Venues
| Adelaide | Perth | |
|---|---|---|
| Norwood Oval | Football Park | Subiaco Oval |
| Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 67,000 | Capacity: 53,000 |
 |  |  |
| NFL Wills Cup | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Dates | 17 May - 17 August 1976 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Venue(s) | 3 (in 2 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Hawthorn (2nd title) |
| Runners-up | North Melbourne |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 15 |
| Attendance | 106,214 (7,081 per match) |
1977 → | |
The 1976 NFL Championship Series was the 1st edition of the NFL Night Series, an NFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the VFL, the SANFL and the WANFL. [1]
It replaced the Championship of Australia tournament that been contested between the champion clubs of the VFL, the SANFL, the WANFL and the Tasmanian State Premiership between 1972 and 1975 and, as with those earlier tournaments, the games were (mostly) played in Adelaide.
The 1976 NFL Night Series was planned as a forerunner to a full-scale national competition in 1977 that would feature all the VFL, SANFL and WANFL teams plus representative teams from Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.
Ultimately, the 1976 competition would be the only one to feature the VFL clubs - the Victorian League chose to break away in 1977 and run a rival competition, the VFL Night Series.
| Adelaide | Perth | |
|---|---|---|
| Norwood Oval | Football Park | Subiaco Oval |
| Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 67,000 | Capacity: 53,000 |
| | | |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glenelg | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 161 | 130 | 123.8 | 8 |
| Richmond | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 185 | 126 | 146.8 | 4 |
| Swan Districts | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 118 | 208 | 56.7 | 0 |
| 17 May 1976 | Glenelg | 76-62 | Richmond | Football Park, Adelaide | |
| 11.10 (76) | 9.8 (62) | Attendance: 13,693 |
| 12 June 1976 | Swan Districts | 68-85 | Glenelg | Subiaco Oval, Perth | |
| 10.8 (68) | 11.19 (85) | Attendance: 10,876 |
| 29 June 1976 | Richmond | 123-50 | Swan Districts | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 18.15 (123) | 7.8 (50) | Attendance: 400 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Melbourne | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 191 | 113 | 169.0 | 8 |
| Port Adelaide | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 134 | 150 | 89.3 | 4 |
| Footscray | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 169 | 201 | 84.1 | 0 |
| 1 June 1976 | Port Adelaide | 97-63 | Footscray | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 14.13 (97) | 9.9 (63) | Attendance: 5,818 |
| 15 June 1976 | North Melbourne | 87-37 | Port Adelaide | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 12.15 (87) | 5.7 (37) | Attendance: 9,000 |
| 13 July 1976 | North Melbourne | 104-76 | Footscray | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 16.8 (104) | 11.10 (76) | Attendance: 2,081 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorn | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 202 | 99 | 204.0 | 8 |
| Sturt | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 146 | 158 | 92.4 | 4 |
| West Perth | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 109 | 200 | 54.5 | 0 |
| 7 June 1976 | West Perth | 46-107 | Hawthorn | Subiaco Oval, Perth | |
| 7.4 (46) | 15.17 (107) | Attendance: 9,860 |
| 14 June 1976 | Sturt | 93-63 | West Perth | Football Park, Adelaide | |
| 14.9 (93) | 9.9 (63) | Attendance: 12,777 |
| 6 July 1976 | Sturt | 53-95 | Hawthorn | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 8.5 (53) | 13.17 (95) | Attendance: 8,839 |
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwood | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 231 | 110 | 210.0 | 8 |
| Carlton | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 188 | 169 | 111.2 | 4 |
| South Fremantle | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 93 | 294 | 31.6 | 0 |
| 8 June 1976 | Carlton | 148-23 | South Fremantle | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 22.16 (148) | 3.5 (23) | Attendance: 1,500 |
| 22 June 1976 | Norwood | 146-40 | Carlton | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 22.14 (146) | 5.10 (40) | Attendance: 7,500 |
| 20 July 1976 | Norwood | 85-70 | South Fremantle | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 11.19 (85) | 10.10 (70) | Attendance: 3,250 |
| SF #1 27 July 1976 | Hawthorn | 82-56 | Glenelg | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 11.16 (82) | 8.8 (56) | Attendance: 8,086 |
| SF #2 3 August 1976 | North Melbourne | 53-35 | Norwood | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 8.5 (53) | 5.5 (35) | Attendance: 5,160 |
| Final 17 August 1976 | Hawthorn | 89-41 | North Melbourne | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 3.6 (24) 5.7 (37) 7.13 (55) 12.17 (89) | Report | 1.1 (7) 1.4 (10) 4.8 (32) 5.11 (41) | Attendance: 7,374 Umpires: Peter Mead | ||
| Goals | |||||
| M Moncrieff 4 A Goad 3 G Ablett, D Scott 2 L Matthews 1 | S Kekovich, M Blight 2 P Feltham 1 |
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian rules football organisations.
The Australian National Football Council (ANFC) was the national governing body for Australian rules football in Australia from 1906 until 1995. The council was a body of delegates representing each of the principal leagues which controlled the sport in their respective regions. The council was the owner of the laws of the game and managed interstate administrative and football matters. Its function was superseded by the AFL Commission.
The Championship of Australia was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested between football clubs from the Victorian and South Australian football leagues for most of its history, with clubs from the Western Australian and Tasmanian football leagues only being included in the final four iterations. The Championship took place four times in the 19th century and then from 1907 to 1914 — with the exception of 1912 — and every year from 1968 to 1975. All but two of the Championships were played in Adelaide, and all of them occurred after the respective league seasons had ended. The 1975 Championship of Australia was the last edition of the competition, with the 1976 NFL Championship replacing the format, albeit for only one year with VFL clubs.
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The NFL Night Series was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested annually from 1976 until 1979. The tournament, played concurrently with the premiership season, was contested at different times by football clubs from the Victorian, South Australian, Western Australian and Queensland football leagues, and was operated by the National Football League, which was the national administrative body for the sport.
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The Australian Football Championships (AFC) night series, known during its history by a variety of sponsored names, was an Australian rules football tournament held annually between 1979 and 1986. The competition was a knock-out competition featuring clubs from the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League, West Australian Football League and state representative teams from the minor states, and matches were played primarily on weekday nights concurrently with the respective leagues' premiership seasons.
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