Background
Collingwood entered the game after having last appeared in a Grand Final seven years earlier, when it was defeated by Carlton in the 1970 VFL Grand Final. It had last tasted premiership success nineteen years earlier, when it won the 1958 VFL Grand Final. In contrast, North Melbourne had contested the previous three premiership deciders, winning the 1975 VFL Grand Final but finishing runners-up in the 1974 and 1976 Grand Finals.
At the conclusion of the regular home-and-away season, Collingwood, under former Richmond coach Tom Hafey, had finished first on the ladder with 18 wins and 4 losses. They had amazingly risen from last place in the 1976 season. North Melbourne had finished third (behind Hawthorn), with 15 wins and 7 losses.
In the finals series leading up to the Grand Final, North Melbourne lost to Hawthorn by 38 points in the Qualifying Final before defeating Richmond by 47 points in the First Semi-Final. They then met Hawthorn once again in the Preliminary Final, this time winning comfortably by 67 points to advance to the Grand Final. Collingwood advanced straight to the Grand Final on the back of a thrilling two-point win over Hawthorn in the Second Semi-Final.
The Magpies were without Phil Carman for the Grand Final, who had been suspended for two matches after he was found guilty of striking Hawthorn's Michael Tuck in the Second Semi-Final.
Read more about this topic: 1977 VFL Grand Final
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)