1993 AFL Grand Final

It’s half-time in the 1993 AFL Grand Final and Essendon is already 37 points up. On the left, the scoreboard’s advertising an ice-cream, I think, with its reference to ‘Heaven on a stick’. Bombers fans, however, have found heaven on earth, heaven on the green grass of the MCG.

On the right, the Bombers are leading in all but one of the stats displayed on the scoreboard: hitouts. This was the game, if memory serves correctly, in which the Bomber midfielders feasted off the Carlton ruckwork, courtesy of a strategy masterminded by  assistant coach Neale Daniher.

But take a closer look at the top of the scoreboard, at the figure standing above the Foster’s apostrophe.

This was the game, you may recall, in which Indigenous champion Michael Long won the Norm Smith Medal, presented to him by fellow Tiwi Islander (and 1982 Norm Smith medalist) Maurice Rioli.  This was the week in which Long’s Bomber team-mate Gavin Wanganeen won the Brownlow.  And there on the top of the scoreboard at half-time is a man playing didgeridu.He was, presumably, part of one of the better Grand Final half-time entertainments.

In 2005 Long, Rioli and Wanganeen were all named in the AFL Indigenous Team of the Century.

The final score of the 1993 Grand Final, by the way, was Essendon 20.13 (133) to Carlton 13.11 (89).

1988 Victorian Football Association Second Division Grand Final

Essendon’s home ground Windy Hill hosted VFA Grand Finals in the late 1980s. Jeff Lawton’s photo shows Oakleigh home and hosed in the second division Grand Final against Sunshine. The final scores were 22.17 (149) to 15.9 (99). Within a few years Oakleigh, Sunshine and indeed the VFA second division had disappeared. As for the W.G Brew Scoreboard, you can read much more about it on Scoreboard Pressure‘s post about Windy Hill.