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The 1986 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and Carlton Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 1986. It was the 90th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1986 VFL season. The match, attended by 101,861 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 42 points, marking that club's sixth premiership victory.

Background

Hawthorn was playing it fourth successive Grand Final and had lost the last two, while Carlton was appearing in its first premiership decider since winning the 1982 VFL Grand Final. At the conclusion of the home and away season, Hawthorn had finished first on the VFL ladder with 18 wins and 4 losses. Carlton had finished third (behind Sydney) with 15 wins and 7 losses.

In the finals series in the lead-up to the game, Carlton defeated Sydney in the Qualifying Final before meeting the Hawks in the Second Semi-Final, which the Blues won by 28 points to advance to the Grand Final. Hawthorn, after this loss, convincingly defeated Fitzroy by 56 points in the Preliminary Final to advance to the Grand Final. Carlton entered the game as slight favourites after their defeat of the Hawks in the Second Semi-Final.

Hawks player Robert DiPierdomenico won the Brownlow medal in the week leading up to the game. Meanwhile, the Blues were looking to give Bruce Doull, who was retiring after the game, a winning finish to his eighteen season career.

Match summary

The Hawks jumped out of the blocks early, and by early in the second term they led by 37 points. A seven goal burst by the Hawks in the third quarter sealed their win. In the last term Hawthorn kicked only one goal but by then the contest was effectively over. Hawthorn's Jason Dunstall, who was in just his second VFL season, kicked six goals to help the Hawks to victory, while Gary Buckenara kicked 4 goals for the Hawks, all of them in the first half of the game.

The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Hawthorn defender Gary Ayres for being judged the best player afield. Ayres was playing on dangerous Carlton wingman David Rhys-Jones, who had been a match-winner against Hawthorn in the Second Semi-Final. Ayres, playing on the wing for the first time in five years, nullified Rhys-Jones and set up many attacking moves for the Hawks.

This was the first of two consecutive Grand Finals to be contested between these teams. In the 1987 VFL Grand Final the fortunes were reversed, with Carlton running out winners by a margin of 33 points.

Teams

Goalkickers

References

• Hawks Headquarters page on the 1986 Grand Final
• The Official statistical history of the AFL 2004
• Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

See also

• 1986 VFL season