Hawthorn 22.20.152 d Melbourne 6.20.56

Coach: Alan Joyce
Captain: Michael Tuck

Backs: Andrew Collins (40), Chris Langford (24), Gary Ayres (7)
Half-backs: Scott Maginness (20). Chris Mew (2), Michael Tuck (17)
Centres: Tony Hall (6), Peter Schwab (30), Robert DiPierdomenico (9)
Half-forwards: Chris Wittman (10), Dermott Brereton (23), John Kennedy Jnr (34)
Forwards: Paul Abbott (39), Jason Dunstall (19), James Morrissey (35)
Followers: Greg Dear (14), Gary Buckenara (11), John Platten (44)

Interchange: R Greene (29), D Pritchard (18)

Goals: Dunstall 7, Abbott 6, Brereton 5, DiPierdomenico 1, Kennedy Jnr 1, Morrissey 1, Schwab 1

Best Players: Abbott, Ayres, Brereton, Dunstall, Platten, Schwab

Norm Smith Medal: Gary Ayres

Umpires: Peter Cameron Bryan Sheehan

Attendance: 93,754 (at MCG, Saturday, September 24, 1988)

Coach Allan Jeans had to take the year off due to ill health and was replaced by Alan Joyce. The 1988 Grand final was Hawthorn’s sixth straight and this time it was Melbourne, who had come from fifth position and was the sentimental favourite.

The 1988 Grand Final was over as a contest by early in the second term, when goals from the boundary from opposite pockets from Dermott Brereton and Robert DiPierdomenico showed it was the Hawks’ day.?In a remarkable passage of play later in that quarter, the Hawks moved the ball forward through the middle of the ground to score in a stoppable wave of dominance without any opposition player touching the ball.?
The winning margin of 96 points broke the Hawks own record of 83 set in 1983. Jason Dunstall, Paul Abbott and Brereton kicked 18 goals between them, while Gary Ayres became the first player to win two Norm Smith Medals, brushing off a fractured cheekbone suffered in the first quarter.