1989 VFL season

The 1989 VFL season was the 93rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria; and, as it featured clubs from New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, the de facto highest level senior competition in Australia. The season featured fourteen clubs, ran from 31 March until 30 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

1989 VFL Premiership season
Teams14
PremiersHawthorn
(8th premiership)
Minor premiersHawthorn
(7th minor premiership)
pre-season cupMelbourne
(1st pre-season cup win)
Matches played160
Attendance3,581,822 (22,386 per match)
Highest attendance94,796 (Grand Final, Hawthorn vs. Geelong)
Coleman MedallistJason Dunstall (Hawthorn)
Brownlow MedallistPaul Couch (Geelong)

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the eighth time and second time consecutively, after it defeated Geelong by six points in the 1989 VFL Grand Final.

Night Series
1989 Night Series Grand Final
Geelong def. by Melbourne
3.2 (20)
6.6 (42)
9.7 (61)
 9.13 (67)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 2.5 (17)
4.7 (31)
5.11 (41)
 10.16 (76)

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

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
1989 VFL ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Hawthorn (P) 22 19 3 0 2678 1748 153.2 76 Finals
2 Essendon 22 17 5 0 2240 1705 131.4 68
3 Geelong 22 16 6 0 2916 1987 146.8 64
4 Melbourne 22 14 8 0 1876 1944 96.5 56
5 Collingwood 22 13 9 0 2216 1964 112.8 52
6 Fitzroy 22 12 10 0 2069 2125 97.4 48
7 Sydney 22 11 11 0 1959 1958 100.1 44
8 Carlton 22 9 12 1 1921 2079 92.4 38
9 North Melbourne 22 9 13 0 2061 2301 89.6 36
10 Brisbane Bears 22 8 14 0 1792 2274 78.8 32
11 West Coast 22 7 15 0 1948 2247 86.7 28
12 St Kilda 22 7 15 0 2108 2502 84.3 28
13 Footscray 22 6 15 1 1614 1855 87.0 26
14 Richmond 22 5 17 0 1725 2434 70.9 20
Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals series
Main article: 1989 VFL finals series

Week one
Elimination Final
Saturday, 9 September (2:30 pm) Melbourne 17.9 (111) def. Collingwood 13.10 (88) VFL Park (crowd: 63062) Report
Qualifying Final
Sunday, 10 September (2:30 pm) Essendon 24.13 (157) def. Geelong 11.15 (81) MCG (crowd: 75861) Report

Week two
Semi-finals
SF1: Sunday, 17 September (2:30 pm) Geelong 22.21 (153) def. Melbourne 12.18 (90) MCG (crowd: 69082) Report
SF2: Saturday, 16 September (2:30 pm) Hawthorn 16.16 (112) def. Essendon 11.10 (76) VFL Park (crowd: 66003) Report

Week three
Preliminary final
Saturday, 23 September (2:30 pm) Essendon 10.10 (70) def. by Geelong 24.20 (164) VFL Park (crowd: 67,892) Report
  • Geelong qualified for the Grand final for the first time since 1967. Their 170-point turnaround was also one of the biggest in League history.

Week four
Main article: 1989 VFL Grand Final
Grand final
Saturday, 30 September (2:50 pm) Hawthorn 21.18 (144) def. Geelong 21.12 (138) MCG (crowd: 94,796) Report

Notable events
  • In their Round 1 match of the reserves competition, both St Kilda and Brisbane Bears were found to have fielded unregistered players. St Kilda was stripped of the premiership points it had earned for winning the game, and they consequently could not be awarded to Brisbane. Both clubs were also fined.[1]
  • In Round 6, Geelong's losing score of 25.13 (163) against Hawthorn remains the highest losing score in VFL/AFL history.
  • The Tribunal was given extra authority when trial by video was introduced in Round 6. Fitzroy's Michael Conlan and Collingwood's Doug Barwick became the first League players charged by the commission on video evidence and both were suspended by the Tribunal.[2]
  • The wettest Melbourne winter since 1952[3] saw horrible conditions between Rounds 11 and 13 that produced several unusually low scores:
  1. in Round 11 on the Saturday before the Queen's Birthday, Fitzroy's score of 1.8 (14) was the lowest since Footscray kicked an identical score against Geelong in 1965, and the first single goal score since Carlton's 1.11 (17) on Anzac Day of 1968.
  2. on the same day, Brad Hardie kicked 3.4 (22) – with all the three goals coming in the first fifteen minutes – of only 3.8 scored by the Bears, this being the first time a player had kicked all his team's goals[a] since Alex Ruscuklic on the same weekend of 1967.[4]
  3. in Round 13 Essendon and Footscray played the lowest scoring game since the 1927 Grand Final, with the teams combining for only 6.15 (51).
  • Geelong set a record for the most points scored in the home-and-away season, 2916. Footscray's season aggregate score of 1614 points was the lowest since 1972.

Player statistics and awards

Leading goalkickers
Name Club Gms Gls/Bhds Acc% GpM
1 Jason Dunstall Hawthorn 24 138 / 76 64 5.75
2 Gary Ablett Geelong 23 87 / 54 62 3.78
3 Tony Lockett St Kilda 11 78 / 24 76 7.09
4 Richard Osborne Fitzroy 16 68 / 43 61 4.25
5 Gavin Exell Geelong 17 63 / 31 67 3.71

Abbreviation guide: Gms=Games played in the season, Gls/Bhds=Goals and behinds kicked, Acc%=Accuracy percentage (Goals divided by Goals + Behinds multiplied by 100), GpM=Average goals per match

Brownlow Medal count
Name Club Votes 3-2-1
1 Paul Couch Geelong 22 5-3-1
2 John Platten Hawthorn 20 5-2-1
3 Tim Watson Essendon 16 4-1-2
- Nicky Winmar St Kilda 16 4-2-0
- Greg Williams Sydney 16 3-3-1
- Jason Dunstall Hawthorn 16 2-4-2
  • The Under 19's Grand Final was played at VFL Park the week after Under 19's Preliminary Final Replay and the Reserves Grand Final and Seniors Grand Final were played at the MCG

See also

Notes

a Based on a qualification of a team total of three or more goals.

References
  1. "Saints, Bears it in "twos"". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 15 April 1989. p. 86.
  2. Cartwright, Darren (24 December 1989). "A look back at the highlights of 1989 – VFL reign ends in season of change". SPORT. The Canberra Times. Vol. 64, no. 19, 980. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. p. 15. Retrieved 16 June 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. Melbourne Highest to Lowest Seasonal Rainfall
  4. Atkinson, Graeme (1989); 3AW Book of Footy Records; South Melbourne,: Magistra Publishing Company Pty Ltd; p. 147. ISBN 1863210091
  5. "Lions claw way to victory". The Sunday Sun. Melbourne. 1 October 1989. p. 95.

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