| 1983 VFA season | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 23 July 1983 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Williamstown Cricket Ground | |||||||||||||||
On 23 July 1983, an Australian rules football match was played between Williamstown and Geelong West at the Williamstown Cricket Ground. The match was in round 14 of the Victorian Football Association's thirds division season, which operated as an under-18 competition.
The match saw the highest ever score in Australian rules football, in any league and at any grade, with Williamstown winning by 675 points.
In 1983, the VFA reduced the age eligibility of the thirds competition, changing it from an under-19 competition to an under-18 competition. Away games were also a particular problem for many clubs, as the younger-aged players generally preferred to play in local junior competitions than travel the often long distances to play an Association away game, particularly as none were old enough to hold driver's licences. [1]
No club was worse affected by the changes to the competition than Geelong West, whose travelling distances for away games exceeded those of any other club. It seldom attracted more than fifteen players to training, and forfeited two games early in the 1983 season simply through lack of players. [2]
Only twelve Geelong West players took the field – one fewer and it would have been forced to forfeit. Under the thirds rules at the time, there were sixteen players per team on the ground at a time. Williamstown had seventeen players on the day, including one on the bench. [3]
Williamstown's Stephen Cooke dominated the match, with 46 goals out of 54 scoring shots, along with a total of 30 marks. Cooke was later quoted as saying that the Geelong West side – who had already had four players suffer injuries in the first half – "had to be coaxed out at half time". [4]
All 17 Williamstown players scored at least one goal. [3]
| 1983 VFA season | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 23 July (2:05 pm) | Williamstown | v | Geelong West | Williamstown Cricket Ground | |
| 15.9 (99) 44.17 (281) 76.20 (476) 110.27 (687) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 1.0 (6) 1.0 (6) 2.0 (12) 2.0 (12) | |||
| S. Cooke 46, P. Brook 12, G. Bunting 10, S. Lucas 10, P. Stewart 5, R. Arandez 5, D. Doria 4, M. Hobbs 4, S. Neenan 3, J. Selvidge 2, D. Temby 2, R. McLaughlin 2, R. Andres, G. Chamberlain, D. Harrison, D. Hickey, A. Teagle. | Goals | ||||
Williamstown's score of 687 remains the highest in Australian rules football, in any league and at any grade. [5] Geelong West fared little better the previous week, conceding 88.23 (551) against Coburg. [6] Following these two losses, Geelong West withdrew its thirds team for the rest of the season. [2]
The VFA's two-division format for the thirds competition was abandoned in 1984, in response to this game and a general trend of increasingly heavy losses being suffered by teams like Geelong West who were in the first division on senior performance but had structurally weak thirds teams. Under the new format, which ran in 1984 and 1985, the thirds played initially as one large division, which was divided into small groups based on performance during the year. [7] [8]
Only one Williamstown player who took part in this match, Philip Brook, went on to play for the club's senior side. [3]
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in eastern states of Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, including reserves teams for the eastern state AFL clubs. It succeeded and continues the competition of the former Victorian Football Association (VFA) which began in 1877. The name of the competition was changed to the Victorian Football League in 1996. Under its VFL brand, the AFL also operates a women's football competition known as VFL Women's, which was established in 2016.
The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed the Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne. The club currently competes in the men's Victorian Football League and VFL Women's competitions.
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The 1981 Victorian Football Association season was the 100th season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the 21st season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Preston in the Grand Final on 20 September by 113 points; it was Port Melbourne's 14th Division 1 premiership, the second of three premierships won in a row between 1980 and 1982, and the fifth of six premierships won in nine seasons from 1974 until 1982. The Division 2 premiership was won by Camberwell; it was the club's second Division 2 premiership, and it was the last premiership ever won by the club.
The 1982 Victorian Football Association season was the 101st season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the 22nd season of second division competition. It was the first season of a restructured two-division competition, in which automatic promotion and relegation between the divisions was abandoned.
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The 1988 Victorian Football Association season was the 107th season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the 28th and final season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Coburg Football Club, after it defeated Williamstown in the Grand Final on 18 September by 27 points; it was Coburg's fifth Division 1 premiership. The final Division 2 premiership was won by Oakleigh; it was the club's second Division 2 premiership, and the last premiership ever won by the club in either division.
Mark Fotheringham is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Yarraville and Williamstown football clubs in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in the 1970s and 1980s.
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