1987 VFL Grand Final
| 1987 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 26 September 1987 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 92,754 | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Norm Smith Medallist | David Rhys-Jones Carlton | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | |||||||||||||||
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The 1987 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1987. It was the 91st annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1987 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 the home and away season, Carlton had finished first on the VFL ladder with 18 wins and 4 losses. Those four losses was by a combined total of just 56 points. It had been a tumultuous year off the field for the Blues; premiership defender Des English was in an ongoing health battle since being diagnosed with leukemia the previous year, and rising star Peter 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 defeating Sydney in the first Qualifying Final, and, after the Second-Semi Final, defeated Melbourne 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 the previous season's Grand Final by 42 points. Carlton had not won a flag since winning the 1982 VFL Grand Final.
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