2008 AFL Grand Final
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2008 AFL Grand Final
Home Team	Geelong Cats
Away Team	Hawthorn Hawks
Date	27 September 2008
Stadium	MCG
City	Melbourne
TV in Australia
Network	Seven Network
Announcers	Bruce McAvaney and Dennis Cometti
< 2007 • AFL Grand Final • 2009 >

The 2008 AFL Grand Final was the 112th annual championship game of the Australian Football League played between the Geelong Cats and the Hawthorn Hawks. The game was played following the 2008 regular season on 27 September 2008 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne. It was the third Grand Final meeting between the two teams in their long history, having previously contested the game in 1989 and 1963.

The 2008 Grand Final was the first Grand Final contested by two Victorian-based teams since Essendon and Melbourne in 2000. It was a highly anticipated Grand Final, eliciting memories of the classic 1989 VFL Grand Final played between the same teams. Geelong entered the match as the favourites to win, however Hawthorn won by 26 points.

Lead-up

Main article: 2008 AFL finals series

Geelong, the 2007 premiers, won 21 of 22 games during the regular season to win its second consecutive McClelland Trophy for the best record in the league, and tied the 2000 Essendon Bombers for most wins ever in a season. They were convincing 58 point winners in their qualifiying final against St Kilda, earning them a bye and a home preliminary final. They then defeated the Western Bulldogs by 29 points to qualify for the Grand Final. Going into the grand final, Geelong had won its past fifteen games.

Hawthorn won its first nine games of the season, and sat atop the AFL ladder at Round 11. They began to lose a few games towards the end of the season, and finished in second place with a record of 17 wins and 5 losses, with full-forward Lance Franklin winning the Coleman Medal with 102 goals. They convincingly beat the Western Bulldogs by 51 points in their qualifying final, which earned then a bye and home preliminary final, in which they beat St Kilda by 54 points. Hawthorn had won four games in a row leading into the Grand Final. It was the team's first appearance in a Grand Final since winning the 1991 AFL Grand Final.

The two teams had met only once during the season, in a Friday Night game in Round 17. Geelong was missing defending and eventual Leigh Matthews Trophy winner Gary Ablett, Jr., but defeated Hawthorn 12.16.88 to 11.11.77. Geelong was the warm favourite to win the Grand Final, with Hawthorn attracting odds of $3.05 for the win at the opening bounce.

Pre-Match Entertainment

Included a live performance by Powderfinger of their hit (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind, interspersed with a rendition of the AC/DC classic, It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll), including bagpipers. The traditional Grand Final motorcade, which was controversially omitted from the 2007 pre-match entertainment, returned, honouring the 2008 Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees, individual award winners and retiring players with over 200 games experience, as well as Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists. The Australian National Anthem Advance Australia Fair was performed by Amanda Harrison and Lucy Durack, stars of the hit musical Wicked.

Match Summary

The Grand Final was played under warm conditions and sunny skies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was attended by 100,012 spectators, the highest crowd for a VFL/AFL game since the 1986 Grand Final. The first goal of the game was scored by Geelong's Tom Lonergan, with both teams concedeing goals through free kicks early. Geelong looked stronger than Hawthorn at stoppages, but Hawthorn was damaging from rebounds, so neither team could gain the overall dominance in general play, leading to an intense see-sawing quarter of football which saw each team score five goals and Geelong lead by one point at quarter time.

In the second quarter, Geelong began to completely control play in the midfield, winning the stoppages easily and providing their forwards with plenty of opportunities. However, a combination between inaccurate goalkicking from the Geelong forwards — the worst of which were a Brad Ottens behind from 15m on the run and a Cameron Mooney behind from a 5m, 45° set shot after the siren — and strong defensive pressure from the Hawthorn defense restricted Geelong to just 1.9 (15). Meanwhile, Hawthorn scored 3.1 (19) for the quarter against the run of play, generating almost all of their scoring from rebounds. Hawthorn defender Trent Croad left the field late in the second quarter with a broken foot, and midfielder Sam Mitchell was reported for making forceful front-on contact on Gary Ablett (the charge was withdrawn at the tribunal).

The same trends continued into the early third quarter, with Geelong winning in the midfield but faltering in the forward-line. A snap shot from Gary Ablett broke a string of eleven consecutive behinds for Geelong, and put them back in front. However, Geelong's midfield dominance was beginning to wane.

In the latter half of the third quarter, Hawthorn started to win stoppages for the first time in the game. Now dangerous from both rebounds and stoppages, the Hawks started to gain the ascendancy, before exploding with four goals — three of which were either scored or assisted by mature-age draftee Stuart Dew — in just 2:47 of playing time late in the quarter to open up a five-goal lead. The Cats scored two goals against the run of play in the final minute of playing time to reduce the margin to 15 points and keep the game alive.

The first half of the final quarter was closely fought on the field, with neither team controlling general play, and both teams missing shots at goal. After nine minutes of playing time, Lance Franklin scored the opening goal of the quarter to increase the margin to 21 points, and Sam Mitchell goalled less than a minute later to effectively seal the game. Hawthorn was able to maintain the margin from that point, and eventually won its tenth premiership by the score of 18.7 (115) to 11.23 (89).

Geelong's twenty-three behinds included eleven rushed behinds by Hawthorn, most of which were deliberate, and some of which occurred directly from kick-ins. Hawthorn defenders made a clear effort to rush behinds whenever there was any applied pressure from the Geelong forwards, which was reflected in Geelong's inability to defend against Hawthorn's rebounds.

Aftermath

Hawthorn's Luke Hodge was the winner of the Norm Smith Medal for best afield, just edging out Geelong's Gary Ablett. Playing as a loose defender, Hodge was instrumental in generating and directing the rebounds which Hawthorn dominated throughout the game, and in applying the defensive pressure which helped keep the Hawks in the game when the Cats' midfield was dominating the second quarter.

Hawthorn held celebrations for its members in both Victoria and Tasmania, in the latter of which it plays four home games each season.

The 2008 Grand Final will be remembered as the one that got away from Geelong, which had been the best side of the season proper with its 21-1 record in the home and away season. It had been widely expected to defend its 2007 premiership, and to win back-to-back premierships for the first time since 1951-52. By failing to win the Grand Final, Geelong instead set the record for the best win/loss record by a non-premier (breaking the 16-2 record set by South Melbourne in both 1935 and 1936) and for the most home and away wins by a non-premier (breaking the record of 19 wins set by Collingwood in 1973 and tied by West Coast in 1991).

Teams

Scorecard

See also

• 2008 AFL finals series

References

• Scorecard on Fox Sports
• AFL Game Day