1982 Escort Championships

December 2017 December 2017 AFC Night Series 1982 AFC Escort Championships 9 March – 20 July 1982 18 3 3 Swans 1 North Melbourne 17 1981 1983 The 1982 Escort Championships (also known as the Escort Cup) was an Australian rules football knockout tournament held between March and July 1982. The tournament was organised by Australian Football Championships, and was contested by teams from the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League and West Australian Football League. The tournament was won by the Swans1 N 1, who defeated in the Grand Final. Background The 1982 Escort Championships was the sixth season of the national night premiership competition. The size of the competition was reduced to 18 teams in 1982, after 34 teams had competed in each of 1980 and 1981.Stephen Rodgers Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results, 1897–1991 Viking O'Neil Ringwood, VIC 3rd 1992 629, 641, 653 The competing teams were all twelve VFL teams, and three teams each from the SANFL and WAFL, who qualified based on their league finishing positions in 1981. The format for the competition was a simple knock-out tournament. The twelve VFL clubs and the 1981 premiers from both the SANFL and WAFL qualified directly for the round of sixteen; the remaining four qualifiers from the SANFL and WAFL started from the preceding elimination round. With the exception of the initial elimination round, all matches were played at VFL Park on Tuesday nights. Matches were televised. The tournament was mostly played concurrently with the premiership season, although some early matches were played during the preseason. Qualified Teams TeamNicknameLeagueQualificationParticipation (bold indicates winners)1Enter in Round 1CarltonBluesVFLWinners of the 1981 Victorian Football League11th (Previous: 1907, 1908, 1914, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981)CollingwoodMagpiesVFLRunners-Up in the 1981 Victorian Football League6th (Previous: 1896, 1910, 1979, 1980, 1981)GeelongCatsVFLThird Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League4th (Previous: 1979, 1980, 1981)FitzroyLionsVFLFourth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League5th (Previous: 1913, 1979, 1980, 1981)EssendonBombersVFLFifth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League6th (Previous: 1893, 1911, 1979, 1980, 1981)HawthornHawksVFLSixth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League6th (Previous: 1971, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981)RichmondTigersVFLSeventh Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League8th (Previous: 1969, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981)North MelbourneKangaroosVFLEighth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League6th (Previous: 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981)South MelbourneSwansVFLNinth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League7th (Previous: 1888, 1890, 1909, 1979, 1980, 1981)St KildaSaintsVFLTenth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League4th (Previous: 1979, 1980, 1981)FootscrayBulldogsVFLEleventh Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League5th (Previous: 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981)MelbourneDemonsVFLTwelfth Place in the 1981 Victorian Football League4th (Previous: 1979, 1980, 1981)Port AdelaideMagpiesSANFLWinners of the 1981 South Australian National Football League11th (Previous: 1890, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981)ClaremontTigersWAFLWinners of the 1981 West Australian Football League5th (Previous: 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981)Enter in Qualifying roundGlenelgTigersSANFLRunners-Up in the 1981 South Australian National Football League8th (Previous: 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981)NorwoodRedlegsSANFLThird Place in the 1981 South Australian National Football League10th (Previous: 1888, 1907, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981)South FremantleBulldogsWAFLRunners-Up in the 1981 West Australian Football League6th (Previous: 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981)Swan DistrictsSwansWAFLThird Place in the 1981 West Australian Football League5th (Previous: 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981) 1 Includes previous appearances in the Championship of Australia and NFL Night Series. Venues MelbourneAdelaidePerth Waverley Park Football Park Subiaco Oval Capacity: 72,000 Capacity: 67,000 Capacity: 53,000 150px 150px 190px Games Elimination round |- ! Home team ! Home team score ! Away team ! Away team score ! Ground ! Crowd ! Date | |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | Swan Districts | 21.14 (140) | Glenelg | 15.12 (102) | Subiaco Oval | | Saturday, 13 March |The West Australian Swans link up neatly Perth Doug Young 15 March 1982 95 |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | Norwood | 10.12 (72) | South Fremantle | 18.16 (124) | Football Park | | Saturday, 13 March |The West Australian Perth Speedy South down Norwood 15 March 1982 95 Round of sixteen |- ! Winning team ! Winning team score ! Losing team ! Losing team score ! Ground ! Crowd ! Date | |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | Fitzroy | 12.13 (85) | | 7.8 (50) | VFL Park | 10,568 | Tuesday, 9 March |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 10 March 1982 Lions draw first blood! Bruce Matthews |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | Carlton | 14.16 (100) | Port Adelaide | 5.6 (36) | VFL Park | 6,220 | Tuesday, 16 March |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 17 March 1982 True blue win! Michael Doran |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 12.12 (84) | | 6.5 (41) | VFL Park | 6,859 | Tuesday, 23 March |The Sun News-Pictorial Final Melbourne 24 March 1982 Demon night burst Peter Simunovich |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 18.13 (121) | Claremont | 11.11 (77) | VFL Park | 4,552 | Tuesday, 6 April |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 7 April 1982 Phil shows North the way |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | Swan Districts | 13.9 (87) | | 11.11 (77) | VFL Park | 6,504 | Tuesday, 20 April |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 21 April 1982 The Pies crash |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 10.6 (66) | | 2.6 (18) | VFL Park | 6,958 | Tuesday, 27 April |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 28 April 1982 Bombers in nose-dive Peter Simunovich |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | StK | 16.14 (110) | | 6.11 (47) | VFL Park | 4,628 | Tuesday, 4 May |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 