The 1979 Australian Football Championships Night Series was the 1st edition of the AFC Night Series, a VFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the VFL, the WANFL and State Representative Teams.
In June 1978 the VFL announced their plans to form a new company to oversee a night series that would be broadcast nationally and Australian Football Championships Pty. Ltd. was incorporated on 28 July 1978 to run a rival national night competition, in opposition to the NFL Night Series. By October 1978, The VFL were joined by the WAFL, TANFL, NSWAFL and ACTAFL in the joint venture and transferred from NFL Night Series to the AFC Night Series. However, the SANFL rejected the VFL's overtures, choosing to remain aligned with the NFL instead. They were joined by the VFA and QAFL in a greatly-reduced NFL Series.
Qualified Teams TeamNicknameLeagueQualificationParticipation (bold indicates winners)1Enter in Round 2HawthornHawksVFLWinners of the 1978 Victorian Football League3rd North MelbourneKangaroosVFLRunners-up in the 1978 Victorian Football League3rd CollingwoodMagpiesVFLThird place in the 1978 Victorian Football League3rd CarltonBluesVFLFourth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League8th GeelongCatsVFLFifth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League1stEast PerthRoyalsWANFLWinners of the 1978 Western Australian National Football League3rd PerthDemonsWANFLRunners-up in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League3rd South FremantleBulldogsWANFLThird place in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League3rd Australian Capital TerritoryRamsACTAFL State Representative Team3rd Enter in Round 1St KildaSaintsVFLSixth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League1stRichmondTigersVFLSeventh place in the 1978 Victorian Football League5th South MelbourneSwansVFLEighth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League4th FitzroyLionsVFLNinth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League2nd EssendonBombersVFLTenth place in the 1978 Victorian Football League3rd FootscrayBulldogsVFLEleventh Place in the 1978 Victorian Football League2nd MelbourneDemonsVFLTwelfth Place in the 1978 Victorian Football League1stWest PerthFalconsWANFLFourth place in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League5th ClaremontTigersWANFLFifth place in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League2nd East FremantleSharksWANFLSixth place in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League4th SubiacoLionsWANFLSeventh place 1978 Western Australian National Football League2nd Swan DistrictsSwansWANFLEighth place in the 1978 Western Australian National Football League2nd New South WalesBluesNSWAFLState Representative Team3rd TasmaniaDevilsTANFLState Representative Team4th 1 Includes previous appearances in the Championship of Australia and NFL Night Series.
Venues MelbournePerthSydneyHobartCanberra Waverley Park Perth Oval Subiaco Oval Leederville Oval Sydney Showground North Hobart Oval Phillip Oval Capacity: 72,000 Capacity: 27,000 Capacity: 53,000 Capacity: 25,000 Capacity: 40,000 Capacity: 26,000 Capacity: 15,000
Knockout stage Round 1
Round 2
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Australian Football Championships Night Series Final
References