1983 VFL season
| 1983 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Hawthorn 5th premiership |
| Minor premiers | North Melbourne 3rd minor premiership |
| Night series | Carlton 1st Night series win |
| Brownlow Medallist | Ross Glendinning North Melbourne (24 votes) |
| Coleman Medallist | Bernie Quinlan Fitzroy (106 goals) |
| Attendance | |
| Matches played | 138 |
| Total attendance | 3,638,017 (26,362 per match) |
| Highest | 110,332 |
The 1983 VFL season was the 87th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria.
The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 26 March until 24 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
Before the season, the South Melbourne Football Club, which had played its home games in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1982, formally relocated its operations to Sydney and was renamed the Sydney Swans.
The Hawthorn Football Club won the premiership for the fifth time after it defeated Essendon by 83 points in the 1983 VFL Grand Final.
Night series
Carlton defeated Richmond 14.16 (100) to 10.6 (66) in the final.
Home-and-away season
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
| Round 8 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | St Kilda 12.17 (89) | def. by | Carlton 22.13 (145) | Moorabbin Oval (crowd: 19,016) | Report |
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | Collingwood 16.11 (107) | def. | Richmond 8.11 (59) | VFL Park (crowd: 58,780) | Report |
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | Hawthorn 20.17 (137) | def. | Essendon 14.11 (95) | Princes Park (crowd: 21,835) | Report |
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | Melbourne 12.15 (87) | def. by | Fitzroy 18.18 (126) | MCG (crowd: 33,758) | Report |
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | North Melbourne 29.15 (189) | def. | Footscray 11.8 (74) | Arden Street Oval (crowd: 15,556) | Report |
| Saturday, 14 May (2:10 pm) | Geelong 11.18 (84) | def. by | Sydney 16.14 (110) | Kardinia Park (crowd: 17,650) | Report |
| |||||
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Round 20
Round 21
Round 22
Ladder
| (P) | Premiers |
| Qualified for finals |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Melbourne | 22 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 2789 | 2183 | 127.8 | 64 |
| 2 | Hawthorn (P) | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2675 | 2078 | 128.7 | 60 |
| 3 | Fitzroy | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2608 | 2059 | 126.7 | 60 |
| 4 | Essendon | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2664 | 2215 | 120.3 | 60 |
| 5 | Carlton | 22 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 2360 | 2244 | 105.2 | 52 |
| 6 | Collingwood | 22 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2315 | 2247 | 103.0 | 48 |
| 7 | Footscray | 22 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 2102 | 2428 | 86.6 | 40 |
| 8 | Melbourne | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2220 | 2557 | 86.8 | 36 |
| 9 | Geelong | 22 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 1932 | 2197 | 87.9 | 32 |
| 10 | Richmond | 22 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 2124 | 2392 | 88.8 | 28 |
| 11 | Sydney | 22 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 2068 | 2670 | 77.5 | 28 |
| 12 | St Kilda | 22 | 5 | 17 | 0 | 2150 | 2737 | 78.6 | 20 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 106.1
Source: AFL Tables
Finals series
Finals week 1
Finals week 2
Preliminary final
Grand final
Season notes
- In Round 4, St Kilda played Paul Morwood, Jack Lynch and Silvio Foschini without their clearances from the Sydney Swans being finalised. Had they beaten Geelong, they would have forfeited the points under the laws at the time.
- North Melbourne's 150-point loss to Fitzroy in Round 13 more than doubled the previous biggest loss by a minor premier of 69 points, which had occurred in 1952 and 1974.
- In Fitzroy's Round 17 game with St Kilda, a record quarter aggregate of 19.7 (121) – Fitzroy 12.6 (78), St. Kilda 7.1 (43) – was kicked during the second quarter.
- In Round 19, Kevin Bartlett became the first player to play 400 VFL games, after having in Round 11 of 1981 become the first to reach 350 games.
Awards
- The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Ross Glendinning of North Melbourne.
- The Coleman Medal was awarded to Bernie Quinlan of Fitzroy.
- The VFL Players Association MVP Award, now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy, was awarded to Terry Daniher of Essendon.
- The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Colin Robertson of Hawthorn.
- The "Wooden Spoon" was "awarded" to St Kilda.
- The under 19s premiership won by Melbourne
- The reserves premiership was won by Essendon. Essendon 19.14 (128) defeated Collingwood 15.9 (99) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 24 September.[3]
References
- ^ "Roos run up record score". The Canberra Times. Vol. 57, no. 17, 395. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 May 1983. p. 6 (SPORT). Retrieved 1 June 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Captain inspires Lions". The Canberra Times. Vol. 57, no. 17, 395. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 May 1983. p. 6 (SPORT). Retrieved 1 June 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Grand final scores". The Age. Melbourne. 26 September 1983. p. 25.
- Stephen Rodgers: Every Game Ever Played VFL/AFL Results 1897–1991 3rd Edition 1992. Penguin Books Australia ISBN 0-670-90526-7.
Sources
- 1983 VFL season at AFL Tables
- 1983 VFL season at Australian Football