1985 VFL season

The 1985 Victorian Football League season was the 89th season of the elite Australian rules football competition. This season commenced in March 1985 and concluded on 28 September 1985 with Essendon winning their second consecutive premiership in a third consecutive Grand Final against Hawthorn.

1985 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Essendon (14th premiership)
Minor premiers	Essendon (12th minor premiership)
Night series	Hawthorn (2nd Night series win)
Matches played	138
Attendance	3,113,173 (22,559 per match)
Highest attendance	100,042
Coleman Medallist	Simon Beasley (Footscray)
Brownlow Medallist	Brad Hardie (Footscray)

Night series

Hawthorn defeated Essendon 11.11 (77) to 10.8 (68) in the final.

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

• The average score by each team this round was 134.8, which stands as the VFL/AFL record.[1]

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

1985 VFL ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Essendon (P)	22	19	3	0	2755	1991	138.4	76	Finals
2	Footscray	22	16	6	0	2417	2000	120.9	64
3	Hawthorn	22	15	6	1	2647	2024	130.8	62
4	Carlton	22	15	7	0	2430	2104	115.5	60
5	North Melbourne	22	13	8	1	2379	2431	97.9	54
6	Geelong	22	12	10	0	2277	2263	100.6	48
7	Collingwood	22	10	12	0	2197	2180	100.8	40
8	Richmond	22	9	13	0	2362	2590	91.2	36
9	Fitzroy	22	7	15	0	2301	2452	93.8	28
10	Sydney	22	6	16	0	2219	2349	94.5	24
11	Melbourne	22	6	16	0	1965	2527	77.8	24
12	St Kilda	22	3	19	0	1899	2937	64.7	12

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

Player Statistics and Awards

Leading goalkickers

	Name	Club	Goals
1	Simon Beasley	Footscray	105
2	Bernie Quinlan	Fitzroy	84
3	Gary Ablett	Geelong	82
4	Brian Taylor	Collingwood	80
-	Michael Roach	Richmond	80

Brownlow Medal count

	Name	Club	Votes
1	Brad Hardie	Footscray	22
2	Justin Madden	Carlton	21
3	Paul Roos	Fitzroy	16
4	Tim Watson	Essendon	15
-	Greg Williams	Geelong	15
-	Gary Ablett	Geelong	15
-	Matthew Larkin	North Melbourne	15
-	Brian Royal	Footscray	15
-	Stephen Wallis	Footscray	15

• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Greg Williams of Geelong.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Simon Madden of Essendon.
• Hawthorn won the reserves premiership. Hawthorn 18.16 (114) defeated Carlton 16.12 (108) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 28 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[2]

Notable events

• In the first three rounds, St Kilda set an unwanted record of three consecutive losses by 100 points (110, 140 and 113 points). Their percentage at the end of the round was only 34.7.
• In round 10, Geelong trailed at each change by 1, 10 and 13 points, but then kicked 11.7 (73) to 1.2 (8) in the last quarter to beat Richmond by 50 points. Their 50-point margin is the largest by a team outscored for each of the first three quarters.
• A violent brawl in the round 12 match between Hawthorn and Geelong led to veteran champion Leigh Matthews being charged with assaulting Geelong's Neville Bruns by Victoria Police.
• On the week of round 18, the Sydney Swans club was bought by Geoffrey Edelsten and became the first privately owned VFL club. Earlier in the season, Perth businessmen Alan Delany and John Watts attempted to buy lowly St. Kilda and move them to Perth.[3]
• In round 18, Essendon led North Melbourne 18.8 (116) to 2.4 (16) at half-time. This was the largest half-time lead since round 2 of 1931, when led by Richmond 17.9 (111) to North Melbourne's 0.5 (5).
• Collingwood player Andrew Witts wore jumper #65 during his seven games with the Magpies - at the time the highest jumper number in VFL/AFL history.[4] This record stood until 2017 when a number of players including Lance Franklin, Shaun Burgoyne and Shane Edwards wore jumper number #67 during Indigenous Round to recognise 50 years since the referendum that ensured Indigenous Australians were finally counted in the national census and recognised as citizens.
• In round 20, the Arden Street Oval hosted its last senior VFL match. The venue had been used by North Melbourne throughout its time in the VFL, except for 1965 when the club was based in Coburg. A total of 529 VFL senior matches were played at the ground that was formerly overshadowed by a massive gasometer on Macaulay Road.
• In a reserves match between Collingwood and the Sydney Swans at the Lake Oval in South Melbourne on Sunday, 28 April, Collingwood reserves full-back John Bourke was reported in the third quarter by field umpire Phil Waight for kicking Swans ruckman Patrick Foy in the groin. In a fit of rage, Bourke then kicked and pushed umpire Waight and hit the Collingwood runner before being escorted off the field, but not before he jumped into the stands to attack a Swans fan. Bourke was given the longest suspension in VFL/AFL history: ten years and 16 games (subsequently reduced to seven years). Bourke was later convicted on two counts of assault and fined $2000 plus costs in the Prahran Magistrates Court.[5]

See also

• McIntyre "Final Five" system

References

• Stephen Rodgers: Every Game Ever Played VFL/AFL Results 1897-1991 3rd Edition 1992. Penguin Books Australia ISBN 0-670-90526-7.
• 1985 Season - AFL Tables

1. "Round Records". AFL Tables.
2. "VFL details". The Age Sport Extra. Melbourne, VIC. 30 September 1985. p. 2.
3. Christian, Geoff; "WAFL to Monitor Move on Saints"; in The West Australian, 20 May 1985
4. Fine, Mark (2011). The Book of Footy Lists. Australia: Slattery Media Group. p. 300. ISBN 9781921778308.
5. The Age, 19 November 1985