1983 VFL season

The 1983 VFL season was the 87th season of the Victorian Football League, the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria.
The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 26 March until 24 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
Before the season, the South Melbourne Football Club, which had played its home games in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1982, formally relocated its operations to Sydney and was renamed the Sydney Swans.
The Hawthorn Football Club won the premiership for the fifth time after it defeated Essendon by 83 points in the 1983 VFL Grand Final.

Night series

defeated 14.16 to 10.6 in the final.

In Round 4, St Kilda played Paul Morwood, Jack Lynch and Silvio Foschini without their clearances from the Sydney Swans being finalised. Had they beaten Geelong, they would have forfeited the points under the laws at the time.
North Melbourne's 150-point loss to Fitzroy in Round 13 more than doubled the previous biggest loss by a minor premier of 69 points, which had occurred in 1952 and 1974.
In Fitzroy's Round 17 game with St Kilda, a record quarter aggregate of 19.7 – Fitzroy 12.6, St. Kilda 7.1 – was kicked during the second quarter.
In Round 19, Kevin Bartlett became the first player to play 400 VFL games, after having in Round 11 of 1981 become the first to reach 350 games.

The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Ross Glendinning of North Melbourne.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Bernie Quinlan of Fitzroy.
The VFL Players Association MVP Award, now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy, was awarded to Terry Daniher of Essendon.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Colin Robertson of Hawthorn.
The "Wooden Spoon" was "awarded" to St Kilda.
The under 19s premiership won by Melbourne
The reserves premiership was won by Essendon. Essendon 19.14 defeated Collingwood 15.9 in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 24 September.