1977 VFL Grand Final - First Grand Final

First Grand Final

The game, which was attended by 108,224 spectators, was just the second of three Grand Finals in VFL/AFL history to be drawn, the others being the 1948 VFL Grand Final and the 2010 AFL Grand Final. Collingwood led by 27 points at three quarter time, helped by North Melbourne's inaccuracy in front of goal which saw them kick 13 successive behinds from the 24-minute mark of the first quarter. North's Arnold Briedis had a game to forget, kicking seven behinds for the match. Amazingly, the Kangaroos did not kick a goal in the second and third quarters.

But the Kangaroos came back in the final period to kick five unanswered goals, helped by coach Ron Barassi's move of defender Darryl Sutton to full-forward, who kicked the first goal of the term. A disastrous handpass by Collingwood's Phil Manassa to North's David Dench in the goal square led to another Kangaroos goal. Then in the dying minutes of the game, two goals to Phil Baker gave North the lead but they couldn't hold on, as Ross Dunne marked directly in front for Collingwood and goaled with just 40 seconds remaining to level the scores.

Barassi said later "We should have won the game. I know that is a brave statement, but we did have five more scoring shots than Collingwood."

Coincidentally, on the same day as this match took place, the grand final replay for the 1977 NSWRFL season was held. The grand final, held the week before, finished in a 9-9 draw between St. George and Parramatta. Thus both major Australian football codes had a drawn grand final followed by a replay in 1977.