1989 VFL grand final

The grand final was played in near perfect conditions. Geelong made their intentions clear right from the start when Mark Yeates ran through Hawthorn's champion centre half-forward and enforcer Dermott Brereton. As Geelong coach Malcolm Blight would later admit, this had been a premeditated strategy to protect star midfielder Paul Couch and negate Brereton, who constantly used his aggression to unsettle the opposition. Yeates was chosen to carry out the deed, partly as payback for when Brereton had flattened him in the classic Round 6 clash earlier in the season. Amidst the chaos in the middle of the ground, the Cats rushed the ball forward to Gary Ablett, who kicked the first of his nine goals for the afternoon. Yeates' hit left Brereton with broken ribs and a bruised kidney, which caused him internal bleeding.[5] Hawthorn physiotherapist Barry Gavin recalled the scene years later:

"The thing that really struck me was how bad he was when I got there. He'd lost all the colour in his face and was vomiting. He'd dragged himself back on his feet by this stage. But he was doubled over, dry-retching and his colour was grey... There was no way he could stay out there. I remember looking up at [Hawthorn coach Allan Jeans] in the box and starting to try to get him off. Dermott said, 'No, no. Just get me down to the pocket'. Terry Gay (Hawthorn's team doctor) came out. He was more worried than me. He recognised the gravity of it."[6]

As Brereton himself noted when recalling the incident:

He almost did the job completely, but luckily none of the impact got me in the head, so I was still able to think relatively clearly. I stayed on because I knew that if I had have gone off, that would be the end of my race. I’d cool down and I wouldn’t be able to resume again.[5]

Despite the insistence of the club doctors and trainers, Brereton refused to leave the field and instead was helped to the forward pocket. Moments later, the ball came into Hawthorn's attacking zone, and Dunstall kicked a goal. Barely a minute later, Brereton, only moments ago on the ground and seemingly out of the game, took a strong mark, then steadied and kicked truly. Brereton's inspirational act lifted the Hawks, and, with the Cats focusing on attacking the man rather than the ball, they slammed on a further six goals to take a commanding 40-point lead at quarter time. However, Geelong's physical approach was starting to take its toll on the Hawks. Besides the injury to Brereton, John Platten had been concussed, and Robert DiPierdomenico was crunched from behind by Ablett while going backwards to take a mark; consequently, DiPierdomenico had suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, although the full extent of the injury was not known at the time.

Geelong captain and ruckman Damian Bourke was replaced by Darren Flanigan in the second quarter, and he began to have an immediate impact in the ruck contests. Stoneham and Ablett gave Geelong the perfect start to the quarter, the latter nailing his set shot with a perfectly executed banana kick after reeling in a spectacular one-handed mark after holding his position against his opponent Scott Maginness. Just as it looked like Hawthorn was getting away again, Ablett inspired the Geelong supporters with two goals in as many minutes, the second one going down in football folklore: jumping up to grab the ball from a boundary throw-in deep in the forward pocket and snapped truly from a tight angle. When Andrew Bews added another, Geelong had cut the margin back to 24 points. Maginness, Ablett's opponent up to that point, was moved onto Billy Brownless, while Chris Langford was assigned to mind Ablett for the rest of the game. In time-on, Hawthorn managed to score further goals through Dunstall and take a 37-point lead at the main break.

Yet again, the Cats scored the first goal of the quarter when Ablett marked a centering high kick from Garry Hocking in the sixth minute and calmly slotted his fifth goal. The Cats kept attacking, but every goal seemed to be met with a Hawthorn reply. When the siren sounded to end the third quarter, Hawthorn led by 36 points.

The Hawks had no fit players left to rotate on the interchange. As such, the Cats were finally able to get on a run, but after Dean Anderson goaled to put Hawthorn 17 points up, it turned out to be just enough. After Ablett kicked his ninth goal, Cameron calmly collected himself and kicked what would be the final goal of the match with 29 seconds left on the clock.[7]

In the ensuing moments of celebration, DiPierdomenico was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital. Ablett's nine goals equalled[8] the record for most goals kicked in a grand final, tying Gordon Coventry's 61-year-old record of goals in a grand final set in the 1928 VFL Grand Final; additionally, he increased his goal total for the 1989 finals series to a record-setting 27 goals. Both records still stands to this day.[9] The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Ablett for being judged the best player afield, being the second player (after Maurice Rioli) to win the award on the losing team.

By the end of the match, Hawthorn had only 13 fit players on the field. Scottish soccer player Ray Stewart observed the game and was recorded to have said: "I would not play this game for a million dollars."[10]

The game is considered to be one of the best grand finals of all time. Rohan Connolly, writing for The Age, claimed it was the best grand final of all time.[11]

In the documentary series The Final Story, Malcolm Blight was able to acknowledge the significance of the game in football history:

That fact that the '89 grand final is held in such esteem by most people that love the game of football … it was a joy to be involved, for all the good and bad of it. It's just that every time we talk about it now, we still can't win the bloody thing.[7]