1986 VFL season


The 1986 VFL season was the 90th season of the Victorian Football League, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 29 March until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the sixth time, after it defeated by 42 points in the 1986 VFL Grand Final.

Night series

defeated 9.12 to 5.6 in the final.

Home-and-away season

Round 8

Round 16

Ladder


Season notes

  • For the first time in VFL/AFL history, two senior games were held at the same venue on the same day with Melbourne hosting Sydney, followed by North Melbourne vs Geelong at the MCG in round 5. Another double header was staged in round 19 at the MCG with Melbourne and North Melbourne again the home teams against Geelong and Footscray respectively. It would be 34 years before this occurred again.
  • In Round 21, Hawthorn led Geelong by only three points at half-time, but then kicked 25.7 to 3.7 in the second half. Hawthorn's final score of 35.15 set a new record as the club's highest score and Geelong's highest score conceded, and the margin of 135 points set and holds the record for Geelong's highest losing margin. Hawthorn's 25.7 set and holds the record for highest score by a single team in a half of football.
  • Round 22 was the last round in VFL/AFL history in which all matches were played on the same day.
  • endured serious financial hardships during 1986 which threatened its existence. More than one million dollars in debt, and having posted a $600,000 loss in 1985, the club took a $500,000 loan from the VFL in January 1986, and needed another $500,000 by the end of the year to remain solvent. It fielded offers from two Brisbane-based companies and one Canberra-based company for the club to move north in 1987, and it discussed mergers with, and. Despite the off-field struggles, the club reached the preliminary final; it was the last time the club played finals before its merger with Brisbane at the end of 1996.

Awards