It was the 66th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1963 VFL season.

The match, attended by 101,209 spectators, was won by Geelong by a margin of 49 points, marking that club's sixth premiership victory.

Hawthorn were minor premiers as a result of their superior percentage, as both clubs had finished the home and away season with 13 wins and a draw.

For the Cats, this was the third consecutive game they were playing against Hawthorn, having met at Glenferrie Oval in the final round of the home-and-away season, then in the Second Semi-final two weeks later.

After the Cats' important win at Glenferrie, coach Bob Davis, when asked by a reporter what he thought of Hawthorn, called them "the roughest, dirtiest side that [he] had ever seen" and that "Any time they want to play football, we'll give them a hiding".