A hot-air balloon flies over the Melbourne Cricket Ground to surprise fans waiting for the Australian Rules football grand final in Melbourne yesterday. More than 100,000 fans attended the event.- AP

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP):

THE HAWTHORN Hawks took advantage of a poor kicking performance by defending champions Geelong to upset the Cats 18.7 (115) to 11.23 (89) yesterday in the Australian Rules football Grand final.

It was Hawthorn's first Aus-tralian Football League title since 1991.

Before a crowd of 100,012 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground - the biggest attendance at a grand final since 1986 - and in warmer than usual spring temperatures of about 28 Celsius (82 Fahrenheit), the Cats, who lost just one of 22 regular-season matches, held a 33-32 lead at the end of the first quarter.

But Geelong had a poor second quarter, kicking just one goal, worth six points, and nine one-point behinds. Hawthorn kicked three goals and a behind and led 8.3 (51) to 6.12 (48) at half-time.

The Hawks outscored the Cats six goals to three in the third period and four goals to two in the fourth.

second best

The Cats went into the match having won 42 of their past 44 games, while the Hawks posted the second best, 17-5, record in the regular season.

Mark Williams kicked three goals for the winners, while Stuart Dew, Cyril Rioli and Lance Franklin had two each.

Franklin, the league's top goalkicker and the first player to kick 100 goals during the regular season in a decade, had an off-day by his standards.

"I couldn't care less if I didn't kick a goal, just as long as we got over the line," Franklin said.

Geelong coach Mark Thompson thought his side was tentative.

"It might have been the occasion and the pressure, it was a grand final," Thompson said. "Funny things can happen in grand finals and that's what happened today. We thought we were going to play OK and we knew that if we played OK we'd be a chance to win ... but we were beaten by a better team on the day."

Hawthorn and Geelong last met in a grand final in 1989, when the Hawks won back-to-back titles by beating the Cats. The last time the teams met - in the 17th round this season - Geelong eked out an 11-point victory in a close match in which the Hawks missed several late shots at goal.

The Cats are from a mostly industrial port city about an hour's drive southwest of Melbourne and Hawthorn is an affluent inner-city Melbourne suburb.

best player on the field

Luke Hodge of Hawthorn won the North Smith Medal for being the best player on the field in the final. Hodge suffered a rib injury in a heavy clash in last weekend's preliminary final win over St. Kilda and spent time off the field yesterday after sustaining a new injury during the second quarter.

The win gave Hawks veteran Shane Crawford a league title in his 305th game.