| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Australian football |
| Location | Adelaide and Perth, Australia |
| Dates | 14 May 1985–16 July 1985 |
| Format | Round Robin |
| Teams | 3 |
| Final champion | |
| South Australia | |
The 1985 Australian Football Championships was an Australian rules football series between representative teams of the three major football states. Games involving Victoria were played under State of Origin rules, whilst the match between Western Australia and South Australia involved players based in their respective states at the time. The competition drew controversy when the result of the game between Victoria and South Australia, originally a 57 point win to Victoria, was overturned and awarded to South Australia as a result of Victoria fielding too many players when coach Kevin Sheedy snuck Shane Heard into the squad and into the team as an extra player. [1] [2] The competition was won by South Australia, and it was their first Australian championship since 1911. [3]
| ||||||||||||
| TEAM | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | PTS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Australia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 274 | 244 | 112 | 4 | |||
| 2 | Victoria | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 263 | 141 | 186 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Western Australia | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 176 | 328 | 53 | 0 | |||
Following completion of the series, the best players over the three games were selected in the All-Australian team. [8]
| B: | Garry Foulds (Vic) | Gary Pert (Vic) | Terry Daniher (Vic) |
| HB: | Rod Lester-Smith (WA) | Paul Roos (Vic) | Peter Motley (SA) |
| C: | Craig Bradley (SA) | Geoff Raines (Vic) | Gary Buckenara (WA) |
| HF: | Dermott Brereton (Vic) | Stephen Kernahan (SA) | Mark Harvey (Vic) |
| F: | Leon Baker (WA) | Roger Merrett (Vic) | John Platten (SA) |
| Foll: | Mark Lee (Vic) | Russell Greene (Vic) | Dale Weightman (Vic) |
| Int: | Malcolm Blight (SA) | Michael Mitchell (WA) | |
| Coach: | Kevin Sheedy (Vic) | ||
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