1984 VFA season

The 1984 Victorian Football Association season was the 103rd season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the 24th season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Preston Football Club, after it defeated Frankston in the Grand Final on 23 September by 54 points; it was Preston's fourth Division 1 premiership, and its second in a row. The Division 2 premiership was won by Box Hill; it was the club's first premiership in either division since joining the Association in 1951.

1984 VFA Premiership Season
Teams23
Division 1
Teams12
PremiersPreston
(4th premiership)
Minor premiersPreston
(6th minor premiership)
Division 2
Teams11
PremiersBox Hill
(1st D2 premiership)
Minor premiersBox Hill
(1st D2 minor premiership)
← 1983
1985 →

Association membership

On 25 January, the Association's board of directors declined to renew Yarraville's membership; this decision was made unilaterally by the board of directors, and did not require a vote of club delegates. The decision followed a review of Yarraville's on-field and off-field position which concluded that the club had no prospects of long-term viability. The club had been in decline since its relegation from Division 1 in 1970, and had almost folded in 1976; it could not attract sufficient fans or sponsors from the Yarraville area, which had a declining population and an increasing ethnic demographic, and consequently struggled to finance a competitive team – in 1983, the club had won one senior game and been winless in both minor grades.[1]

The decision ended Yarraville's 57-year affiliation with the Association, which had yielded two top division premierships (1935 and 1961). The club initially sought to compete in another competition, but ultimately disbanded.[1] Yarraville's departure resulted in Division 2 being reduced to eleven clubs, and the Association as a whole to twenty-three clubs. Yarraville was the first of fifteen clubs to leave the Association during its period of decline between 1984 and 1996.

Division 1

The Division 1 home-and-away season was played over eighteen rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system. The finals were played at the Junction Oval.

Ladder
1984 VFA Division 1 Ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Preston (P) 18 16 2 0 2658 1626 163.5 64
2 Geelong West 18 15 3 0 2156 1651 130.6 60
3 Frankston 18 12 6 0 2312 1999 115.7 48
4 Camberwell 18 11 7 0 2385 1898 125.7 44
5 Sandringham 18 11 7 0 2777 2378 116.8 44
6 Port Melbourne 18 10 8 0 2532 2032 124.6 40
7 Williamstown 18 10 8 0 2335 2254 103.6 40
8 Coburg 18 9 9 0 2186 1991 109.8 36
9 Springvale 18 5 13 0 1949 2419 80.6 20
10 Prahran 18 5 13 0 1796 2425 74.1 20
11 Werribee 18 3 15 0 1707 2627 65.0 12
12 Dandenong 18 1 17 0 1476 2969 49.7 4
Source: [2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers.

Finals
Semi Finals
Sunday, 2 September Frankston 18.16 (124) def. Camberwell 9.16 (70) Junction Oval (crowd: 3,751) [3]
Sunday, 9 September Preston 17.19 (131) def. Geelong West 10.26 (86) Junction Oval (crowd: 4,090) [4]
Preliminary Final
Sunday, 16 September Geelong West 9.18 (72) def. by Frankston 16.11 (107) Junction Oval (crowd: 2,645) [5]
1984 VFA Division 1 Grand Final
Sunday, 23 September Preston def. Frankston Junction Oval (crowd: 8,664) [6]
6.7 (43)
9.15 (69)
14.15 (99)
 19.21 (135)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 5.0 (30)
5.2 (32)
9.7 (61)
 12.9 (81)		 Umpires: Graeme Marcy, Phillips
Norm Goss Memorial Medal: Neil Jordan (Preston)
Bourke 5, Salvador 3, Atkin 2, Brine 2, Hackney 2, Halas 2, Jordan 2, Fyffe Goals Boyd 5, Baldwin 2, Thomas 2, Walsh 2, Membrey
Plowman, for striking Bardoel Reports

Awards

Division 2

The Division 2 home-and-away season was played over eighteen rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system. The finals were played at Toorak Park.

