Hawthorn 13.22.100 d North Melbourne 10.10.70

Coach: John Kennedy Snr
Captain: Don Scott

Backs: Brian Douge (11), Kelvin Moore (15), Bernie Jones (31)
Half-backs: Ian Bremner (29), Peter Knights (24), David O’Halloran (8)
Centres: Rodney Eade (26), Barry Rowlings (22), Geoff Ablett (2)
Half-forwards: Kelvin Matthews (4), Alan Martello (14), David Polkinghorne (10)
Forwards: Allan Goad (19), John Hendrie (25), Michael Moncrieff (6)
Followers: Don Scott (23), Michael Tuck (17), Leigh Matthews (3)

Reserves: Leon Rice (13), Peter Murnane (43)

Goals: Moncrieff 3, Goad 2, Hendrie 2, Matthews 2, Rowlings 1, Scott 1

Best Players: Ablett, Douge, Hendrie, Knights, Moore, Rowlings

Umpires: Bill Deller, Kevin Smith

Attendance: 110,143 (at MCG, Saturday, September 25, 1976)

Hawthorn had two powerful motivations for winning the 1976 Grand Final. The first was that the club was seeking revenge for their humiliating loss to North Melbourne in the 1975 Grand Final.?The second was that their inspirational former captain, Peter Crimmins, was seriously ill with cancer. Crimmins was too ill to attend the game, but invoking the need to win for “the little fella” was all that coach Kennedy needed to say to inspire his players.?
Hawthorn controlled the game for most of the day and while North had the better of the third term, the result was never really in doubt.  John Hendrie was generally acknowledged as best-on-ground; there would have been no argument except for his inaccuracy that saw him kick 2.7.

On Grand Final night, a group of Hawthorn players took the Premiership cup to the home of their dying former skipper.?One of the most iconic photographs in the history of the Hawthorn Football Club shows Crimmins surrounded by a group of his team mates, holding the Premiership Cup. He died three days later.

The 1976 Premiership is known to all fans of the Brown and Gold as Crimmo’s Cup.