2015 AFL Grand Final

With the Fremantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles finishing first and second respectively on the AFL ladder at the conclusion of the home and away season (and both subsequently winning their qualifying finals to set up two home preliminary finals in Perth for the first time), it was anticipated that the 2015 grand final could be a western derby between the two Western Australian teams for the first time at the MCG. experienced an average start to the year, with a record of 4–4 after eight matches (including losses to non-finals teams , and ), but lost just twice more for the remainder of the regular season to finish in the top three for the fifth consecutive year. The team then lost its qualifying final to at Domain Stadium by 32 points, but rebounded to defeat and (in Perth) in their semi and preliminary Finals, by 74 and 27 points respectively, to qualify for its fourth consecutive grand final. West Coast entered the season low on expectations after finishing ninth the previous year and losing key defenders Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown to knee injuries early in the year. After losing two of the first three games, to the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle, the Eagles finished the season with a record of 16–5–1 to finish in the top two for the first time since 2006. The Eagles received the week off after beating Hawthorn in the qualifying final by 32 points, and subsequently defeated by 25 points in the preliminary final to progress to their first grand final since 2006. The grand final was held on the first Saturday in October, rather than its traditional date on the last Saturday of September, because the 2015 Cricket World Cup delayed access to some AFL grounds early in the season. The game was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Hawthorn's main home ground for the home and away season: West Coast who had only played there once during the season compared with Hawthorn's 11 matches. It was the second time that the two sides had met in a grand final; the first was in 1991, which Hawthorn won by a margin of 53 points. ==Pre-match entertainment==

Similar to previous grand finals, the grand final provided both pre-match and post-match entertainment, with English singer Ellie Goulding, Canadian musician Bryan Adams and American musician Chris Isaak performing on the day. Australian singer Kate Ceberano performed the national anthem, and musician Mike Brady performed his famous football song, "Up There Cazaly" as he had done at several grand finals before and since. For the first time, the day before the grand final was declared a public holiday in Victoria by the incoming Daniel Andrews government, as promised during the campaigning for the 2014 Victorian state election. As this reduced the number of workers in the Melbourne City Centre, the traditional route for the Grand Final Parade was changed to leave from the Old Treasury Building and finish at Yarra Park, adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A record crowd of 150,000 people turned up to watch the parade. ==Match summary==

The game was played on a very hot day, with the temperature reaching at 3:28 pm. This broke the previous record high for a grand final of in 1987. It was thought that the conditions would favour West Coast, after Hawthorn had played a tough finals campaign of three successive finals, including travelling to Perth twice, without having a week off. The Eagles, being based in Perth, were also generally more used to playing in warmer conditions than Hawthorn. First quarter Luke Shuey kicked the first goal two minutes into the game for West Coast from a free kick awarded against Jordan Lewis. Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli responded only 90 seconds later and the Hawks kicked the next four goals of the quarter, with Ben McEvoy, Rioli, Grant Birchall and Bradley Hill each kicking goals. Meanwhile, the Eagles wasted opportunities, with Shuey ignoring a handball to an open Jamie Cripps in front of goal in preference to a dribbled kick that missed. West Coast's Jack Darling also missed a goal at the thirteen-minute mark. At quarter time, Hawthorn 5.0 (30) led West Coast 1.5 (11) by 19 points, despite having fewer scoring shots. Second quarter Hawthorn dominated the first half of the second quarter. Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge kicked the first goal in the first minute of the term with a checkside kick from hard against the boundary line in the forward pocket. West Coast finally kicked its second goal in the 16th minute, Josh Hill kicking the goal. Two more behinds followed, before Elliot Yeo kicked another for West Coast from a set shot after the siren. West Coast's late scores narrowed the margin to 31 points; Hawthorn 9.3 (57), West Coast 3.8 (26). Ryan Schoenmakers kicked a goal for Hawthorn in the 11th minute, The next fifteen minutes of the term were goalless before the Eagles added three goals in time-on (one to Mark LeCras and two to Jeremy McGovern) to reduce the final margin to 46 points. Hawthorn 16.11 (107) defeated West Coast 8.13 (61). Andrew Gaff was the best for the Eagles with 34 disposals. Alastair Clarkson also won his fourth premiership as coach of Hawthorn, making him the 12th four-time VFL/AFL premiership coach. The match was Hawthorn's last finals victory until 2024. Norm Smith Medal Cyril Rioli was named the Norm Smith Medallist (best on ground). Rioli polled 13 votes out of a possible 15, beating his teammate Sam Mitchell who had nine votes. Rioli emulated his uncles Maurice Rioli and Michael Long, who had won the medal in 1982 and 1993 respectively. Chaired by Peter Bell, the voters and their choices were as follows: ==Teams==

The teams were announced on 1 October 2015. Hawthorn made one change to its lineup from the previous week's preliminary final, with Jack Gunston returning from an ankle injury and Billy Hartung omitted. West Coast named an unchanged team from its preliminary final. Matt Rosa was the substitute for West Coast and Matt Suckling filled that role for Hawthorn. The 2015 grand final was the last AFL match to utilise substitutions until the 2021 season, the AFL reverting to a four-man interchange bench from the 2016 AFL season onwards. ;Umpires The umpiring panel, comprising three field umpires, four boundary umpires, two goal umpires and an emergency in each position is given below. The most notable appointment was field umpire Jeff Dalgleish's selection for his first grand final. Numbers in brackets represent the number of Grand Finals umpired, including 2015. ==Scorecard==

s by workers in Victoria, particularly those affecting transport, had potential to affect the 2015 AFL Grand Final More than 180 brewery workers at the Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) factory in Abbotsford, Victoria voted to go on strike in the lead up to the 2015 AFL Grand Final. It was feared that this could potentially affect the production of Carlton Draught and Victoria Bitter in the lead up to the game, although the brewery stated that a strike would not cause any loss of production, and that Carlton & United could potentially request supplies from its other factories during a strike if production was lost. ==Media coverage==

The match was televised by the Seven Network. The match commentary was conducted by Bruce McAvaney and Dennis Cometti for the Seven Network, marking the duo's seventh grand final appearance together as commentators since 2008 and their eleventh overall. Individually, it was Cometti's seventeenth grand final and McAvaney's fifteenth. The match was shown on Seven's main channel and also their high-definition channel, 7mate. A total of 2,640,000 people across the two channels watched the match, making the Grand Final the most viewed television broadcast of the day. ==References==