1999 Grand Final (What They Can Do Next Week)

The 1999 AFL Grand Final was an Australian Rules Football match set to determine the premier of the 1999 AFL season. The match was attended by 96,502 spectators and was won by the Western Bulldogs by a margin of 7 points. The victory gave the Western Bulldogs their 4th premiership and 3rd in a row.

Background
The 1999 Grand Final was the 5th for the Bulldogs and their 3rd in a row. Essendon on the othe hand was comng into the final having last played and won a final in 1993.

The Western Bulldogs finished the season 2nd on the ladder behind minor premier Essendon. They came into the grand final after winning their first game against Port Adelaide in the qualifying final by 73 points, then they managed to get past West Coast in the the preliminary by 15 points.

Essendon however managed to get to the final after a dominant 53 point win over Hawthorn in the qualifying, then getting over a first half scare against Carlton in the preliminary to win by 13 points.

Match Summary
During the game the Bulldogs had to fight an up hill battle to win the premiership. Essendon scored the first 4 goals of the games before Scott West score the first for the Bulldogs. The scores at quater time was 20 points. The Bulldogs would go onto trim that lead to just 5 points going into half time with 2 goal late in the quater courtesy of Brad Johnson.

The second half was a tigh contested battle between the two sides, with Essendon players like Gary Moorcroft and Matthew Lloyd picking the clubs pace up. At three quater time the margin was 14 points. The final quater was one to forget for the Essendon Bombers, as they scored 3 behinds to 4 goals to lose the game despite being in front at every break. The Bulldogs win gave them their 4th premiership and the became the first club to win a grand final despite being behind at every break. Brad Johnson won the Norm Smith medal after a 5 goal 37 posession, including the last 3 goals on the game.