1997 AFL Grand Final

Grand final of the 1997 Australian Football League season October 2026 December 2017 AFL Grand Final 1997 170px 250px The Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the 1997 AFL Grand Final took place. 50px ADE 50pxStK STK 3.8 (26) 5.10 (40) 11.11 (77) 19.11 (125) 3.6 (24) 7.11 (53) 9.13 (67) 13.16 (94) 19.11 (125) 13.16 (94) 27 September 1997 Melbourne Cricket Ground 99,645 St Kilda Hayden Kennedy (7), Bryan Sheehan (9), Mark Nash (14) St Kilda Punt Road End Marina Prior Marina Prior Andrew McLeod () Malcolm Blight Seven Network Bruce McAvaney (host and commentator)Dennis Cometti (commentator)Sandy Roberts (commentator)Leigh Matthews (expert commentator)Peter McKenna ("sharp shooter")Robert Dipierdomenico (boundary rider)Neil Kerley (boundary rider)Russell Morris (boundary rider) 1996 1998 The 1997 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 1997. It was the 101st annual grand final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the premiers for the 1997 AFL season. The match, attended by 99,645 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 31 points, marking that club's first premiership victory. Background 1997 AFL season The Saints were playing in their first premiership decider since losing the 1971 VFL Grand Final, and looking to win just their second premiership after their famous one-point win against in 1966, while the Crows were appearing in their first Grand final since entering the competition in 1991. It had been a very even home-and-away season, with St Kilda finishing on top of the AFL ladder after 22 rounds, winning the McClelland Trophy with a record of 15 wins and 7 losses. No other team before or since has finished on top of the ladder with more than 6 losses, highlighting how even season 1997 was. The Saints had won their last seven matches to overtake and claim top spot by percentage. Adelaide, who had brought in Malcolm Blight as coach and future coach Neil Craig as fitness advisor, had finished fourth with 13 wins and 9 losses. They had made the finals for only the second time in their club history, after losing in a preliminary final in 1993 to eventual premiers Essendon. Tony Modra was the club's leading goalkicker for the fifth-straight season, with a total of 84. The finals series was contested using the McIntyre final eight system. Adelaide won their qualifying final encounter against West Coast at Football Park by 33 points. They won their second final, also at Football Park, by 8 points against Geelong, in a game perhaps best remembered for a crucial mark not being paid to Geelong's Leigh Colbert during a critical period in the third quarter. The Crows then progressed to a preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, in which they trailed for most of the match. The Bulldogs' Tony Liberatore famously celebrated what he thought was a winning goal early in the last quarter, but it was a behind; Adelaide then scored the last four goals of the match to snatch victory by 2 points. However, in this game, Adelaide lost Modra in the first quarter to an ACL injury, meaning he would not be available for the grand final. St Kilda won their qualifying final against the eighth-placed Brisbane Lions by 46 points at Waverley Park before a crowd of over 50,000, sending them to a home preliminary final against seventh-placed North Melbourne at the MCG, which they won by 31 points in front of crowd of 87,531. The Saints went into the grand final as heavy favourites.I've heard them been described as "warm" favourites. Do you have decimal odds or "heavy" favourites elsewhere in writing? October 2024 St Kilda's Robert Harvey won the Brownlow Medal earlier in the week for having been deemed by the field umpires as being the best player in the AFL for the 1997 season, a feat he would repeat the following year. Western Bulldogs player Chris Grant polled the highest number of votes, but as he had been suspended for a one-match ban—in Round 7 against Hawthorn for striking—he was deemed ineligible for the award.AFL Tables - 1997 Brownlow Medal Teams _adelaidecrows16h _redsides _hoops_red_gold 000066 000066 Adelaide _stkilda 1997 _whitesides _band_red ffffff 000000 000000 St Kilda 44 Peter Caven 35 Rod Jameson 34 Ben Hart 23 Andrew McLeod 15 David Pittman 36 Simon Goodwin 14 Matthew Connell 3 Darren Jarman 5 Kym Koster 24 Clay Sampson 10 Matthew Robran 7 Nigel Smart 42 Chad Rintoul 13 Shane Ellen 18 Troy Bond 52 Shaun Rehn 28 Kane Johnson 26 Mark Bickley (Capt) 9 Tyson Edwards 11 Brett James 20 Aaron Keating Malcolm Blight StK 19 Steven Sziller 31 Jamie Shanahan 1 Justin Peckett 18 Jason Cripps 15 Darryl Wakelin 8 Max Hudghton 34 Jayson Daniels 29 Andrew Thompson 5 Austinn Jones 22 Matthew Lappin 23 Stewart Loewe (Capt) 17 Rod Keogh 25 Barry Hall 24 Jason Heatley 7 Nicky Winmar 42 Brett Cook 35 Robert Harvey 3 Nathan Burke (Capt) 2 Tony Brown 13 David Sierakowski 16 Robert Neill Stan Alves Match summary With over 99,000 in attendance, the crowd was the largest for a VFL/AFL Grand Final since 1986. On a sombre note, it was revealed during the pre-match coverage that St Kilda star Nicky Winmar's father Neal had died from heart disease at the age of 50 the day before the grand final. The St Kilda players wore black armbands in his honour. In an odd coincidence, the two opposing coaches, Stan Alves and Malcolm Blight, had been premiership teammates for exactly 20 years earlier. First quarter It was an intense and exciting Grand Final, with Adelaide starting well and leading by 2 points at quarter time (with unlikely goalkicker Shane Ellen, who was playing at full-forward to replace the injured Tony Modra, kicking the Crows first goal—a move which was later regarded as a masterstroke by coach Malcolm Blight). St Kilda's Austinn Jones kicked what was universally considered the goal of the match, or what could have been the goal of the year