The 1994 AFL Grand Final was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

game contested between the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Kardinia Park in South Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

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 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

, held at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

on 1 October 1994. It was the 98th annual

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(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 1994 AFL season was the 98th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured fifte ...

. 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 of ...

, 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 1989, 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 S ...

, 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 club championship trophy, awarded each year to the club with the best aggregate performance across the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) seasons. The trophy was inaugur ...

. Geelong had finished fourth (behind Carlton and

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

) 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 Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

towards the end of the quarter (including a great long goal from

Andrew Wills Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

) 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 injuring his thigh (yet remaining on the ground), the Cats were in trouble as West Coast began to dominate general play. Billy Brownless took one of the great grand final marks halfway through the 2nd quarter and goaled, 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 Footbal ...

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 Na ...

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

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and both would be premierships with

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

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 Austral ...

against the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

. It would take until 2007 for Geelong to finally win its first

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 1989, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. The inaugur ...

since 1963, when they defeated

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

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 Gran ...

Background

Match summary

Epilogue

Teams

Scorecard

References

External links

See also