1979 VFL season

The 1979 VFL season was the 83rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 31 March until 29 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

1979 VFL premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Carlton 12th premiership
Minor premiers	Carlton 14th minor premiership
Night series	Collingwood 1st Night series win
Brownlow Medallist	Peter Moore (Collingwood)
Coleman Medallist	Kelvin Templeton (Footscray)
Attendance
Matches played	138
Total attendance	3,574,281 (25,901 per match)
Highest	113,545

The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the twelfth time, after it defeated Collingwood by five points in the 1979 VFL Grand Final.

The season saw the beginning of the league's expansion into the interstate and Sunday television markets, with two Sunday matches played in Sydney, New South Wales.

Night series

Collingwood defeated Hawthorn 12.8 (80) to 7.10 (52) in the final.

Home-and-away season

Round 3

Despite being formally a part of Round 3, the Essendon vs Carlton match was played as a stand-alone match on the Saturday before Round 1, and was therefore the opening match of the season.

Round 4

	Round 4
Wednesday, 25 April (2:10 pm)	Hawthorn 29.15 (189)	def.	South Melbourne 15.5 (95)	VFL Park (crowd: 37,276)	Report
Wednesday, 25 April (2:10 pm)	Melbourne 16.23 (119)	def.	Richmond 15.19 (109)	MCG (crowd: 44,708)	Report
Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm)	Fitzroy 11.16 (82)	def. by	Carlton 20.19 (139)	Junction Oval (crowd: 21,577)	Report
Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm)	Collingwood 31.21 (207)	def.	St Kilda 3.11 (29)	Victoria Park (crowd: 29,380)	Report
Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm)	Footscray 20.8 (128)	drew with	Essendon 19.14 (128)	Western Oval (crowd: 26,981)	Report
Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm)	Geelong 10.13 (73)	def. by	North Melbourne 19.9 (123)	Kardinia Park (crowd: 21,353)	Report
In the ANZAC Day clash at VFL Park, Hawthorn kicked their highest score against South Melbourne. It was also at the time the highest score in a match that South Melbourne had conceded, the previous highest being 28.17 (185) by North Melbourne in Round 12, 1974. At Victoria Park, Collingwood broke several records in their win against St Kilda, kicking their highest-ever score in a match – 31.21 (207), which they would top the following year against the same team – and also broke a 60-year-old League record in terms of greatest winning margin (178 points), previously held by South Melbourne, who beat St Kilda by 171 points back in Round 12, 1919.

Round 17

Fitzroy's 190 point winning margin is the biggest in AFL/VFL history

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
	Qualified for finals

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Carlton (P)	22	19	3	0	2772	1986	139.6	76
2	North Melbourne	22	17	5	0	2574	2083	123.6	68
3	Collingwood	22	15	7	0	2501	1974	126.7	60
4	Fitzroy	22	15	7	0	2699	2198	122.8	60
5	Essendon	22	12	9	1	2236	2127	105.1	50
6	Geelong	22	12	10	0	2149	2140	100.4	48
7	Hawthorn	22	10	12	0	2332	2336	99.8	40
8	Richmond	22	9	13	0	2451	2512	97.6	36
9	Footscray	22	7	14	1	2015	2463	81.8	30
10	South Melbourne	22	6	16	0	2424	2666	90.9	24
11	Melbourne	22	6	16	0	2093	2759	75.9	24
12	St Kilda	22	3	19	0	1857	2859	65.0	12

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 106.5
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Grand final

Main article: 1979 VFL Grand Final

Season notes

• The record for greatest winning margin was set twice during 1979.
  • In Round 4, Collingwood defeated St Kilda by 178 points, breaking the record set sixty years earlier, in the 1919 VFL season by South Melbourne.
  • Collingwood's new record was broken only three months later in Round 17, when Fitzroy defeated Melbourne by 190 points, a record which has yet to be broken.
• Fitzroy's score of 36.22 (238) in the same game also set the record for highest score in a VFL/AFL game. This beat the record set by Footscray in the 1978 VFL season by twenty-five points, and remained the record until 1992.
• Fitzroy made the finals for the first time since 1960, ending a nineteen-year finals drought.

Awards

• The leading goalkicker was Kelvin Templeton of Footscray with 91 goals
• The Brownlow Medal was won by Peter Moore
• The reserves premiership, known as the Commodore Cup, was won by North Melbourne. North Melbourne 13.14 (92) defeated Collingwood 9.13 (67) in the grand final, held as a stand-alone night match at VFL Park on Friday, 28 September, before a crowd of 6,047.

See also

• List of VFL debuts in 1979

References

• Stephen Rogers and Ashley Brown (1998). Every Game Ever Played. 6th ed. Victoria: Penguin Books.

Sources

• 1979 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1979 VFL season at Australian Football