Umpire: J.McMurray Jnr.

Goalkickers: J.Howell 1, H.Turner 1, R.Garby 1, B.Baxter 1, K.Baxter 1, K.Hands 1.

Best: B.Deacon, O.Grieve, R.Green, J.Clark, J.Howell, E.Henfry.

Game Review

Conditions were perfect for football for the Grand Final, but Essendon proved to be the better team on the day. The game proved to be a rough one, at one stage three Essendon players punching Ken Hands. Ern Henfry was crunched for Carlton, and his input was down for most of the day while he recovered. For Essendon, McClure was knocked out early.

Essendon kicked the first goal through Hutchinson, and then Howell took a great mark for the Blues and converted with our first goal. Coleman replied for Essendon to give them a 5 point lead, kicking 3 goals to 2 in the first term. The best players on each side were being systematically targetted with the exception of John Coleman, Carlton's Ollie Grieve was able to win this contest on sheer ability.

Carlton were over reliant on Howell at centre half forward, and made the mistake of going to him too often. Essendon concentrated on shutting him down by having their backs concentrate on him. All of Carlton's forwards were under severe pressure and and Blues had to kick hurriedly for goal. In the end, Essendon managed 4 goals 4 to the Blues 6 behinds to setup a match winning lead.

The third quarter opened with two more goals to the Dons, who were constantly pressuring the Blues and threatening to score. By the end of the third term, Essendon were up by nearly 10 goals and had the premiership in the bag. The high point of the last quarter was John Coleman's performance.

With the match already sewn up, Essendon was able to play through Coleman and give him the chance of kicking the 4 goals he needed to be the first player in VFL history to kick 100 goals. In a nice touch, Carlton star and ex-Brownlow Medallist Bert Deacon ran down to settle Coleman down as he lined up for his 100th with the game almost over. Coleman slotted the goal and created history, with Essendon running out 73 point winners.

"Carlton dominated the game in the second quarter. They surged across the centre and won, and then threw the premiership away. They took 11 shots from 20 yards out or less and got the fat tally of six behinds from them.
It was heart breaking football. Had they taken the interval with eight or 10 goals behind them, as they might have done the story could have been very different."
(Sporting Globe September 28 p18)

Frees

Carlton 9 9 10 6 Total 34
Essendon 8 7 3 1 Total 19

Marks

Carlton 10 15 9 20 - Total 54
Essendon 15 8 16 25 - Total 74

Footnote:

The official attendance was 88,718, but more than 10,000 broke through the locked gates and gate-crashed into the ground. Nearly 20,000 fans were turned away.

1949 Grand Final Team

Milestones

Last Game: Jim Mooring
Last Game (Carlton): Herb Turner
Score Records: As if the loss wasn't hard enough to take, Carlton would now not win a final for another 13 years (1962). The Blues had just begun a Club Record equalling 5 consecutive finals losses through the next decade to 1959. With us not playing finals in 1960-1961, the finals drought was indeed long-term.