1970 VFL Grand Final
| 1970 VFL Grand Final | |||||
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| Date | 26 September 1970 | ||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | ||||
| Attendance | 121,696 | ||||
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The 1970 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 26 September 1970. It was the 74th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1970 VFL season. The match was won by Carlton by a margin of 10 points, marking that club's 10th premiership victory.
This game is widely considered to be one of the greatest Grand Finals of all time and, according to one of the key protagonists Ted Hopkins, heralded "the birth of modern football". The attendance figure of 121,696 spectators broke the record set the previous year of 119,165 spectators, and remains the all-time record attendance for any VFL/AFL match.
Collingwood finished 1970 on top of the ladder with 18 wins. Carlton were next with 16 wins, followed by St Kilda and South Melbourne (14 wins each). South Melbourne was participating in its first Finals series since 1945, and got in despite winning only four of their last eight home-and-away matches.
Conditions were perfect at the MCG as both teams lined up at almost full strength, only Quirk of Carlton was unavailable due to injury.
Kicking against a very slight breeze, the Magpies shot to a seventeen-point lead before Carlton scored, and led at the end of the first quarter by 29 points. Carlton only managed to score three behinds for the quarter, but Collingwood's inaccuracy - four goals from thirteen scoring shots - was to prove costly later on. The Blues had a better second quarter, kicking four goals. But Collingwood, in brilliant form, kicked six goals five for the term to take a 44-point lead at half time. Indeed, the only highlight for Carlton had come towards the end of the quarter when Jesaulenko leapt onto the shoulders of Collingwood ruckman Graeme Jenkin and took a spectacular mark that would become known as the Mark of the Century.
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