1998 AFL Grand Final

The 1998 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Crows and the North Melbourne Kangaroos, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1998. It was the 102nd annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the premiers for the 1998 AFL season. The match, attended by 94,431 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 35 points, marking that club's second consecutive premiership victory, and second premiership overall.

Background

Main article: 1998 AFL season

Further information: 1998 AFL finals series

This Grand Final saw the Kangaroos playing in their second Grand Final in three years, after their triumph in the 1996 AFL Grand Final. The Crows were competing in their second consecutive Grand Final, and were seeking back-to-back premierships after winning the 1997 AFL Grand Final. Craig Sholl for the Kangaroos was to play his 200th game.

At the conclusion of the home and away season, North Melbourne had finished first on the AFL ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses, winning the McClelland Trophy. They had won their last nine matches. Adelaide had finished fifth with 13 wins and 9 losses.

Adelaide fell to a heavy loss in its qualifying final against Melbourne at the MCG by 48 points, but still progressed to play a semi-final against Sydney at the SCG, which they won by 27 points. Adelaide then progressed to the preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG, and won convincingly won by 68 points.

North Melbourne won its qualifying final against Essendon by 22 points at the MCG, sending them to a home preliminary final against Melbourne. They won that match by 30 points to progress to the Grand Final. The finals wins extended North Melbourne's winning streak to eleven matches entering the Grand Final. The Kangaroos entered the game as heavy favourites.

Match summary

	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
Adelaide	3.2 (20)	4.3 (27)	9.11 (65)	15.15 (105)
North Melbourne	4.4 (28)	6.15 (51)	8.15 (63)	8.22 (70)

North Melbourne attacked constantly during the first half, however returned a wasteful 6.15 (51) for the first half to Adelaide's 4.3 (27). They led by just four goals despite having 21 scoring shots to just seven in the first half.

Adelaide then dominated the second half. A wasteful 5.8 to North Melbourne's 2.0 in the third quarter saw the Adelaide leading by two points at three-quarter time. Then, Adelaide scored 6.4 in the final quarter, holding North Melbourne (0.7) goalless, to open a comfortable lead, and ultimately win the match by 35 points.

Adelaide became the first team since Hawthorn in 1988-1989 to win back-to-back premierships. In the end, both teams had 30 scoring shots, but the Crows converted at 50% and the Kangaroos at just 26%.

Darren Jarman was sensational with 5 goals and Andrew McLeod was awarded the Norm Smith Medal for being judged the best player afield, for the second straight year. He became only the second player (after Gary Ayres of Hawthorn) to win the medal twice, and the first player to win it in successive years.

Adelaide is one of just two clubs in modern times to have won the premiership after finishing lower than fourth on the premiership ladder after the home-and-away season (Melbourne won the premiership after finishing sixth after the fourteen-game home-and-away season in 1900, qualifying for the semi-finals after a strong performance in the three-week sectional round robin that followed the home-and-away season; the Western Bulldogs won the premiership after finishing seventh in the home-and-away season in 2016).

Pre-match entertainment

The 1998 Grand Final pre-match entertainment was particularly notable for the appearance of former World Heavyweight Boxing champion Muhammad Ali, as he did a lap of honour of the ground. Rob Guest performed This Is The Moment as the champion made his way around the ground. Guest later sang the national anthem.

Donna Fisk and Michael Cristiano performed "Rock 'N Footy (Rock The G)".

The song performed at every Grand Final, Waltzing Matilda, was performed by Jane Scali and Michael Cormick.

In an unusual move, the teams ran out to the live performance of the club song, rather than the traditional recorded version played later on.

Teams

Adelaide
B:	28 Kane Johnson	34 Ben Hart	26 Mark Bickley (Capt)
HB:	7 Nigel Smart	44 Peter Caven	13 Shane Ellen
C:	30 Peter Vardy	36 Simon Goodwin	29 James Thiessen
HF:	23 Andrew McLeod	10 Matthew Robran	11 Brett James
F:	32 Mark Ricciuto	15 David Pittman	9 Tyson Edwards
Foll:	52 Shaun Rehn	3 Darren Jarman	5 Kym Koster
Int:	14 Matthew Connell	19 Mark Stevens	31 Ben Marsh
	33 Andrew Eccles
Coach:	Malcolm Blight

North Melbourne
B:	11 Glenn Archer	4 Mick Martyn	37 Adam Simpson
HB:	28 Byron Pickett	5 Jason McCartney	8 Robert Scott
C:	34 David King	10 Anthony Stevens	15 Winston Abraham
HF:	22 Mark Roberts	18 Wayne Carey (Capt)	13 Martin Pike
F:	29 Brent Harvey	24 Craig Sholl	6 Shannon Grant
Foll:	31 Corey McKernan	12 John Blakey	26 Peter Bell
Int:	33 Brett Allison	16 Matthew Capuano	17 Glenn Freeborn
	3 Anthony Rock
Coach:	Denis Pagan

Match details


	1998 AFL Grand Final
Saturday, 26 September 2:30pm	Adelaide	def.	North Melbourne	MCG (Crowd: 94,431)
	3.2 (20) 4.3 (27) 9.11 (65) 15.15 (105)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	4.4 (28) 6.15 (51) 8.15 (63) 8.22 (70)	Umpires: Coates (6), Kennedy (7), Goldspink (32) Norm Smith Medal: Andrew McLeod Television broadcast: Seven Network National anthem: Rob Guest

Jarman 5, Smart 3, Vardy 2, James, Pittman, Johnson, Thiessen, Ricciuto		Goals	Blakey, Pike, Abraham, Carey, Roberts, Bell, Allison, Simpson




North Melbourne won the coin toss and kicked to the Punt Road end in the first quarter

References

Victorian/Australian Football League Grand Finals

VFL Grand Finals	1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

AFL Grand Finals	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Adelaide Football Club 1998 AFL premiers

Adelaide 15.15 (105) defeated North Melbourne 8.22 (70), at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

3. Jarman 5. Koster 7. Smart 9. Edwards 10. Robran 11. James 13. Ellen 14. Connell 15. Pittman 19. Stevens 23. McLeod 26. Bickley (c) 28. Johnson 29. Thiessen 30. Vardy 31. Marsh 32. Ricciuto 33. Eccles 34. Hart 36. Goodwin 44. Caven 52. Rehn

Coach: Blight

Adelaide Football Club

History Premierships and records Players Captains Coaches Awards Malcolm Blight Medal Leading goalkickers Captain: Taylor Walker Coach: Don Pyke Nickname: Crows

Stadiums	Football Park (1991–2013) Adelaide Oval (2014–)

Premierships (2)	1997 1998

Seasons (27)	1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Related articles	Showdown SANFL club

North Melbourne Football Club

History Records Captains Coaches Players Current squad Syd Barker Medal Leading goalkickers Captain: TBD Coach: Brad Scott Nickname: Kangaroos

Home grounds	Arden Street Oval (1925–64; 1966–85) Coburg City Oval (1965) Sydney Cricket Ground (1979; 1999–2002) Melbourne Cricket Ground (1984–99) Manuka Oval (1998; 2001–06) Docklands Stadium (2000–present) Bellerive Oval (2012–present)

Premierships (4)	1975 1977 1996 1999

Seasons (89)	1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Related articles	Murray Kangaroos North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast Proposed relocation Round 16, 2001 collapse against Essendon

known as Kangaroos Football Club from 1999–2007

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