Scott Maginness recalls how he tried to stop 1989 Grand Final hero Gary Ablett
Hawthorn defender Scott Maginness was given the toughest job in footy: trying to stop an unstoppable Gary Ablett in the 1989 Grand Final. And he had to abandon one tactic very early.
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Scott Maginness is holding on for dear life.
It’s midway through the first quarter of a bruising 1989 Grand Final and the Hawthorn defender — already a premiership player and chasing another at 23 — is grabbing onto the No.5 jumper of his opponent Gary Ablett at every opportunity.
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He’s kept Ablett to a goal to this stage, kicked in the opening minute of the game.
“He kicked one in the first 10 seconds and then nothing (for the rest of the quarter),” Maginness says. “I was thinking, ‘this is all right’.”
But the popular Maginness knows it can change in a heartbeat.
He is playing one of sport’s most onerous roles.
On this day, and on this stage, it’s almost akin to trying to get Don Bradman out cheaply — trying to stop the unstoppable.
He tugs at Ablett’s jumper again. This time it elicits a quickfire response from the superstar Geelong forward.
Maginness recalls: “I grabbed his jumper and he turned around and said to me ‘You do that one more time and I am going to knock you out.’
“So I let go immediately, then the ball came down and as he was running away, I said to him ‘That would be an ungodly thing to do’.
“He ran off and said something like ‘I am not God’.”
Maginness is happy to discuss his bit-part on a day Ablett rewrote the record books, graciously acknowledging his opponent’s genius during his quarter-and-a-bit opposed to him.
He only found out about his role the day before, just after the Grand Final parade. “They put up the team up (back at Glenferrie Oval) and said ‘Scotty, we want you to go to Ablett … you had a good game on (Melbourne’s) Garry Lyon the previous year (in the 1988 Grand Final). We want you to do that again’.”
Ablett is the player of the 1989 finals series, kicking three goals in the qualifying final, seven goals in the first semi-final and eight goals in the preliminary final. His form is “off the charts”, according to Barry Stoneham, and stopping him looks a massive task.
There is no instruction as to how to play him.
The only other comment directed at him as the players emerge from the meeting is from teammate Dermott Brereton, who offers: “You could be the Norm Smith Medallist, if you beat him.” Two years earlier Carlton’s David Rhys-Jones won the best afield honours for stopping Brereton.
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Maginness’ thoughts are of a different medal, a companion to his 1988 premiership medal.
“My mindset at the time was ‘I am in my second season’, ‘I am under an injury cloud’, and ‘I’ve got the play on Gary Ablett’.
“I wasn’t thinking Norm Smith; I was thinking about trying to limit his influence.”
He recalls lighthearted banter with one of his brothers, Glenn, on the Friday before the game.
“I came home and told my brothers I was playing on Gary, and Glenn was quite witty. He said, ‘Well, you’ve had a great career anyway mate.’ It was good banter between brothers.”
Having played in a premiership with the Hawks in his first season, Maginness knows this is going to be a tougher proposition.
He’s grateful to be playing. He sprained his ankle in Hawthorn’s second semi-final win over Essendon and for a time looks uncertain to play. But club physio Barry Gavin works on the ankle then convinces Allan Jeans he is right to go — without the need for a full fitness test.
That night he goes down to his local reserve in Mount Waverley for a kick-to-kick session with one of his best mates, Steven Hawkins, to ease the nerves.
His mate says to him, ‘What are you going to do?’. His reply: ‘I don’t know mate’.”
Aside from the physical battering which both sides take in the first term, and the ‘ungodly’ exchange he has had with Ablett, the first quarter runs to plan for Maginness.
Hawthorn is 40 points up at quarter-time, even if a few of their stars are battered and bruised.
Dermott Brereton is still feeling the effects from his huge bump from Mark Yeates at the first bounce, but he’s soldiering on. John Platten can’t. He’s concussed and as the game proceeds, his memory becomes shakier.
The second quarter changes everything, not for the Hawks, but for Maginness.
Ablett gets off the chain. Big time.
Four minutes into the term Andrew Bews comes out streaming out of the middle and kicks long to a one-on-one contest between Ablett and Maginness deep in the right forward pocket at the Punt Rd end.
“I was convinced the ball was going out of bounds, I was kind of pushing him out, shepherding him,” Maginness remembers. “But he took the mark and that’s when he kicked that banana. He slotted it as if he was shelling peas.”
He kicks another from 50m at the 11-minute mark, but his fourth for the game — and his third for the term — comes from sheer audacity a minute later.
As Greg Dear and Darren Flanigan wrestle at a ruck throw-in, Ablett raises the stakes. He disengages from Maginness and flies over the top of the boundary throw in. He grabs the ball and snaps a remarkable goal.
Hawthorn coach Allan Jeans then makes a change.
“They made the switch,” Maginness said. “I went onto Billy (Brownless) and Chris Langford went onto Ablett.”
“He has kicked three in a quarter, and I thought Chris was the better man for it — more experienced, bigger, stronger and quicker.”
Hawthorn’s runner George Stone recalls taking the message to Maginness: “I said to him ‘Langers is coming to Ablett, you are going to Brownless’. I think he said something like ‘Thank God for that’.”
Maginness jokes that in terms of goals, Ablett kicked four goals on him in a quarter-and-a-half; Langford has five goals kicked on him in two-and-a-half quarters.
“I remind Chris of it all the time,” he says, while acknowledging Langford did a good job of running off Ablett.
“When I went onto Billy, he was clear a few times and they still would go to Ablett almost every time.”
When contacted for this article, Langford isn’t keen to recount memories of his clash with Ablett, saying it has received enough coverage over the years.
But while Ablett kicks five second-half goals to help drag the Cats back into the contest late — equalling Collingwood great Gordon Coventry’s Grand Final record of nine goals from 1928 — his coach Malcolm Blight reckons Langford performs a solid role.
“I think his first half was outstanding,” Blight says of Ablett. “I thought Langford was OK on him in the second half. Langford started winning some of the ball. He probably only broke even with Langford, but nine goals … what can you say?”
Stoneham says Ablett showcased his many talents that day: “He kicked them from 50m; he kicked them on the run and from set-shots; he kicked them from a boundary throw-in; he kicked them from everywhere.”
Ablett’s fifth goal comes at the six-minute-mark of the third term, but his sixth doesn’t come until 21 minutes later, courtesy of a superb ride on the back of John Kennedy, with Langford trailing behind him.
That goal creates history, as the man with the most goals in a finals series.
A banner hangs from one section of the grandstand: “And on the Eighth day God created Gary” in reference to his born-again beliefs.
The Cats are coming, but still trail by six goals at the last change.
Blight notices a change in Ablett that month. He is talking more in team meetings, contributing more to the collective.
“What he did during that finals series is, he actually started to contribute in team meetings,” Blight says. “He was very quiet normally, but as soon as he spoke up, the blokes listened.”
He scores his seventh goal 10 minutes into the last term, as the Geelong pulse comes to life. Then, at the 19-minute-mark, he spoils a mark but boots a goal on his left foot, as the Cats’ comeback clicks into gear.
His ninth goal is set up by Neville Bruns who looks for him in the square, and Ablett obliges with a strong mark and goal at the 27-minute-mark.
The Cats are 11 points down with a handful of minutes left. The game is in the balance, even if both teams are exhausted and with numerous casualties.
Geelong is making a last-minute bid for glory. It’s not clear to the fans whether there is enough time left.
What is certain is Ablett has long since locked in the Norm Smith Medal; now it’s just a question of whether he can add a premiership medal to his booty as well.
Originally published as Scott Maginness recalls how he tried to stop 1989 Grand Final hero Gary Ablett
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