1989 VFL Grand Final

Hawthorn	Geelong
21.18 (144)	21.12 (138)

	1	2	3	4
HAW	8.4 (52)	12.9 (81)	18.13 (121)	21.18 (144)
GEE	2.0 (12)	7.2 (44)	13.7 (85)	21.12 (138)

Date

30 September 1989

Stadium

Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia

Accolades

Norm Smith Medallist

Gary Ablett, Sr. Geelong

Broadcast in Australia

Network

Seven Network

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VFL Grand Final

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The 1989 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and the Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1989. It was the 93rd annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1989 VFL season. The match, attended by 94,796 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 6 points, marking that club's eighth premiership victory. It is regarded as one of the greatest Grand Finals of all time.

Hawthorn were the reigning premiers, having defeated Melbourne in the 1988 VFL Grand Final by a record margin of 96 points, while for Geelong it was their first appearance in a Grand Final since losing to Richmond in the 1967 VFL Grand Final.

At the conclusion of the regular home-and-away season, Hawthorn had finished on top of the ladder with 19 wins and 3 losses. Geelong had finished third (behind Essendon) with 16 wins and 6 losses. The Cats also set a new record for the highest points total scored in a home-and-away season, having scored 425 goals and 366 behinds for a total of 2916 points, an average of nearly 133 points per game.

In the finals series leading up to the game, Geelong lost the Qualifying Final to Essendon by 76 points, before beating Melbourne by 63 points in the First Semi-Final, and then defeating Essendon by 94 points in the Preliminary Final to advance to the Grand Final. Hawthorn had a much easier run, defeating Essendon in the Second Semi-Final to advance straight to the Grand Final.

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