5 May 1982 Bulldogs crushed Bruce Matthews |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | 1 N 1 | 24.16 (160) | South Fremantle | 6.9 (45) | VFL Park | 4,752 | Tuesday, 11 May |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 12 May 1982 Swans on a goal spree Quarter-finals |- ! Winning team ! Winning team score ! Losing team ! Losing team score ! Ground ! Crowd ! Date | |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 12.14 (86) | | 12.8 (80) | VFL Park | 7,063 | Tuesday, 25 May |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 26 May 1982 Five umps report Walls Michael Horan |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 11.16 (82) | | 10.10 (70) | VFL Park | 4,228 | Tuesday, 1 June |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 2 June 1982 Roos ride out a late night fright Bruce Matthews |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | The Swans1 N 1 | 8.11 (59) | StK | 7.9 (51) | VFL Park | 4,761 | Tuesday, 8 June |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 9 June 1982 Swans home in fog Peter Simunovich |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 33.16 (214) | Swan Districts | 4.4 (28) | VFL Park | 2,688 | Tuesday, 22 June |The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne 23 June 1982 Aylett blast for WA club Michael Davis 68 Semi-finals |- ! Winning team ! Winning team score ! Losing team ! Losing team score ! Ground ! Crowd ! Date | |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | | 13.12 (90) | | 8.13 (61) | VFL Park | 5,642 | Tuesday, 29 June |The Sun News-Pictorial Final Melbourne 30 June 1982 Goodnight Blues! Michael Horan 72 & 69 |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | The Swans1 N 1 | 13.17 (95) | | 6.6 (42) | VFL Park | 4,955 | Tuesday, 6 July |The Sun News-Pictorial Final Melbourne 7 July 1982 Swans crush Tigers Bruce Matthews 84 Final |- ! Winning team ! Winning team score ! Losing team ! Losing team score ! Ground ! Crowd ! Date | |- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" | The Swans1 N 1 | 13.12 (90) | | 8.10 (58) | VFL Park | 20,028 | Tuesday, 20 July |The Sun News-Pictorial Final Melbourne 21 July 1982 Swans are home! Michael Davis 80 Notable events Swan Districts controversy The WAFL's Swan Districts Football Club generated controversy when it sent a team of reserves and colts players to contest its quarter-final against in protest at the rescheduling of the match. The match had already been pushed back from 1 June to 8 June to accommodate an interstate match between South Australia and Victoria on Monday 17 May. Then, after and StK both qualified for the quarter-finals, it happened that those teams would be playing two televised matches against each other inside three days: a league match on Sunday 20 June in Sydney, and then the Escort Cup match on Tuesday 22 June. This was unfavourable for the teams; and in a time when few football matches were broadcast live, it was also unfavourable for the television sponsors. As such, the AFC moved the Swans–St Kilda match to 8 June and the Swan Districts–Richmond match to 22 June.The Sun News-Pictorial Final 20 May 1982 70 Peter Simunovich WA club's cup anger Swan Districts was unhappy with the way the games were rescheduled. The club was not consulted prior to the AFC announcing the reschedule, and it affected arrangements that the club had already made for a social club function on the night of 8 June. Additionally, the 8 June timing was located between league matches against the WAFL's bottom two teams; but, the 22 June timing was located between league matches against the second- and third-placed teams—and, being placed first at the time, Swan Districts was worried about the effect of a midweek match in Melbourne upon its WAFL premiership aspirations. More generally, Swan Districts coach John Todd was already a vocal critic of the dominance of Victorian influence in the administration of the game at a national level, and he was unhappy at seeing his club treated in a way in which he did not believe a Victorian club would have been treated.The Sun News-Pictorial Final 16 July 1982 70 Tom Prior WA's hot gospeller Toddy... When the reschedule was first announced on 19 May, Swan Districts considered forfeiting the match. On 1 June, the club announced that it had decided that it would send a full-strength team to the match.The Sun News-Pictorial Final 2 June 1982 Bruce Matthews Swan Districts 'yes' to match 79 But, two days before the match, it reneged on this promise, and sent an inexperienced team of reserves and colts players, only two of which had played seniors the previous weekend, and which had a total of 69 senior games' experience across its 21 members.The Sun News-Pictorial Final 23 June 1982 Michael Davis A night farce! 76 Unsurprisingly, the inexperienced team was completely uncompetitive against Richmond—which was at that time on top of the VFL ladder—and lost the match by 186 points. The following month, the AFC banned Swan Districts from competing in the Escort Championships until 1985 as punishment for the controversy.The Sun News-Pictorial Final 22 July 1982 Tom Prior Banished... to the West 63 Other notable events Due to a guernsey clash, Collingwood wore a white guernsey with a black yoke instead of its normal white and black stripes in its match against Swan Districts. The quarter-final between the Swans and St Kilda was played in a heavy fog. Swans coach Ricky Quade was unable to see the action from the coaches' box, and visibility on the field was reportedly only about six metres. The ground developed frost as the game went on, also affecting handling skills. For the first time in Escort Cup history, a championship flag was awarded to the winning team in addition to a trophy.The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne, VIC 62 Tom Prior 22 July 1982 Final A flag to fly in Sydney See also List of Australian Football League night premiers 1982 VFL season Footnotes 1.1 During 1982, the South Melbourne Football Club was in transition as it moved to Sydney to become the Sydney Swans. Although it played all of its premiership season home games in Sydney in 1982, the club was still known as South Melbourne until 2 June, after which it was known as simply the Swans.The Sun News-Pictorial Melbourne Peter Simunovich The Swans – officially 3 June 1982 67 It formally became the Sydney Swans prior to the 1983 season. References 2 External links 1982 AFC Escort Championships - detailed review including quarter-by-quarter scores, best players and goalkickers for each match Escort Championships, 1982 Category:1982 controversies Category:Australian rules football competitions in Australia