1987 VFL season

The 1987 VFL season was the 91st season of the Victorian Football League (VFL). The season ran from 27 March until 26 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

1987 VFL premiership season
Teams14
PremiersCarlton
15th premiership
Minor premiersCarlton
16th minor premiership
Night seriesMelbourne
1st Night series win
Brownlow MedallistTony Lockett (St Kilda)
John Platten (Hawthorn)
Coleman MedallistTony Lockett (St Kilda)
Attendance
Matches played160
Total attendance3,411,846 (21,324 per match)
Highest92,754 (Grand Final, Carlton vs. Hawthorn)

The season saw the beginning of a decade-long period of expansion of the Victorian league to the rest of Australia, with the admission of two newly established clubs: the West Coast Eagles, based in Perth, Western Australia, and the Brisbane Bears, based in South East Queensland. While the league remained the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria, it also became the de facto highest level senior competition in Australia, with representation across four states. In the pre-season, the first modern VFL draft was held.

The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the 15th time, after it defeated Hawthorn by 33 points in the 1987 VFL Grand Final.

Night series

Melbourne defeated Essendon 8.10 (58) to 8.6 (54), to win the Night Series Grand Final at VFL Park.

Home-and-away season

Rounds 16 and 17

Rounds 16 and 17 were played concurrently over three weekends: five matches were played on the weekends of 11 and 18 July, and four matches were played on the weekend of 25 July. This fixturing effectively gave each team one bye during the three-week period. However, the matches are still grouped into two complete rounds rather than three partial rounds, which results in a chronological anomaly in which six teams played their Round 17 matches before their Round 16 matches.

Round 16
Saturday, 11 July (2:10 pm) Essendon 21.11 (137) def. Richmond 12.11 (83) Windy Hill (crowd: 13593) Report
Saturday, 11 July (2:10 pm) North Melbourne 23.18 (156) def. Fitzroy 19.9 (123) MCG (crowd: 15244) Report
Sunday, 12 July (2:10 pm) Brisbane Bears 14.9 (93) def. by St Kilda 18.13 (121) Carrara (crowd: 9106) Report
Saturday, 18 July (2:10 pm) Carlton 20.13 (133) def. Footscray 12.6 (78) Princes Park (crowd: 21388) Report
Saturday, 18 July (2:10 pm) Collingwood 5.13 (43) def. by Hawthorn 25.18 (168) Victoria Park (crowd: 17370) Report
Sunday, 19 July (2:10 pm) Sydney 30.21 (201) def. West Coast 10.11 (71) SCG (crowd: 24199) Report
Saturday, 25 July (2:10 pm) Melbourne 18.9 (117) def. Geelong 11.11 (77) VFL Park (crowd: 15253) Report
  • At the SCG, Sydney recorded the club's highest score in a match. It marked the third time they had kicked 30 goals in a game, the previous time being in Round 13 of the 1982 VFL season against St Kilda. Swans rover Stephen Wright kicked a career-best eight goals in his first game back after missing five weeks due to a hamstring strain.[1]
  • Hawthorn recorded their biggest-ever win against Collingwood and it was also the Magpies' heaviest-ever defeat at Victoria Park.[2]
Round 17

Round 22

The final round of the 1987 VFL home-and-away season turned out to be one of the most dramatic and significant in VFL/AFL history. The composition of the final five would be determined by a number of scenarios:

  • If Carlton defeated North Melbourne, they would secure the minor premiership and advance straight to the second semi-final
  • Hawthorn would win the minor premiership if they beat Geelong and Carlton lost to North
  • North could grab third place - and hence the "double chance" - if it beat Carlton and Sydney lost to Fitzroy
  • Going into the final round, Geelong held fifth spot, ahead of Footscray on percentage, with Melbourne two premiership points behind both teams. Hence, if the Cats could beat Hawthorn, they would secure a finals berth, but if they lost, then the winner out of Melbourne and Footscray would advance to the finals.

The round began on the Friday night with Richmond and the fledgling Brisbane Bears playing for the wooden spoon; the Bears won easily to ensure they didn't come last in their first season. The significant matches to determine the final five were all played on Saturday afternoon, and they were all thrillers.

