The 1994 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football L ...

, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on 1 October 1994. It was the 98th annual

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the

premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

for the 1994 AFL season. The match, attended by 93,860 spectators, was won by West Coast by a margin of 80 points.

Background

Geelong was looking for its first premiership since winning the 1963 VFL Grand Final and West Coast was attempting to repeat its success in the

1992 AFL Grand Final The 1992 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the West Coast Eagles and the Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1992. It was the 96th annual grand final o ...

, when it had defeated Geelong by a margin of 28 points, becoming the first non-Victorian team to win the

AFL Premiership This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1990, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

. At the conclusion of the

home and away season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, West Coast had finished first on the AFL ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses, winning the

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...

. Geelong had finished fourth (behind Carlton and

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

) with 13 wins and 9 losses. During the lead-up to the game, West Coast were the strong favourites to win. Geelong had won through to the decider after winning three tough finals, including two dramatic after-the-siren wins over Footscray and North Melbourne. West Coast had a relatively smooth run into the grand final, beating Collingwood in a qualifying final to earn a week's rest, before easily accounting for

in a preliminary final.

Match summary

It was an entertaining first quarter, which saw West Coast stamp its authority early by bursting out of the blocks, before some stirring football by Geelong towards the end of the quarter (including a great long goal from

Andrew Wills Andrew Wills (born 3 January 1972) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. Wills was a character of the game, noticeable due to his clean shaven head, and played mostly on the wing or half forward. He playe ...

) saw the Cats lead by a point at quarter time. From then on, though, West Coast started taking control. With Geelong's champion full-forward Gary Ablett well held and star Geelong midfielder

Garry Hocking Garry Andrew Hocking (born 8 October 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Tough and skilled in equal measure, Hocking was an integral part of Geelong's ...

injuring his thigh (yet remaining on the ground), the Cats were in trouble as West Coast began to dominate general play.

Billy Brownless Anthony William Brownless (born 28 January 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer and radio and television media personality who represented in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Early life Brownless was ...

took one of the great grand final marks halfway through the 2nd quarter and scored, but it was the only highlight for the Cats in the term as the Eagles booted 4 of their own to lead by 23 points at half time. Even though they led well from quarter time onwards, the Eagles could not convert their dominant play onto the scoreboard, with a constant margin of 4-5 goals seemingly keeping the game in the balance for much of the 3rd quarter. But the last term was all the Eagles, as they stormed home and steamrolled the Cats, kicking 8 final quarter goals to 1, winning the match by 80 points, with 20.23 (143) being the Eagles' highest score of the year. The

Norm Smith Medal The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...

was awarded to West Coast's Dean Kemp for being judged the best player afield, with 23 disposals and 2 goals. It was West Coast's second premiership in three years, and Geelong's third grand final appearance without success in six years.

Epilogue

Cats coach

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Nati ...

quit after the team's third grand final loss in six years. His next two grand finals as a coach came in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and both would be premierships with

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

against St Kilda and

. West Coast's next success in a grand final came twelve years later, when it won the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Aus ...

against the Sydney Swans. It would take until 2007 for Geelong to finally win its first

since 1963, when they defeated Port Adelaide in the

2007 AFL Grand Final The 2007 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Port Adelaide Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 29 September 2007. It was the 111th annual G ...

Background

Match summary

Epilogue

Teams

Scorecard

References

External links

See also