1985 VFL Grand Final
| 1985 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 28 September 1985 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 100,042 | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Norm Smith Medallist | Simon Madden (Essendon) | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | Seven Network | |||||||||||||||
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The 1985 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Essendon Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 28 September 1985. It was the 89th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1985 VFL season. The match, attended by 100,042 spectators, was won by Essendon by a margin of 78 points, marking that club's 14th premiership victory.
It was the third consecutive year in which the two clubs met in the premiership decider, with Hawthorn having won the 1983 VFL Grand Final and Essendon having won the 1984 VFL Grand Final
At the conclusion of the home and away season, Essendon had finished first on the VFL ladder with 19 wins and 3 losses. Hawthorn had finished third (behind Footscray) with 15 wins, 6 losses and a draw.
In the finals series in the lead-up to the game, Hawthorn defeated Footscray in the Qualifying Final before meeting the Bombers in the Second Semi-Final, which Essendon convincingly won by 40 points. The Hawks then met Footscray again in the Preliminary final, which they won by 10 points to advance to the Grand Final. The Bombers advanced straight to the Grand Final on the back of their Second Semi-Final win.
The Grand Final is often remembered for a bench-clearing brawl which broke out on the wing soon after the opening bounce.
Essendon edged ahead early and increased its margin slightly at each of the changes, leading by nine points at quarter time, 18 points at half time and 30 points at three quarter time. The Bombers then scored a record 11.3 (69) in the final quarter to completely blow the game open. Paul Salmon kicked six goals for Essendon and Roger Merrett five.
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