Round 22
Friday, 28 August (7:40 pm) Richmond 17.11 (113) def. by Brisbane Bears 26.13 (169) MCG (crowd: 12079) Report
Saturday, 29 August (2:10 pm) Carlton 20.9 (129) def. North Melbourne 19.11 (125) VFL Park (crowd: 30444) Report
Saturday, 29 August (2:10 pm) Fitzroy 20.13 (133) def. by Sydney 20.21 (141) Princes Park (crowd: 11170) Report
Saturday, 29 August (2:10 pm) Footscray 10.8 (68) def. by Melbourne 12.11 (83) Western Oval (crowd: 31249) Report
Saturday, 29 August (2:10 pm) Geelong 17.21 (123) def. by Hawthorn 19.12 (126) Kardinia Park (crowd: 27030) Report
Sunday, 30 August (12:10 pm) West Coast 26.19 (175) def. St Kilda 13.9 (87) Subiaco Oval (crowd: 17617) Report
Sunday, 30 August (2:10 pm) Essendon 21.13 (139) def. by Collingwood 23.6 (144) MCG (crowd: 28887) Report
  • In an epic, see-sawing clash at VFL Park, Carlton captain Stephen Kernahan kicked a goal after the final siren to snatch a thrilling win over North Melbourne and secure the minor premiership for 1987, their 16th in VFL competition.[3]
  • Sydney's win over Fitzroy marked the club's first win at Princes Park in 22 years. The Swans trailed at one stage by 41 points in the third quarter, but thereafter began to play more direct football and held off the Lions to secure third spot and the double chance. [4]

Ladder
(P)Premiers
Qualified for finals
# Team P W L D PF PA  % Pts
1Carlton (P)22184025991883138.072
2Hawthorn22175027811891147.168
3Sydney22157028462197129.560
4North Melbourne2213812402241799.454
5Melbourne221210021892026108.048
6Geelong221110123552348100.346
7Footscray22111011959204695.746
8West Coast22111102386243897.944
9Essendon2291212075231889.538
10St Kilda2291302150236990.836
11Fitzroy2281402328254491.532
12Collingwood2271501853242576.428
13Brisbane Bears2261602113266679.324
14Richmond2251702199266782.520

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 104.7
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series
Main article: 1987 VFL finals series

Finals week 1
Qualifying Final
Saturday, 5 September (2:30 pm) Hawthorn 23.18 (156) def. Sydney 8.9 (57) VFL Park (crowd: 47752) Report
Elimination Final
Sunday, 6 September (2:30 pm) North Melbourne 5.10 (40) def. by Melbourne 22.26 (158) MCG (crowd: 72628) Report
  • Melbourne's 118-point win is the largest winning margin in an Elimination Final.

Finals week 2
Semi-finals
SF1: Sunday, 13 September (2:30 pm) Sydney 10.13 (73) def. by Melbourne 21.23 (149) MCG (crowd: 80292) Report
SF2: Saturday, 12 September (2:30 pm) Carlton 11.14 (80) def. Hawthorn 10.5 (65) VFL Park (crowd: 64333) Report

Preliminary final
Preliminary final
Saturday, 19 September (2:30 pm) Hawthorn 11.14 (80) def. Melbourne 10.18 (78) VFL Park (crowd: 71298) Report
  • Melbourne was leading by 4 points at the final siren, though Hawthorn's Gary Buckenara had a free kick 55 metres out. But Melbourne's Jim Stynes ran across the mark and incurred a 15-metre penalty, bringing Buckenara close enough to kick the winning goal after the siren.[5][6]

Grand final
Main article: 1987 VFL Grand Final
Grand final
Saturday, 26 September (2:50 pm) Carlton 15.14 (104) def. Hawthorn 9.17 (71) MCG (crowd: 92754) Report

