1980 AFC Night Series
AFC Escort Championships
Tournament details
Dates2 March – 15 July 1980
Teams34
Venue(s)10 (in 7 host cities)
Final positions
ChampionsNorth Melbourne (1st title)
Runners-upCollingwood
Tournament statistics
Matches played33
Attendance223,562 (6,775 per match)

The 1980 Escort Championships was an Australian rules football knock-out tournament held between March and July 1980. The tournament was organised by Australian Football Championships, and was contested by teams from the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League and West Australian Football League, and the representative teams from New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The tournament was won by North Melbourne, who defeated Collingwood in the grand final.[1]

Background

The 1980 Escort Championships was the fourth season of the national night premiership competition. The size of the competition consisted 34 teams. The competing teams were all VFL, SANFL and WAFL teams, and the representative teams from New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.[2]

The format for the competition was a simple knock-out tournament. Round one featured the VFL teams that finished 7th to 12th in 1979; the SANFL teams that finished 3rd to 10th in 1979; the WAFL teams that finished 3rd to 8th in 1979; plus a playoff between the four minor states.

Round two involved the teams that survived round one.

In round three, the winners of round two were joined by the VFL's top six of 1979, the SANFL's top two of 1979, and the WAFL's top two of 1979.

Matches in Rounds 1 and 2 were played in various venues across Australia. With the exception of one Round 3 match, all matches from Round 3 onwards were played at VFL Park on Tuesday nights. Matches were televised directly to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.[2] The tournament was mostly played concurrently with the premiership season, although some matches in the first three rounds were played during the pre-season.

Qualified teams

Team Nickname League Qualification Participation (bold indicates winners)1
Enter in Round 3
Carlton Blues VFL Winners of the 1979 Victorian Football League 9th (Previous: 1907, 1908, 1914, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1979)
Collingwood Magpies VFL Runners-up in the 1979 Victorian Football League 4th (Previous: 1896, 1910, 1979)
North Melbourne Kangaroos VFL Third Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 4th (Previous: 1975, 1976, 1979)
Fitzroy Lions VFL Fourth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 3rd (Previous: 1913, 1979)
Essendon Bombers VFL Fifth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 4th (Previous: 1893, 1911, 1979)
Geelong Cats VFL Sixth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 2nd (Previous: 1979)
Port Adelaide Magpies SANFL Winners of the 1979 South Australian National Football League 9th (Previous: 1890, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
South Adelaide Panthers SANFL Runners-up in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 6th (Previous: 1893, 1896, 1977, 1978, 1979)
East Fremantle Sharks WAFL Winners of the 1979 West Australian Football League 5th (Previous: 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
South Fremantle Bulldogs WAFL Runners-up in the 1979 West Australian Football League 4th (Previous: 1976, 1977, 1979)
Enter in Round 1
Hawthorn Hawks VFL Seventh Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 4th (Previous: 1971, 1976, 1979)
Richmond Tigers VFL Eighth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 6th (Previous: 1969, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979)
Footscray Bulldogs VFL Ninth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 3rd (Previous: 1976, 1979)
South Melbourne Swans VFL Tenth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 5th (Previous: 1888, 1890, 1909, 1979)
Melbourne Demons VFL Eleventh Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 2nd (Previous: 1979)
St Kilda Saints VFL Twelfth Place in the 1979 Victorian Football League 2nd (Previous: 1979)
Central District Bulldogs SANFL Third Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 3rd (Previous: 1977, 1979)
Norwood Redlegs SANFL Fourth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 8th (Previous: 1888, 1907, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Woodville Woodpeckers SANFL Fifth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 2nd (Previous: 1979)
North Adelaide Roosters SANFL Sixth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 5th (Previous: 1971, 1972, 1977, 1979)
Glenelg Tigers SANFL Seventh Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 6th (Previous: 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
West Torrens Eagles SANFL Eighth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 2nd (Previous: 1979)
Sturt Double Blues SANFL Ninth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 8th (Previous: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1979)
West Adelaide Bloods SANFL Tenth Place in the 1979 South Australian National Football League 7th (Previous: 1908, 1909, 1911, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Claremont Tigers WAFL Third Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 3rd (Previous: 1977, 1979)
East Perth Royals WAFL Fourth Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 4th (Previous: 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Swan Districts Swans WAFL Fifth Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 3rd (Previous: 1976, 1979)
Perth Demons WAFL Sixth Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 4th (Previous: 1977, 1978, 1979)
West Perth Falcons WAFL Seventh Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 6th (Previous: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Subiaco Lions WAFL Eighth Place in the 1979 West Australian Football League 3rd (Previous: 1973, 1979)
Australian Capital Territory Rams ACTAFL State Representative Team 4th (Previous: 1977, 1978, 1979)
New South Wales Blues NSWAFL State Representative Team 4th (Previous: 1977, 1978, 1979)
Queensland Maroons QAFL State Representative Team 3rd (Previous: 1977, 1978)
Tasmania Devils TANFL State Representative Team 5th (Previous: 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
1 Includes previous appearances in the Championship of Australia and NFL Night Series.

Venues

Melbourne Adelaide Perth
Waverley Park Norwood Oval Richmond Oval Perth Oval East Fremantle Oval Leederville Oval
Capacity: 72,000 Capacity: 22,000 Capacity: 16,500 Capacity: 27,000 Capacity: 22,000 Capacity: 25,000
Sydney Wagga Wagga Ulverstone Brisbane
Sydney Cricket Ground McPherson Oval Ulverstone Recreation Ground Windsor Park
Capacity: 45,000 Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 15,000 Capacity: 10,000

Games

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Grand final

Notable events

  • The competition sponsor at the time was the cigarette manufacturer W.D. & H.O. Wills – "Escort" was a brand name used by the company at the time.[2]
  • The total prizemoney was $400,000, with the winners North Melbourne winning $64,000.[2]
  • The grand final ended in controversy. Collingwood led by three points when the final siren sounded, but field umpire Ian Robinson was unable to hear it, and allowed play to continue for several seconds; indeed, many players were unable to hear the siren, although many could and some Collingwood players were already celebrating the victory. In the ensuing play, North Melbourne's Malcolm Blight passed the ball forward to Kerry Good, who marked and then kicked a goal after the final siren to secure victory for North Melbourne.[2] To minimize the risk of a repeated incident, VFL umpires wore portable electronic beepers during the finals of the premiership season.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1980 AFC ESCORT CHAMPIONSHIPS". Hard Ball Get. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Main, Jim (1981), "A national series - at last", Hutton's 1981 Footy Book, Melbourne, VIC: The Market Place Marketing Group, pp. 1, 2, 3
  3. ↑ Trevor Grant (14 August 1980). "Beepers". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 26.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.