The 1970 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1970. It was the 74th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1970 VFL season. The match was won by Carlton by a margin of 10 points, marking that club's 11th premiership victory.

This game is widely considered to be the epitome of a classic Australian Football Grand Final and the "birth" of the modern Australian game. The attendance of 121,696 represented the most spectators to have witnessed a premiership decider in VFL Grand Final history, breaking the record of 119,165 spectators who witnessed the 1969 VFL Grand Final. It remains an enduring attendance record for any VFL/AFL match.

[edit] Match summary

Carlton played poorly in the first half and many thought the game was as good as finished by the half time siren; perhaps it could have been, had Collingwood's scoreline read more accurately than 10.13 (73). At the half-time break Carlton trailed by a seemingly overwhelming 44 points.

During the break, champion Carlton coach Ron Barassi instructed his players to handball and play on at all costs, instituting a strategy to try and nullify Collingwood's long kicking game. A key positional move was the introduction of little-known Ted Hopkins, a small rover, as a substitute for Bert Thornley in the second half.^[1]

These changes were highly effective and Carlton scored seven goals to one behind in the first thirteen minutes of the third quarter, almost completely erasing Collingwood's lead. Ted Hopkins lively contribution made a major contribution to the Carlton revival, highlighted by four inspirational goals.

Collingwood fought back strongly towards the end of the third quarter, leading by seventeen points at three-quarter time, and the game remained in the balance well into the final quarter. Late in the last quarter - Carlton leading by less than a goal - umpire Don Jolley refused to pay a free kick to Collingwood's McKenna for an obvious push in the back in front of goal and the ball went up the other end where Alex Jesaulenko snatched the ball on the half forward line and sent a left foot kick bouncing towards goal. With no one guarding the goals, the ball bounced through for a goal, sealing the game for Carlton. Carlton completed a remarkable recovery, to triumph by 10 points, 17.9 (111) to 14.17 (101).

The game also featured the perhaps the most iconic mark in VFL/AFL history, taken by Jesaulenko in the 28th minute of the second quarter. The mark prompted commentator Mike Williamson to make the now famous call "Jesaulenko, you beauty!" which is frequently repeated or paraphrased today. The mark is credited with the initiation of the Mark of the Year competition, and the medal associated with the award now carries Jesaulenko's name.

Carlton's next success came two years later, when it won the 1972 VFL Grand Final against Richmond. It would take until 1990 for Collingwood to finally win its first Premiership since 1958, when it defeated Essendon in the 1990 AFL Grand Final.

[edit] Perspective

Alex Jesaulenko with his famous "you beauty" mark in the 1970 Grand Final.

It is often stated that the style of play, featuring frequent hand ball and open fast running play, displayed that day by Carlton was a precursor to the modern style of play, although Barassi himself credits the idea to his own mentor and former Melbourne coach Norm Smith. Up until then, Australian Rules had primarily been a stop-start game with players kicking forward to team mates who took a mark, stopped and kicked again, with the handball used mainly as a defensive option. In the second half of the Grand Final, Carlton instead ran and handballed to each other, moving the ball quickly away from the Collingwood defenders.

Although the match is justly famous for the contributions of many now legendary players of that era, Brent Crosswell (Carlton) was contemporaneously generally regarded as the best player of the day for his four quarter contribution, especially in the first half when many Carlton players were not playing well.

Interestingly Hopkins played only one further game for Carlton, soon quitting football to pursue other interests.

The 44-point half-time deficit overcome by Carlton was then the second-largest half-time deficit ever overcome in VFL history. The only larger deficit overcome before this was 52 points, by Collingwood against St Kilda in Round 10 of the same year (which remains the record today).[1]

[edit] Teams

Umpire - Don Jolley

[edit] Result

[edit] See also

• 1970 VFL season

[edit] References