Venues
| Adelaide | Perth | Melbourne | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwood Oval | Leederville Oval | Lathlain Park | Claremont Oval | Lake Oval |
| Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 25,000 | Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 15,000 | Capacity: 20,000 |
 |  |  | ||
| NFL Ardath Cup | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Dates | 20 March – 26 July 1977 |
| Teams | 22 |
| Venue(s) | 5 (in 3 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Norwood (3rd title) |
| Runners-up | East Perth |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 21 |
| Attendance | 64,818 (3,087 per match) |
The 1977 NFL Championship Series was the 2nd edition of the NFL Night Series, an NFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the SANFL, the WANFL, the VFA and State Representative Teams. [1]
Following the success of the 1976 competition, the 1977 edition was originally planned to be a full-scale national competition that would feature all the VFL, SANFL and WANFL teams plus representative teams from Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT. But in late 1976, the VFL announced they were withdrawing from the national competition to form their own rival night series, the VFL Night Series.
Following this decision, the NFL decided to replaces the VFL teams with the top four VFA teams from the previous season, a surprising move considering the VFA was expelled from the ANFC in 1970.
| Adelaide | Perth | Melbourne | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwood Oval | Leederville Oval | Lathlain Park | Claremont Oval | Lake Oval |
| Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 25,000 | Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 15,000 | Capacity: 20,000 |
| | | | ||
| 20 March 1977 | Claremont | 85-53 | South Adelaide | Claremont Oval, Perth | |
| 13.7 (85) | 8.5 (53) | Attendance: 5,195 |
| 27 March 1977 | Dandenong | 92-83 | Central District | Lake Oval, Melbourne | |
| 14.8 (92) | 11.17 (83) | Attendance: 2,500 |
| 5 April 1977 | West Perth | 116-65 | North Adelaide | Leederville Oval, Perth | |
| 16.20 (116) | 9.11 (65) | Attendance: 2,000 (estimate) |
| 5 April 1977 | Preston | 100-73 | New South Wales | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 15.10 (100) | 11.7 (73) | Attendance: 500 (estimate) |
| 12 April 1977 | West Adelaide | 63-93 | East Fremantle | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 9.9 (63) | 14.9 (93) | Attendance: 1,500 |
| 19 April 1977 | Caulfield | 76-95 | Australian Capital Territory | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 11.10 (76) | 14.11 (95) | Attendance: 250 |
| 26 April 1977 | South Fremantle | 92-89 | Tasmania | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 13.14 (92) | 13.11 (89) | Attendance: 1,000 (estimate) |
| 3 May 1977 | Sturt | 131-45 | Claremont | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 18.23 (131) | 7.3 (45) | Attendance: 3,073 |
| 10 May 1977 | Norwood | 125-59 | Australian Capital Territory | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 18.17 (125) | 8.11 (59) | Attendance: 2,000 |
| 17 May 1977 | Port Melbourne | 111-80 | Queensland | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 17.9 (111) | 12.8 (80) | Attendance: 500 |
| 24 May 1977 | East Fremantle | 125-56 | Preston | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 18.17 (125) | 7.14 (56) | Attendance: 600 (estimate) |
| 31 May 1977 | Perth | 140-87 | Glenelg | Lathlain Park, Perth | |
| 21.14 (140) | 13.9 (87) | Attendance: 5,000 |
| 31 May 1977 | Port Adelaide | 168-27 | West Perth | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 25.18 (168) | 4.3 (27) | Attendance: 3,000 (estimate) |
| 7 June 1977 | East Perth | 54-43 | Dandenong | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 7.12 (54) | 6.7 (43) | Attendance: 1,500 (estimate) |
| QF #1 14 June 1977 | Sturt | 125-68 | South Fremantle | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 19.11(125) | 9.14 (68) | Attendance: 3,000 |
| QF #2 21 June 1977 | Norwood | 152-82 | Port Melbourne | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 23.14 (152) | 12.10 (82) | Attendance: 2,500 |
| QF #3 28 June 1977 | East Fremantle | 98-73 | Perth | Leederville Oval, Perth | |
| 14.14 (98) | 11.7 (73) | Attendance: 3,500 |
| QF #4 5 July 1977 | Port Adelaide | 84-86 | East Perth | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 13.6 (84) | 13.8 (86) | Attendance: 3,000 (estimate) |
| SF #1 12 July 1977 | Norwood | 113-57 | Sturt | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 17.11 (113) | 8.9 (57) | Attendance: 8,000 |
| SF #2 19 July 1977 | East Perth | 85-29 | East Fremantle | Leederville Oval, Perth | |
| 12.13 (85) | 3.11 (29) | Attendance: 4,000 (estimate) |
| Final 26 July 1977 | Norwood | 69-61 | East Perth | Norwood Oval, Adelaide | |
| 3.0 (18) 6.2 (38) 8.3 (51) 10.9 (69) | 2.1 (13) 4.4 (28) 8.7 (55) 9.7 (61) | Attendance: 12,000 Umpires: Peter Mead | |||
| Goals | |||||
| Button, Michalanney 2 Gallagher, Gregg, Woodcock, Rosser, Adler, Von Bertouch 1 | Spencer 3 Arnold 2 Otway, Verstegen, Stewart, Hamilton 1 |
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