1989 VFL season

Night Series

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

Finals

Elimination Final

Qualifying Final

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Notable events

• In their Round 1 match of the reserves competition, both and were found to have fielded unregistered players. St Kilda was stripped of the premiership points it had earned for winning the game, and they consequently could not be awarded to Brisbane. Both clubs were also fined.
• In Round 6, Geelong’s losing score of 25.13 against Hawthorn remains the highest losing score in VFL/AFL history.
• The wettest Melbourne winter since 1952 saw horrible conditions between Rounds 11 and 13 that produced several unusually low scores:

1. in Round 11 on the Saturday before the Queen’s Birthday, Fitzroy’s score of 1.8 was the lowest since Footscray kicked an identical score against Geelong in 1965, and the first single goal score since Carlton’s 1.11 on Anzac Day of 1968.
2. on the same day, Brad Hardie kicked 3.4 – with all the three goals coming in the first fifteen minutes – of only 3.8 scored by the Bears, this being the first time a player had kicked all his team’s goals since Alex Ruscuklic on the same weekend of 1967.
3. in Round 13 Essendon and Footscray played the lowest scoring game since the 1927 Grand Final, with the teams combining for only 6.15.

• Geelong set a record for the most points scored in the home-and-away season, 2916. Footscray’s season aggregate score of 1614 points was the lowest since 1972.

  Player statistics and awards

Leading goalkickers

Brownlow Medal count

• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Tim Watson of Essendon.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Gary Ablett of Geelong.
• The Under 19's Grand Final won by Richmond the following week against North Melbourne at VFL Park
• The Reserves Grand Final won by Fitzroy 17.12.114 deg Geelong 16.16.112.
• The Seniors Grand Final won by Hawthorn
• won the reserves premiership. Fitzroy 17.12 defeated 16.16 in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 30 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.