1983 VFL season

The 1983 VFL season was the 87th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria.

1983 VFL Premiership season
Teams12
PremiersHawthorn
(5th premiership)
Minor premiersNorth Melbourne
(3rd minor premiership)
Night seriesCarlton
(1st Night series win)
Matches played138
Attendance3,638,017 (26,362 per match)
Highest attendance110,332
Coleman MedallistBernie Quinlan
Fitzroy (106 goals)
Brownlow MedallistRoss Glendinning
North Melbourne (24 votes)

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. Prior to 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 premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club 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.

Premiership 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
  • North Melbourne broke the record for their highest League score in front of over 15,000 supporters at Arden Street Oval. After going into the main break with a 39-point lead and coach Barry Cable urging them be more ruthless, they piled on 12 goals in the third quarter to extend the lead to over 100 points. The play of brothers Jim and Phil Krakouer was a particular highlight, combining with Kym Hodgeman to kick 13 goals between them.[1]
  • Playing in the forward pocket due to knee difficulties, Fitzroy captain Garry Wilson kicked six goals to help the Lions pull away to a 39-point win over Melbourne, who had stayed in the game for three-quarters despite missing a number of senior players and losing key forward Kelvin Templeton as a late withdrawal.[2]

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
1983 VFL ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 North Melbourne 22 16 6 0 2789 2183 127.8 64 Finals
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
Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals

Elimination Finals

Qualifying Final

Semi Finals

Preliminary Final

Grand Final
Main article: 1983 VFL Grand Final

Attendance

A total of 3,631,042 people attended VFL matches during the 1983 season, an average of about 26,312 per game (including finals matches). A combined total of 420,439 attended finals matches in 1983, an average of 70,073 per finals match. The largest attendance for a home and away game was Richmond versus Collingwood at the MCG, the attendance figure was 81,966.

Awards

Notable events
  • 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.

See also

References
  1. "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.
  2. "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.
  3. "Grand final scores". The Age. Melbourne. 26 September 1983. p. 25.

Sources
  • Stephen Rodgers: Every Game Ever Played VFL/AFL Results 1897–1991 3rd Edition 1992. Penguin Books Australia ISBN 0-670-90526-7.
  • 1983 Season - AFL Tables
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