Richmond, under coach Tony Jewell, made the decision in the 1980 home-and-away season to move rover Kevin Bartlett to the half-forward flank, leading to him kicking 84 goals.

Richmond got the first goal on the board five minutes into the quarter when Jess quickly played on from a 15-metre penalty and passed to Weightman in open space, allowing him to steady and kick truly from a slight angle.

Their midfield of Geoff Raines, Bryan Wood, Robert Wiley, Mervyn Keane and Dale Weightman dominated the clearances, feeding forwards Kevin Bartlett, Michael Roach and David Cloke.

The Norm Smith Medal was presented by Ron Barassi to Kevin Bartlett, who was unanimously judged best-on-ground for his seven-goal effort by a voting panel consisting of then VFL president Allen Aylett, VFL General Manager Jack Hamilton, Jack Dyer, The Age chief football writer Ron Carter, and ABC commentator Doug Heywood.

The match statistics all pointed to Richmond's utter dominance; the 81-point margin set a new record for the biggest win in a VFL Grand Final to date, the Tigers had registered 44 scoring shots to Collingwood's 33, 205 kicks to 193, 120 handpasses to 55 and 74 marks to 52.

[3] There was added significance to the win for Richmond with long-time club servant Maurie Fleming ill in hospital and watching the game on television.