The home-and-away fixture had already been released when Yarraville's membership was revoked. Rather than redraft the fixture, the club drawn to play Yarraville each week instead had a bye; because the fixture was unbalanced, this meant that seven clubs had two byes and four clubs had one bye. In the ladder, a bye was treated as though it were a Yarraville forfeiture: the club was awarded a win and four premiership points, was credited with the round's average winning score as 'points for', and debited the round's average losing score as 'points against'.[8] The ladder as it is shown here distinguishes byes from wins in completed matches, but not all sources make this distinction.

Ladder
1984 VFA Division 2 Ladder
Pos Team Pld W WB D L PF PA % Pts
1 Box Hill (P) 18 14 2 0 2 2899 1581 183.4 64
2 Brunswick 18 13 2 1 2 2753 1535 179.3 62
3 Oakleigh 18 12 2 0 4 2893 1537 188.2 56
4 Caulfield 18 12 1 1 4 2269 1670 135.9 54
5 Waverley 18 11 2 1 4 2259 1738 130.0 54
6 Moorabbin 18 7 2 1 8 2060 2079 99.1 38
7 Berwick 18 7 2 0 9 2302 2001 115.0 36
8 Mordialloc 18 5 1 0 12 1989 2163 92.0 24
9 Northcote 18 4 2 0 12 1884 2165 87.0 24
10 Kilsyth 18 2 1 0 15 1282 2889 44.4 12
11 Sunshine 18 1 1 0 16 1397 3202 43.6 8
Source: [9]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers.

Finals
Semi Finals
Sunday, 26 August Oakleigh 15.14 (104) def. Caulfield 15.12 (102) Toorak Park [2]
Sunday, 2 September Box Hill 19.19 (133) def. Brunswick 13.6 (84) Toorak Park (crowd: 6,200) [3]
Preliminary Final
Sunday, 9 September Brunswick 16.18 (114) def. by Oakleigh 26.15 (171) Toorak Park (crowd: 3,520) [4]
1984 VFA Division 2 Grand Final
Sunday, 16 September Box Hill def. Oakleigh Toorak Park (crowd: 10,735) [5]
6.9 (45)
12.11 (83)
21.18 (144)
 32.23 (215)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 3.2 (20)
3.7 (25)
10.11 (71)
 11.14 (80)		 Umpires: Vergona, Casey
Carroll 10, Nicholson 5, Bolton 3, A. Dickinson 3, Brown 2, Stark 2, Withers 2, R. Witnish 2, Gleeson, O'Shea, Teakel Goals Pretto 3, M. Roach 2, S. Roach 2, Dyrden, Harper, McDonald, Sutherland

Awards
  • The leading goalkicker for the season was Dale Carroll (Box Hill), who kicked 110 goals during the season, including finals.[10]
  • The J. Field Medal was originally won outright by Peter Nicholson (Box Hill), who polled 19 votes, including six first preferences. Nicholson originally finished ahead of David Callander (Brunswick) on a countback; Callander polled 19 votes with four first preferences.[7] A decision was made in 1989 to retrospectively eliminate the countback, so Nicholson and Callander are now recognized as joint Field Medallists.[11]
  • Brunswick won the Seconds premiership for the second consecutive season. Brunswick 17.13 (115) defeated Box Hill 8.12 (60) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the senior Grand Final on 16 September.[5]

Notable events

Interleague matches

The Association's Division 1 and Division 2 teams each played one interleague match during the season. Gary Brice was coach of the Division 1 team for the fourth consecutive season, despite the fact that he was no longer an Association coach: he had left Port Melbourne and was now serving as a specialist coach at League club Essendon;[12] Ray Shaw (Preston) was captain.[13] Geoff Rosenow (Mordialloc) was coach of the Division 2 team,[12] and Peter Allen (Berwick) was captain.[14]

1984 Interleague Matches
Sunday, 13 May S.A.F.A. 15.14 (104) def. by V.F.A. Second Division 17.14 (116) Thebarton Oval [15]
Sunday, 17 June V.A.F.A. 14.11 (95) def. by V.F.A. First Division 22.14 (146) Elsternwick Park (crowd: 5,000) [16]

