn) | |||||||||||||||
| Jock McHale Medallist | Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn) | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | Seven Network | |||||||||||||||
| Commentators | Bruce McAvaney (host) Dennis Cometti (commentator) Nathan Buckley (expert commentator) David Schwarz (expert commentator) Leigh Matthews (expert commentator) Ricky Olarenshaw (boundary rider) Tim Watson (boundary rider) | |||||||||||||||
The2008 AFL Grand Final was anAustralian rules football match contested between theGeelong Football Club and theHawthorn Football Club, held at theMelbourne Cricket Ground inMelbourne on 27 September 2008. It was the 112th annualgrand final of theAustralian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League),[1] staged to determine the Premiers for the2008 AFL season. The match, attended by 100,012 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 26 points, marking that club's tenth premiership overall and first since 1991. Hawthorn'sLuke Hodge was awarded theNorm Smith Medal as the best player on the ground.
Geelong, the2007 premiers, won 21 of 22 games during thehome and away season to win its second consecutiveMcClelland Trophy, and tied the2000Essendon Bombers for most wins ever in a home and away season. They were 58-point winners in their qualifying final againstSt Kilda,[2] earning them a week's rest and a home preliminary final. They then defeated theWestern Bulldogs by 29 points to qualify for the grand final.[3] Leading up to the grand final, Geelong had won its past fifteen games.
Hawthorn won its first nine games of the season, and sat atop the AFL ladder at Round 11. They began to lose a few games towards the end of the season, and finished in second place with a record of 17 wins and 5 losses; full-forwardLance Franklin won theColeman Medal with 102 goals. They convincingly beat theWestern Bulldogs by 51 points in their qualifying final,[4] which earned them a week's rest and home preliminary final, in which they beatSt Kilda by 54 points. Hawthorn had won four games in a row leading into the grand final, all by more than 50 points. It was the team's first appearance in a grand final since winning the1991 AFL Grand Final.
The two teams had met only once during the season, in a Friday night game in Round 17. Geelong was missing defending and eventualLeigh Matthews Trophy winnerGary Ablett, Jr., but defeated Hawthorn 12.16 (88) to 11.11 (77). Geelong was the warm favourite to win the grand final, with Hawthorn attracting odds of $3.05 for the win at the opening bounce.
The game was the third grand final meeting between the two teams in their long history, having previously contested in the1963 and1989 VFL Grand Finals. It was the first grand final contested by twoVictorian-based teams sinceEssendon andMelbourne met in the2000 AFL Grand Final.
It was a highly anticipated grand final, eliciting memories of the classic1989 VFL Grand Final played between the same teams, with Geelong entering the match as the favourites to win. It was attended by 100,012 spectators,[5] the first crowd to exceed 100,000 for a game in theVFL/AFL since the1986 VFL Grand Final.
The 2008 decider was telecast by theSeven Network, its first grand final telecast since2001. The network had only broadcast the match following an agreement that would see them, along with rivalNetwork Ten (which had telecast the event between 2002 and 2007 inclusive), share the rights to the match every year, with the other network broadcasting the pre-season grand final and theBrownlow Medal presentation that year as well.
Included a live performance byPowderfinger of their hit "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind", interspersed with a rendition of theAC/DC classic, "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)", including bagpipers.Ian Moss also performed lead guitar notes to the tune of "Up There Cazaly". The traditional grand final motorcade, which was controversially omitted from the2007 pre-match entertainment, returned, honouring the 2008Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees, individual award winners and retiring players with over 200 games' experience, as well as Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists. The Australian National AnthemAdvance Australia Fair was performed byAmanda Harrison andLucy Durack, stars of the hit musicalWicked.
The grand final was played in warm conditions under sunny skies at theMelbourne Cricket Ground with conditions reaching 27 °C.
The first goal of the game was scored by Geelong'sTom Lonergan from a mark. The Hawks opened up a thirteen-point lead with goals fromChance Bateman on the run,Xavier Ellis from a set shot andJarryd Roughead along the ground from an acute angle. Hawthorn started conceding goals through free kicks, first to Gary Ablett, Jr. then toMax Rooke, to reduce the margin. Geelong looked stronger than Hawthorn at stoppages, but Hawthorn was damaging from rebounds, so neither team could gain the overall dominance in general play, leading to an intense see-sawing quarter of football which saw each team score five goals and Geelong lead by one point at quarter time.
Geelong began to completely control play in the midfield, winning the stoppages easily and providing their forwards with plenty of opportunities which they wasted. However, a combination between inaccurate goalkicking from the Geelong forwards – the worst of which were aBrad Ottens behind from 15 metres (49 ft) on the run and aCameron Mooney behind from a 5-metre (16 ft), 45° set shot after the siren – and strong defensive pressure from the Hawthorn defense restricted Geelong to just 1.9 (15).
Meanwhile, Hawthorn scored 3.1 (19) for the quarter, with goals toCyril Rioli,Mark Williams andClinton Young, generating almost all of their scoring from rebounds. Hawthorn defenderTrent Croad left the field midway through the second quarter with a broken foot. MidfielderSam Mitchell was reported for making forceful front-on contact on Ablett (the charge was withdrawn at the tribunal). Geelong captainTom Harley was concussed because of a clash of heads with Hawthorn's Williams and he left the ground.
The same trends continued into the early third quarter, with Geelong winning in the midfield but faltering in the forward-line. Set shots from Mooney andLonergan hit the posts. A running goal from 45 metres (148 ft) from Ablett broke a string of eleven consecutive behinds for Geelong, and put them back in front. However,Lance Franklin kicked his first goal forty seconds later from outside 50m with a set shot. The Hawks regained the lead and were never headed again.
In the latter half of the third quarter, Hawthorn started to win stoppages for the first time in the game. Now dangerous from both rebounds and stoppages, the Hawks started to gain the ascendancy, and a crumbing goal from Rioli put Hawthorn two goals up.Stuart Dew went forward, and either scored or assisted with three goals in just 2:47 of playing time late in the quarter to open up a five-goal lead. The Cats scored two goals against the run of play in the final minute of playing time to reduce the margin to 17 points at three quarter time.
The first half of the final quarter was closely fought on the field, with Hawthorn controlling general play, and both teams missing shots at goal. After nine minutes of playing time,Franklin scored the opening goal of the quarter to increase the margin to 21 points.Mitchell goaled less than a minute later. Hawthorn was able to maintain the margin, and eventually won its tenth Premiership by the score of 18.7 (115) to 11.23 (89).
Hawthorn'sLuke Hodge was the winner of theNorm Smith Medal for best afield ahead of Geelong's Gary Ablett.[7] Playing as a loose defender, Hodge was instrumental in generating and directing the rebounds which Hawthorn dominated throughout the game, and in applying the defensive pressure which helped keep the Hawks in the game when the Cats' midfield was dominating the second quarter.
| Position | Player | Club | Total votes | Voting summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (winner) | Luke Hodge | Hawthorn | 15 | 3,1,2,3,3,3 |
| 2nd | Gary Ablett Jr. | Geelong | 11 | 2,3,2,2,2 |
| 3rd | Brad Sewell | Hawthorn | 5 | 3,1,1 |
| 4th - tied | Stuart Dew | Hawthorn | 2 | 1,1 |
| 4th - tied | Joel Selwood | Geelong | 2 | 2 |
| 5th | Shane Crawford | Hawthorn | 1 | 1 |
By failing to win the grand final, Geelong set the record for the best win–loss record by a non-Premier (breaking the 16-2 record set by South Melbourne in both 1935 and 1936) and for the most home and away wins by a non-Premier (breaking the record of 19 wins set by Collingwood in 1973 and tied by West Coast in 1991).
Geelong's twenty-three behinds included elevenrushed behinds by Hawthorn, some of which were deliberate, and some of which occurred directly from kick-ins. Hawthorn defenders made a clear effort to rush behinds whenever there was any applied pressure from the Geelong forwards, which was reflected in Geelong's inability to defend against Hawthorn's rebounds. This was one of the major contributing factors to a rule change the following year, prohibiting defenders from conceding rushed behinds unless under immediate pressure.[8]
Hawthorn held celebrations for its members in both Victoria and Tasmania, Sunday at Glenferrie Oval and Monday in Hobart and Launceston, in the latter of which it plays four home games each season.Shane Crawford retired after the game setting a record for most games before playing in a Premiership (305 games); thesound bite of Crawford hijacking the microphone and shouting "That's what I'm talkin' about!" as he received his medallion has been replayed and paraphrased frequently over the following seasons.Trent Croad never played again, as he never fully recovered from his broken foot; as a result, he sat out the entire 2009 season and retired before the 2010 season began.
In the seasons following the grand final loss, Geelong enjoyed an eleven-match winning streak in matches against Hawthorn, the longest-ever winning streak by the team which lost a grand final against the team which beat it. It included numerous come-from-behind victories and narrow margins, and twokicks after the siren to win byJimmy Bartel in 2009 (behind to win 99-98) andTom Hawkins in 2012 (goal to win 118-116).
The winning streak, known as the "Kennett curse", achieved iconic status in the AFL in the intervening years. It is so-called due to comments made by then-Hawthorn presidentJeff Kennett prior to the clubs' first re-match in2009:[9]
What they don't have, I think, is the quality of some of our players; they don't have the psychological drive we have. We've beaten Geelong when it matters.
The curse was also attributed to a private pact made amongst Geelong players after the grand final loss, and later made public byPaul Chapman, that the Cats "will never lose to Hawthorn again".[11]
The curse ended when Hawthorn defeated Geelong in the first preliminary final in 2013.
      Geelong |    Hawthorn |
Scorecard, according toThe Complete Book of AFL Finals.[12]
| Geelong vsHawthorn | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Final |
| Geelong | 5.3 (33) | 6.12 (48) | 9.18 (72) | 11.23 (89) |
| Hawthorn | 5.2 (32) | 8.3 (51) | 14.5 (89) | 18.7 (115) |
| Venue: | Melbourne Cricket Ground,Melbourne | |||
| Date: | 27 September 2008 – 2:30 pmAEST | |||
| Attendance: | 100,012 | |||
| Umpires: | Scott McLaren (11),Michael Vozzo (2),Shaun Ryan (25) | |||
| Goal scorers: | Geelong | 2: Mooney, Ablett, Rooke, Lonergan 1: Chapman, Milburn, Johnson | ||
| Hawthorn | 3: Williams 2: Rioli, Dew, Franklin, Roughead 1: Bateman, Ellis, Brown, Young, Hodge, Mitchell, Ladson | |||
| Best: | Geelong | Ablett, Ling, Selwood, Chapman, Corey | ||
| Hawthorn | Hodge, Brown, Ellis, Sewell, Crawford, Dew, Rioli, Osborne, Williams | |||
| Reports: | Sam Mitchell (Haw), unduly rough play against Gary Ablett (Gee) | |||
| Injuries: | Geelong: Harley (concussion) Hawthorn: Croad (foot), Young (ankle) | |||
| Coin toss winner: | Geelong (City end) | |||
| Norm Smith Medal: | Luke Hodge,Hawthorn | |||
| Australian television broadcaster: | Seven Network | |||
| National Anthem: | Amanda Harrison andLucy Durack | |||