Season notes
  • This season saw the introduction of two new interstate sides: the West Coast Eagles, based in Perth, Western Australia, and the Brisbane Bears, based in Gold Coast, Queensland. They were the first new clubs to join the league since the expansion of 1925, and the first time the league changed from twelve teams since 1943. The clubs were admitted to the league in a meeting on 1 October 1986, with West Coast admitted by an 8–4 majority of the twelve clubs, and Brisbane admitted unanimously. The two new clubs each paid a $A4 million licence fee which was divided equally amongst the existing twelve clubs, many of whom were in desperate need of such a cash injection.[7]
  • When the Seven Network refused to offer a significant increase on its previous deal – which the VFL thought was warranted, given the broader audience that interstate expansion would bring – the VFL sold the television rights to on-seller Broadcom, who sold them to the ABC and satellite network Sportsplay. The deals lasted one year, and Seven purchased the exclusive rights back from Broadcom in 1988 at almost double the 1986 rate.[8] Free-to-air broadcasts, alongside the nationally aired games on ABC (and all locally broadcast games via ABV in Victoria), were split on state lines with Seven retaining broadcasts for Western Australia via TVW-7, the games were broadcast as well on SBS Television and The Prime Network (New South Wales) and on Network 10 (Queensland and South Australia).
  • The Round 10 match between West Coast and Collingwood was played on the Foundation Day public holiday, which is not observed in Victoria.
  • In awful conditions in Round 13, Collingwood kicked only 2.6 (18), the lowest score by any team since 1968. Brian Taylor kicked their only goals in the first few minutes of the second quarter.
  • In three home games from Round 16 to Round 18, the Sydney Swans amassed the most prolific string of high scores in VFL history, scoring a total of 97.53 (635). Their individual scores were: 30.21 (201) against West Coast, winning by 130 points; 36.20 (236) against Essendon, winning by 163 points; and 31.12 (198) against Richmond, winning by 91 points.
  • The VFL made a loss on the Round 17 match between Fitzroy and Brisbane Bears, which drew a meagre crowd of only 5,824 to Princes Park, despite being one of only three matches in Melbourne that weekend. The league had considered rescheduling the match as the first half of a double-header with one of the other two senior matches that weekend to reduce overall operating expenses, but contracts already in place precluded double-headers from being staged.[9]
  • Melbourne ended the third-longest finals drought in league history (twenty-two seasons) by finishing fifth, making the finals for the first time since 1964.
  • The Under-19s Grand Final, in which North Melbourne 13.16 (94) defeated Richmond 13.11 (89), ended in controversy when the final siren was alleged to have been blown early. The timekeeper, who was independent of the clubs, was alleged to have blown the siren after only two minutes of time on; but there had been five goals kicked in the final quarter, which would usually have been expected to result in four or five minutes of time on. Richmond lodged a complaint against the timekeeper, but did not protest the result or seek a replay of the match.[10][11]

Awards

Major awards

Leading goalkickers
  • Larger numbers indicate number of goals scored in each round. Subscript numbers indicate total cumulative goals scored through that round.
  • Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the Coleman Medal at the end of that round.
  • Numbers underlined indicates the player did not play in that round.
Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Total
1 Tony Lockett 225731012225270276337402425479563593621635688769858938101310481125117 117
2 Warwick Capper 99312517320727229332638442749453558664266268573679584185489695499 99
3 Jason Dunstall 66393122145193220227291306365411152153255358361667572476379382587 87
4 Simon Beasley 2224373102120125175223251264308382403433463493521536593621072173 73
5 Stephen Kernahan 442617613619524327128028230232234135439342446248149251859261667 67
6 Richard Osborne 005527714014317421425631031536238038240343245247552355257360262 62
Bruce Lindner 000077613720121324327532537340444145348250050050353255357260262
8 Brian Taylor 2257310616420424327027027027633740242143447249453255257259160060 60
9 Dermott Brereton 11010101121336612618624327532133336238139443346349453255156 56
10 Gary Ablett 22810313316117219120424226531435540343245247047653053053053053053 53

References
  1. Cockerill, Michael (20 July 1987). "Dazzling, determined Sydney shows three into two will go". The Age. p. 34. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  2. Blake, Martin (20 July 1987). "Collingwood shrugs off another defeat". The Age. p. 34. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  3. Blake, Martin (31 August 1987). "Kernahan's goal gives Blues a dream finish". The Age. p. 30. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  4. Kelly, Hugo (31 August 1987). "A 'couple of individuals' leave Parkin marooned". The Age. p. 30. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  5. Stevens, Mark (22 September 2012). "Saved from embarrassment by Jim Stynes, Simon Eishold the unsung villain of '87 prelim". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021.
  6. Morris, Tom (25 November 2015). "Fox Footy viewers vote for Hawthorn vs. Melbourne from 1987 on Viewers Choice". foxsports.com.au.
  7. Ron Carter (2 October 1986). "Perth, Brisbane join League". The Age. Melbourne. p. 38.
  8. "VFL 1987 VFL TV Rights Saga". Footyindustry. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  9. Daryl Timms (27 July 1987). "A costly game for league". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 89.
  10. Greg Baum (28 September 1987). "All quiet on Tiger appeal". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 85.
  11. "No action on young Roos' win". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 29 September 1987. p. 84.
  12. "Reserves, under 19s". The Age. Melbourne. 28 September 1987. p. 80.
  • 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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