1978 VFL season

The 1978 Victorian Football League season was the 82nd season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

1978 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Hawthorn (4th premiership)
Minor premiers	North Melbourne (2nd minor premiership)
Night series	Fitzroy (1st Night series win)
Matches played	138
Attendance	3,478,015 (25,203 per match)
Highest attendance	101,704
Coleman Medallist	Kelvin Templeton (Footscray)
Brownlow Medallist	Malcolm Blight (North Melbourne)

Night series

Fitzroy defeated North Melbourne 13.18 (96) to 2.8 (20) in the final.

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

1978 VFL ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	North Melbourne	22	16	6	0	2407	1991	120.9	64	Finals
2	Hawthorn (P)	22	16	6	0	2496	2120	117.7	64
3	Collingwood	22	15	7	0	2347	2072	113.3	60
4	Carlton	22	14	8	0	2329	1994	116.8	56
5	Geelong	22	12	10	0	2153	2104	102.3	48
6	St Kilda	22	11	10	1	2330	2503	93.1	46
7	Richmond	22	10	11	1	2459	2389	102.9	42
8	South Melbourne	22	9	13	0	2390	2383	100.3	36
9	Fitzroy	22	8	14	0	2258	2339	96.5	32
10	Essendon	22	8	14	0	2203	2337	94.3	32
11	Footscray	22	7	15	0	2272	2508	90.6	28
12	Melbourne	22	5	17	0	2025	2929	69.1	20

Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers.

Finals

Elimination final

Qualifying final

Semi finals

Preliminary final

Grand final

Hawthorn defeated North Melbourne 18.13 (121) to 15.13 (103), in front of a crowd of 101,704 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The Coleman Medal was won by Kelvin Templeton of Footscray with 118 goals
• The Brownlow Medal was won by Malcolm Blight of North Melbourne
• The reserves premiership was won by North Melbourne. North Melbourne 17.29 (131) defeated Hawthorn 11.13 (79) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors grand final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 30 September.[1]

Notable events

• The 19th and 20th men were converted into interchange players, meaning that any two players could be rested at any time, and could return to the field.
• In Round 2, Fitzroy broke South Melbourne's 1976 record for the highest losing score against Melbourne by four points. This record would last until the 1989 VFL season.
• In Round 6, Melbourne and St Kilda set the current record for the highest aggregate score in a game, the two teams amassing 52.33 (345). This broke the record set in the 1972 Grand Final.
• In Round 13, Footscray set the record for highest score in a game, scoring 33.15 (213) against St Kilda. This beat Carlton's nine-year-old 1969 record by three points. The new record was beaten in the following 1979 VFL season. In this match, Kelvin Templeton kicked 15.9, the most goals in a game for a Footscray player, and the most scoring shots ever by any player.
• In Round 20, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (who was the Number 1 ticket holder for Carlton throughout his time in office) was booed incessantly during the second half of the North Melbourne vs Carlton match at the Arden Street Oval. The booing continued right up to the moment when Mr. Fraser stepped inside his limousine and was driven away from the ground.

See also

• McIntyre "Final Five" system

References

1. "All the scores". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 2 October 1978. p. 32.

• Stephen Rogers and Ashley Brown (1998). Every Game Ever Played. 6th ed. Victoria: Penguin Books.
• 1978 Season - AFL Tables