The 1989 Grand Final brawl was sparked 147 days before the opening minutes at the MCG
It was one of the craziest starts to a Grand Final in AFL history. But what was really behind the violent scenes in 1989 between Hawthorn and Geelong? To find out, you’ve got to go back 147 days earlier.
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Geelong’s Mark Yeates is blissfully unaware of the steam train hurtling in his direction.
He’s concentrating on the boundary throw in, desperate to slow the momentum that is driving Hawthorn on at a ferocious pace.
It’s early in the last quarter of the Round 6 clash between Geelong and Hawthorn in 1989.
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There is only 17,430 people at Princes Park, but in the days, weeks, years and now decades since, 10 times that amount will claim they were there.
Geelong is clinging to a lead, but running on empty. Hawthorn is the awakened giant, and the roar is relentless.
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Just over an hour earlier, at the 28-minute-mark of the second term, Malcolm Blight’s brand of intoxicating attack takes the Cats out to a 56-point lead against the reigning premiers.
The game isn’t over. But Hawks coach Allan Jeans implores his battle-hardened side to keep working, urging on a comeback.
Darrin Pritchard recalls of the mood when trailing by 49 points at halftime: “That was all down to Yabby (Jeans). That’s how we turned it around.”
“He made a couple of changes. He moved Ayresy (Gary Ayres) to the centre and he kept things pretty simple. He was saying, ‘We can still win this’. I don’t know what other coach would have had the balls to do that.”
Geelong coach Malcolm Blight has broken his pre-game rule. He pledged to his players that they had to stick to their opponents, even if that meant coming off the ground at the same time.
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“Gary (Ablett) was killing them and we were eight or nine goals up,” Blight says.
“He is playing on the wing on Dipper (Robert DiPierdomenico) and at halftime Jeansy has started Dipper on the bench.
“I should have taken Ablett off, who was best on ground by miles, but I couldn’t do it. Then they put Dipper in the forward pocket and I should have sent Ablett to him.
“I broke my golden rule and the footy gods got me.”
Hawthorn produces a stunning reversal of fortune, one of the greatest comebacks in history in a game where the avalanche of goals would collectively sit at 51 by game’s end. The difference at three-quarter-time is 19 points.
Then the steam train called Dermott Brereton charges at Yeates at a boundary throw-in. He cannons into him, with his knee driving into Yeates’ testicles.
To add insult, Brereton hurls insults at the fallen Cat as he is helped from the ground in agony.
Hawks runner George Stone sees it unfold.
“Yeates was looking at the throw-in and Dermott had a full head of steam,” Stone said.
“He absolutely barrelled him.
“One thing people don’t understand is when you are on the ground and hear the players, it sounds like a stampede.
“That’s how it was … Dermott just went whack.”
Blight bristles at it three decades on: “He got him … absolutely.”
Almost from the time Yeates reaches the bench, he is thinking retribution.
The Hawks finish just as powerfully as their unstoppable forward.
They kick 10 goals in the final term, to win a remarkable game by eight points.
The die is cast, the seeds are sown, for what will unfold 147 days later. The steam train must be stopped.
Originally published as The 1989 Grand Final brawl was sparked 147 days before the opening minutes at the MCG