had the award be eligible for goals kicked in finals. In an effort reminiscent of Phil Manassa in the 1977 VFL Grand final replay, Jones ran almost the full length of the ground and kicked the goal on his non-preferred left foot from just inside the 50-metre arc. Second quarter Inspired by Jones's heroics, the Saints began the second term strongly and took control for the only time in the game when Barry Hall broke away from Peter Caven to kick three goals in four minutes. For the rest of the match, Caven had the better of the duel. The Crows maintained their composure. Simon Goodwin took a handball from Troy Bond and snapped truly. Ten minutes later, Bond himself added a goal from a tight angle after Chad Rintoul cleverly knocked the ball back into play. But just before the break, a snap by Harvey put St Kilda twelve points up and held the Crows at bay. Third quarter The third term belonged to Adelaide, inspired mainly by the brilliance of Andrew McLeod, who was now playing in the midfield. Bond, from a free kick paid 45 metres out, began the second half with a goal; and, although Loewe, well held by Pittman, answered for St Kilda, the Crows then scored what could be considered a fortuitous goal when Rintoul's 65-metre bomb took a shocking bounce over Max Hudghton's head and went through. On a roll, the Crows quickly scored again with the brilliant Ellen, now playing half-back, drifting downfield to mark unattended two metres out. Fourth quarter With the game still in the balance, Blight made another winning tactical move, swinging the mercurial Darren Jarman, who had played most of the game in the midfield, to full-forward. Jarman would live up to his reputation as one of the finest sharpshooters, kicking five straight goals for the quarter; it would be last time a player would score six or more goals in an AFL Grand Final until 2021 when Bayley Fritsch also scored six goals. The Saints continued to fight to stay in the game, but Jarman's final goal for the quarter, an elegant snap off a quarter-step around his body on a tight angle from 35 metres, split the middle to make certain that the premiership was headed to South Australia. Aftermath Adelaide became the first team to win four consecutive finals to claim the AFL premiership—a feat matched by the Western Bulldogs in 2016 and Brisbane Lions in 2024. The Norm Smith Medal was presented by Fitzroy legend Kevin Murray to Andrew McLeod, who, at 21 years old, was the youngest player since Wayne Harmes to win the award. Named on a half-back flank against Matthew Lappin, McLeod was instrumental in foiling a number of St Kilda attacks in an even first quarter.Main (2006), p. 261 However, in one of several successful positional moves he would make for the match, Malcolm Blight sensed McLeod would be even more damaging in a midfield role.Main (2006), p. 262 Making full use of his pace, agility and ball-winning skills, McLeod kept his side in the game when the Saints looked to pull away, and then continued to pump the ball into attack as the Crows eventually took control in the second half.Main (2006), p. 262 He finished the game with 18 kicks, 13 handpasses and 11 marks. Shane Ellen, typically a defensive player for the Crows, provided a cameo at full-forward in place of Modra and finished with five goals, while Darren Jarman booted a grand final record of five in the last quarter, taking him to six for the match and sealing the game. Other influential Crows players included Shaun Rehn, Kane Johnson, David Pittman, Troy Bond and Ben Hart. St Kilda defender Justin Peckett, reflecting on the game over 20 years later, admitted to feeling an ominous sense of dread in the second half as the Crows finished the game strongly: My memories going into the day was one of super excitement and then it became an absolute nightmare in that second half. When the siren blows it’s the worst experience that you’ve ever had, so you get all of that in the one day. As the game was unfolding in that second half in particular, you get the sense that this is it, we’re done, it’s devastating.https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/09/08/former-saint-reflects-on-devastating-1997-grand-final-loss/ FORMER SAINT REFLECTS ON "DEVASTATING" 1997 GRAND FINAL LOSS 8 September 2019 1116 SEN In 2020, AFL journalist Damian Barrett rated Jarman's five-goal last quarter as the most memorable finals moment he had witnessed, calling it "the greatest individual quarter ever played" and claiming that there was no chance the Crows would have won the premiership without him.Damian Barrett Barrett's most memorable finals moments: 10-1 https://www.afl.com.au/news/509767/barrett-s-most-memorable-finals-moments-10-1 24 September 2020 AFL Media Scorecard 1997 AFL Grand Final Saturday, 27 September (2:30 pm) A 3.8 (26) 5.10 (40) 11.11 (77) 19.11 (125) 6 Jarman 5 Ellen4 Bond1 Smart, Goodwin, Rintoul, Caven McLeod, Jarman, Johnson, Ellen, Bond, Goodwin, Caven, Pittman, Rehn, Hart Jameson (hamstring) StK 3.6 (24) 7.11 (53) 9.13 (67) 13.16 (94) Heatley, Hall 3 Loewe 2 Jones, Burke, Winmar, Peckett, Harvey 1 Harvey, Jones, Burke, Hall, Wakelin, Cook, Keogh MCG 99,645 Report Kennedy, Sheehan, Nash Norm Smith Medal Andrew McLeod () Seven Network Marina Prior See also 1997 AFL season References Bibliography Atkinson Graeme Brant Atkinson 2009 The Complete Book of AFL Finals 4th The Five Mile Press Scoresby, Victoria 9781742112756 Jim Main 2006 When it matters most : the Norm Smith Medallist and best on ground in every Grand Final Bas Publishing Melbourne, Victoria 1920910689 External links 27 September 1997 1997 AFL Grand Final Souvenir Edition http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/138403 The Football Record 26 86 State Library Victoria Category:VFL/AFL Grand Finals Category:Adelaide Football Club Category:St Kilda Football Club Category:1997 AFL season Afl Grand Final, 1997