SOMETIMES there are events in our lives that happen to teach us lessons, others to help us become more independent and then there are those that are timed so well it’s almost uncanny.
For former club President Jeff Kennett, one of those uncanny moments was when Hawthorn was crowned back-to-back premiers of the VFL on 30 September, 1989.
Not long before that great day in the history of Hawthorn Football Club, Kennett was deposed as leader of the Opposition.
As passionate as he was about politics, that passion was rivaled by his love for football and the brown and gold.
So when Hawthorn overcame Geelong in one of the all-time great grand finals, his euphoria at witnessing another Hawthorn premiership transcended football.
“The win in 1989 gave me great relief from my own fall from grace, but at the same time hope for the future,” Kennett told hawthornfc.com.au
“The 1989 Grand Final was the grandest I have ever witnessed, of all the grand finals I have witnessed over my life time.
“It is the only one I have ever re-watched, several times.”
The game is famous for the brutality in which both teams contested the footy, the man and the desire to achieve the ultimate in football.
For Hawthorn, it cemented the position of the already great players into the history books and the memories of Hawthorn fans around Australia.
“It was the complete competition,” Kennett said. “Tough, brilliant and a wonderful example of human effort.”
It was the ultimate team performance and is remembered justly as so by a man who bleeds brown and gold.
To pick a player above all others would be an injustice to the combined effort the great achievement required from all who took the field that day.
“To name one player of that 1989 team would be to do injustice to the (Allan) Jeans mode of coaching and instruction,” Kennett said. “Teams win grand finals, not individuals.
“While there were some glorious individual efforts, unless all players had contributed the flag would not have been secured for Hawthorn.”
Hawthorn Football Club will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Club’s back-to-back premiership of 1988-89 at a special anniversary event at Crown Palladium on Saturday 12 July.
There, the club will elevate a Legend status a Hall of Fame inductee from the back-to-back flag winning teams.
Those eligible include Gary Ayres, Dermott Brereton, Gary Buckenara, Robert DiPierdomenco, Jason Dunstall, Chris Langford, Chris Mew, John Platten and Allan Jeans.
