[Geelong Main][Coaches Main] Geelong Coaches Win-Loss Records Under new coach Malcolm Blight, the Cats played attractive attacking football, scoring a combined total of 2916 points during the home-and-away season to break Sydney's record set in 1987 (2846 points). Such a dramatic finish. When I picture the 1989 football season, I see mud. Then, soaring above a pack at a ball-in, he snatched the ball and in one movement snapped another unbelievable major.It was still 36 points the difference at the final change despite Ablett's six goals. There were four minutes left when Ablett marked and converted, incredibly, his ninth goal in a Norm Smith Medal-winning performance.With just 59 seconds left and 12 points the difference, Geelong's David Cameron marked 45 metres out. Nursing a lacerated kidney and cradled by trainers, in shock and vomiting, he should have gone off.
After trading more goals, Ablett's eighth goal, a superb left-foot snap after fending off Chris Langford, then a snap from Shane Hamilton, got the margin back to just 11 points. And one of the most brutal. "It was a balancing of the ledger," Brereton said. Hawthorn strongman Robert DiPierdomenico beat off three Geelong opponents, Neville Bruns, Andrew Bews and Garry Hocking, as all tried to take him down.Then, camped under a ball waiting to mark, "Dipper" was smashed by a charging Ablett. But instead, remembering the exhortations of his coach and mentor Allan Jeans, he steeled himself and ran down to the goal mouth, where minutes later, he took a courageous mark and goaled. It was a great script. "He continued to massage the boys despite being told not to. They have won the 1989 … So hectic and high scoring. He’ll be proud. … Again the Hawks replied through Dean Anderson.Still the Cats kept coming.
... HAWTHORN HAVE HELD ON! And as a score of weary bodies picked themselves up from that stoppage, the siren rang.History for Hawthorn. Geelong’s first win of Grand Final week comes five and a bit days out when ever-smiling centreman Paul Couch collects the 1989 Brownlow Medal. And it delivered.From the very first bounce, in fact, when in the one passage of play, Ablett got the Cats off to the perfect start as, simultaneously, Hawk heartbeat Dermott Brereton hit the deck, lined up and shirtfronted by Geelong's Mark Yeates in retribution for an incident earlier that season.
Geelong coach Malcolm Blight would sum it up nicely in The Final Story. As the curtain closed on the VFL era of football, it certainly did so in style.Hawthorn were the old pros, playing in their seventh successive grand final and aiming for back-to-back premierships for the first time in the club's history.
It's just that every time we talk about it now, we still can't win the bloody thing. But a brutal game had left too many Hawks barely standing, skipper Michael Tuck and Gary Ayres two more casualties, Hawthorn with no fit interchange players left.Geelong would give it one last shot.
The ball returned to the middle with 29 seconds left on the clock.Out on their feet, the Hawks forced a ball-up, DiPierdomenico, somehow still breathing, forcing a second. Viewed Player Spotlight: Tuohy (R8) ... AFLW Coach Paul Hood addresses the media after the round three loss to Adelaide. Convicted sex offender and former Geelong rowing coach David Whitcroft faces more jail time after pleading guilty to sexually abusing another two boys.The 70-year-old appeared before the Victorian County Court on Wednesday having previously pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two boys at Geelong College between 1973 and 1992.Whitcroft worked at the school in a number of sports roles between 1973 and 1982 before moving to other schools in Victoria and Queensland, prosecutor Pat Bourke said.He returned to Geelong College in 1989 and remained until being dismissed in 1993.Whitcroft lived 500 metres from the school and often had students at his residence, the court was told. A multi-AFL Media Association award-winner known for his passion and love of the game, he analyses the AFL for the newspaper and contributes a blog and weekly video, "Footy Fix", for The Age's football website, Real Footy.Best grand finals, No.1: Tough, tight, terrific, the 1989 grand final had it allChris Langford celebrates, while Gary Ablett laments Geelong's defeat. "The accused allowed students to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes in his living quarters," Mr Bourke said. The 1989 Geelong Football Club season was the club's 118th season of senior competition in the Victorian Football League (VFL). ... Geelong’s young players, at least initially, were unhinged by it. "The victim confided in the accused and considered him to be a paternal figure," Mr Bourke said.After introducing massages as a form of stress management, Whitcroft performed sex acts on the boy and told the student it was "their secret".The student did not tell anyone about the abuse until the late 1980s. It was the second-highest aggregate score for a grand final. The Hawks slammed on eight goals in that frantic opening term to open up a 40-point lead by quarter-timeGeelong, though, had Ablett. The Eagles lost their first four games and won just two of the first 15 games, with the clear low point of the season coming in the form of the Windy Hill Massacre, a 142-point loss that set unwanted and yet to be broken records for the club's biggest loss and lowest score. Gun Geelong defender Zach Tuohy roosts this one through with ease. If I were to document the match, as a Geelong supporter, I’d have preferential perspectives too. His goal was the 42nd of this amazing game. "Rohan Connolly, a senior football writer for The Age and radio broadcaster with sports radio station 1116 SEN, has been covering the game since 1983. Hence its permanent place in the hearts and memories of the football world.Geelong coach Malcolm Blight would sum it up nicely in "That fact that the '89 grand final is held in such esteem by most people that love the game of football … it was a joy to be involved, for all the good and bad of it. West Coast disappointed early in 1989, failing to build on their inaugural finals appearance the previous season.
This would be his masterpiece. Round Opposition For Against Margin Ground; Finals Week 1: Essendon: 11.15 (81) 24.13 (157) 76: Melbourne Cricket Ground: Round 20: West Coast: 12.10 (82) 18.18 (126)