1989 VFL premiership season
Teams14
PremiersHawthorn
8th premiership
Minor premiersHawthorn
7th minor premiership
pre-season cupMelbourne
1st pre-season cup win
Brownlow MedallistPaul Couch (Geelong)
Coleman MedallistJason Dunstall (Hawthorn)
Attendance
Matches played160
Total attendance3,581,822 (22,386 per match)
Highest94,796 (Grand Final, Hawthorn vs. Geelong)

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, by reason of it featuring 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.

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)

Home-and-away 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

(P)Premiers
Qualified for finals
# Team P W L D PF PA  % Pts
1Hawthorn (P)22193026781748153.276
2Essendon22175022401705131.468
3Geelong22166029161987146.864
4Melbourne2214801876194496.556
5Collingwood22139022161964112.852
6Fitzroy22121002069212597.448
7Sydney221111019591958100.144
8Carlton2291211921207992.438
9North Melbourne2291302061230189.636
10Brisbane Bears2281401792227478.832
11West Coast2271501948224786.728
12St Kilda2271502108250284.328
13Footscray2261511614185587.026
14Richmond2251701725243470.920

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 94.6
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

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

Finals week 2

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

Preliminary final

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.

Grand final

Grand final
Saturday, 30 September (2:50 pm) Hawthorn 21.18 (144) def. Geelong 21.12 (138) MCG (crowd: 94,796) Report

Season notes

  • Following their Round 1 match in the reserves competition, both St Kilda and Brisbane Bears were found to have fielded unregistered players: the VFL fined both clubs and ordered that they receive zero premiership points for the match.[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 three goals coming in the first fifteen minutes – of only 3.8 (26) scored by the Bears, this being the first time a player had kicked all his team's goals (based on a qualification of a team total of three or more goals) 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) on a muddy Windy Hill.
  • 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.

Awards

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

Sources

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