Other notable events
  • The two-division format was abandoned in the Thirds competition, in response to the increasingly heavy losses which were suffered by first division clubs with weak Thirds teams during the previous season. Under the new format, the Thirds played as one large division, which was divided into small groups based on performance during the year.[17][18]
  • Moorabbin moved its home ground from Moorabbin Oval to the McKinnon Recreation Reserve from 1984.[19] The club had rented Moorabbin Oval from the St Kilda Football Club for $1,000 per game in 1983, plus paid $1,500 in rent for the year for McKinnon Reserve as a training ground; but, after taking much less revenue from sponsorship and membership than it had budgeted for, it recognised that it needed to find a home ground for games at a lower cost.[20]
  • On 12 August, Camberwell defeated Port Melbourne for the first time since 24 June 1950, a streak of more than 34 years (although the clubs were in the same division for only 14 of those years).[21]
  • In the Division 2 Grand Final, Box Hill scored 32.23 (215) and defeated Oakleigh by 135 points, both of which are records for an Association Grand Final in either division.[5]
  • For the first time since 1981, Association games were broadcast on television, albeit only for the last six weeks of the season. The Association arranged a deal with Network Ten for a live telecast of one game in each of the last two rounds of the home-and-away season, and for all of the Division 1 finals.[21]
  • The Division 1 finals crowds were the lowest for many years, with fewer than 10,000 attending the Grand Final. One reason for this was that the Victorian Football League had received permission at mid-season to play its finals on Sundays for the first time; but the effect of live telecasts on the gate, and the fact that Preston was the only one of the four finalists which was noted for drawing strong crowds were also contributing factors. The Association sought as much as $70,000 compensation from the League for the effect its Sunday finals had on Association gates, but received only $9,000.[22]

See also
  • List of VFA/VFL Premiers

References
  1. Marc Fiddian (26 January 1984). "Yarraville axed". The Age. Melbourne. p. 30.
  2. Dennis Jose (27 August 1984). "Frankston pushes out Sandringham". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  3. Dennis Jose (3 September 1984). "Windfall helps Dolphins crush Cobras". The Age. Melbourne. p. 23.
  4. Dennis Jose (10 September 1984). "Russell's 10 goals seal Preston win". The Age. Melbourne. p. 23.
  5. Dennis Jose (17 September 1984). "Box Hill the best – by 135 points". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  6. Michael Reid (24 September 1984). "Bullants win flag double". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 75.
  7. Dennis Jose (30 August 1984). "Geddes walks away with Liston". The Age. Melbourne. p. 24.
  8. Marc Fiddian (16 April 1984). "Zebras' twin spearhead rocks Vales". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  9. Dennis Jose (20 August 1984). "Sandy proves pathetic on every count". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  10. "Box Hill Hawks 2011 Business Directory" (PDF). Box Hill Hawks Football Club. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  11. Amanda Buivids (21 September 1989). "Champs rewarded at last". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 83.
  12. Marc Fiddian (28 April 1984). "Time for an appeals board". The Age. Melbourne. p. 35.
  13. Dennis Jose (15 June 1984). "Shaw leads revenge bid". The Age. Melbourne. p. 26.
  14. "VFA teams". The Age. Melbourne. 11 May 1984. p. 24.
  15. Dennis Jose (14 May 1984). "VFA beats SA by two goals". The Age. Melbourne. p. 31.
  16. Dennis Jose (18 June 1984). "VFA makes amends in first Vic Cup win". The Age. Melbourne. p. 28.
  17. Peter Martin (27 July 1983). "VFA plan to even up comp". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 71.
  18. Fiddian, Marc (2004), The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995, p. 302
  19. Santo Caruso; Marc Fiddian; Jim Main (2002), Football Grounds of Melbourne, Essendon North, VIC: Pennon Publishing
  20. Marc Fiddian (20 May 1983). "Shaw in charge of VFA team". The Age. Melbourne. p. 30.
  21. Dennis Jose (18 August 1984). "VFA back in the ratings game". The Age. Melbourne. p. 39.
  22. VFA hits Sunday finals (13 December 1984). "John Hine". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 83.
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