1988 VFL season

1988 VFL Premiership season
Teams	14
Premiers	Hawthorn (7th premiership)
Minor premiers	Hawthorn (6th minor premiership)
Pre-season Cup	Hawthorn (1st Pre-season Cup win)
Matches played	160
Attendance	3,528,878 (22,055 per match)
Highest attendance	93,754 (Grand Final, Hawthorn v Melbourne)
Coleman Medallist	Jason Dunstall (Hawthorn)
Brownlow Medallist	Gerard Healy (Sydney)
← 1987 1989 →

The 1988 Victorian Football League season was the 92nd season of the elite Australian rules football competition. This season commenced in April 1988 and concluded on 24 September 1988, with Hawthorn winning their seventh Premiership in their sixth consecutive Grand Final appearance.

Night series

Hawthorn 10.10 (70) defeated Geelong 9.13 (67) in the Night Series, which for the first time was played entirely as a pre-season competition, rather than a concurrent competition to the Premiership season.

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

1988 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Hawthorn (P)	22	19	3	0	2791	1962	142.25	76
2	Collingwood	22	15	6	1	1948	1728	112.73	62
3	Carlton	22	15	7	0	2342	1961	119.43	60
4	West Coast	22	13	9	0	2199	1966	111.85	52
5	Melbourne	22	13	9	0	2003	1961	102.14	52
6	Essendon	22	12	10	0	2186	2017	108.38	48
7	Sydney	22	12	10	0	2169	2176	99.68	48
8	Footscray	22	11	11	0	1880	1803	104.27	44
9	Geelong	22	10	12	0	2356	2246	104.90	40
10	Richmond	22	8	14	0	2161	2540	85.08	32
11	North Melbourne	22	7	14	1	2361	2638	89.50	30
12	Fitzroy	22	7	15	0	2128	2538	83.85	28
13	Brisbane Bears	22	7	15	0	1806	2421	74.60	28
14	St Kilda	22	4	18	0	1708	2081	82.08	16
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Finals

Elimination finals

Qualifying final

Semi finals

Preliminary final

Grand Final

Player statistics and awards

Leading goalkickers

	Name	Club	Goals
1	Jason Dunstall	Hawthorn	132
2	Simon Beasley	Footscray	82
-	Gary Ablett	Geelong	82
4	Brian Taylor	Collingwood	73
-	Ross Glendinning	West Coast	73

Brownlow Medal count

	Name	Club	Votes
1	Gerard Healy	Sydney	20
2	Simon Madden	Essendon	16
-	Jason Dunstall	Hawthorn	16
4	Tony Hall	Hawthorn	15
5	Darren Millane	Collingwood	14
-	Darren Kappler	Fitzroy	14
-	Peter Foster	Footscray	14

• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Gerard Healy of the Sydney Swans.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Gary Ayres of Hawthorn.
• Footscray won the reserves premiership. Footscray 17.14 (116) defeated North Melbourne 14.12 (96) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 24 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[1]

Notable events

• Three new rules aimed at encouraging a long-kicking style of play were introduced. These were:^[2]
  • The length of the 15-metre penalty for wasting an opponent's time after he takes a mark was increased to fifty metres.
  • Players were required to take a kick if awarded a free kick. If the player played on by handpass, the ball would be returned for a ball-up; the penalty for playing on was originally a free kick to the opposition, but this was commuted to a ball up after proving unpopular during pre-season trials.
  • The full-back was required to kick the ball over a distance of at least two metres when kicking in after a behind.
• The VFL banned lace-up guernseys starting from this season after Robert Flower and Brian Wilson both suffered broken fingers when they became tangled in the laces during tackles.^[3] A handful of players had been wearing the tight-fitting guernseys which were laced up in the front in recent years.
• Brisbane Bears played two matches in Perth during the season. At the club's suggestion, Brisbane's home match against West Coast in Round 3 was moved from Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast to the WACA Ground in Perth after persistent and heavy rain in south-eastern Queensland left the ground and its adjoining facilities unable to accommodate the game. Brisbane had expected the clubs' Round 16 match to be moved from Perth to the Gold Coast in return, only to discover that the league considered the Round 3 match a Brisbane home game, meaning that Brisbane would be required to travel for the Round 16 match in Perth as well.^[4] The VFL later changed its rules to prevent a repeat of this situation.
• The VFL took over the operation of the financially crippled Sydney Swans during the year until its parent company, Powerplay, could find a buyer for the franchise. The VFL bought the club for a nominal $10 on 9 May, taking on its operating costs but not its debts.^[5]

See also

• List of VFL debuts in 1988
• McIntyre "Final Five" system

References

1. "Tattersalls Scoreboard". The Sun News-Pictorial (Grand Final Souvenir Liftout). Melbourne, VIC. 26 September 1988. p. 11.
2. Daryl Timms (16 March 1988). "'Go' on footy rules". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 84.
3. "Lace-ups get the boot". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. 12 June 1987. p. 80.
4. Paul Cunningham (13 April 1988). "Ground bugbear". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 82.
5. Michael Davis (10 May 1988). "$4m for the Swans". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 74.

• Stephen Rodgers: Every Game Ever Played VFL/AFL Results 1897-1991 3rd Edition 1992. Penguin Books Australia ISBN 0-670-90526-7.
• 1988 VFL Season Statistics at AFL Tables