Puneet Varma (Editor)

1985 VFL season

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Highest attendance
  
100,042

Teams
  
12

Matches played
  
138

Start date
  
March 1985

Attendance
  
3,113,173

Premiers
  
Essendon (14th premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Essendon (12th minor premiership)

Night series
  
Hawthorn (2nd Night series win)

Coleman Medallist
  
Simon Beasley (Footscray)

Brownlow Medallist
  
Brad Hardie (Footscray)

Similar
  
1947 VFL season, 1929 VFL season, 1946 VFL season, 1934 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.

Contents

Night Series

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

Round 3

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

    • Brownlow Medal Count

  • 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.

    • 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.
  • 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 - the highest jumper number in VFL/AFL history.
  • 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, April 28, 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. In a meeting that was orchestrated twenty years later, John Bourke apologised to Phil Waight for the incident (see www.150years.com.au: Moment #58 -- "He's Just Whacked the Umpire!").

    • References

    1985 VFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA