It was the 77th annual grand final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1974 VFL season.

The match, attended 113,839 spectators, was won by Richmond by a margin of 41 points, marking that club's ninth VFL/AFL premiership victory.

Earlier in the month, North Melbourne wingman Keith Greig won his second consecutive Brownlow Medal.

Inspirational Tigers captain Royce Hart was right on top at centre half-forward, marking strongly on several occasions.

Daryl Cumming handpassed to tall youngster David Cloke and he registered the Tigers' second goal with an excellent left-foot snap under extreme pressure from several North defenders.

The Kangaroos, however, fought back with a fine snap from full-forward Doug Wade, which chalked up his 100th goal for the season.

Then, a major turning point in the game occurred when Kevin Sheedy took a clever one-handed mark in the forward pocket for the Tigers.

Then North's Keith Greig won the ball in fine style on the Members' wing, dodged two Tiger opponents, took a bounce and passed to Wayne Schimmelbusch, who dished off to Cable.

Hart continued to dominate, kicking two goals – one from a top mark, where he threw himself sideways, and the other from a snap after gathering a loose ball from a ball-up.

Robert Peterson replied with a good snap-shot goal for North, to reduce Richmond's lead to 20 points at the long break.

The standard of play was excellent, as the Kangaroos' 19th man Arnold Briedis goaled with a fine kick on the run.

Kevin Morris was felled on the outer wing and shortly afterwards a fight broke out involving a large group of players.

From the first bounce, Hart drove the Tigers forward, where Cumming grabbed the loose ball and handballed to Richardson, who was alone in the goal square.

Richmond's surge continued when Hart grabbed a loose ball on the centre wing and passed to Sheedy, who drove deep into the forward pocket with a drop kick.