1 October

Richmond refused to play the VFA challenge final at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground unless umpire Allen was replaced, so the match was scratched and North Melbourne were handed the premiership.

It remains the only time an Association team has forfeited a premiership-deciding final.

Administration

The WAFL board sat past midnight hearing 47 Perth witnesses on whether a free kick came before the half-time bell, including two who testified they had left for the bar after hearing it.

East Fremantle's timekeeper admitted a ten shilling bet on his own side to win.

Umpires and tribunal

Collingwood beat Richmond 2.13 to 1.7 in a rain-sodden grand final at the MCG, the lowest winning score in a VFL grand final, with 147 points of rain falling over the day.

Many in the 34,551 crowd had hoped Gordon Coventry would become the first to kick 100 goals in a season.

Records

Williamstown beat Oakleigh 10.5 to 8.14 at the St Kilda Cricket Ground in the last senior VFA game played under the throw-pass rules.

The VFA had broken from the national code in 1938 and abandoned its rules after this season.

Rules

North Adelaide turned an eight-point deficit into an eleven-point lead with three goals in five minutes in the SANFL grand final, then held the ball in its forward lines until the siren as Norwood streamed out of defence.

North Adelaide won 95 to 90 at Adelaide Oval.

Clubs

North Melbourne beat Collingwood by 27 points in a full grand final replay, decided a week after the first VFL grand final since 1948 ended in a draw.

The drawn first match on 24 September 1977 was only the second drawn VFL grand final, and the premiership was settled by replaying the whole game.

Records

The Tasmanian State Premiership played its final match at West Park Oval, Cooee against Sandy Bay, before only 3,860 people after clubs stopped taking it seriously.

State leagues

On the same day the VFL let two new clubs in, its board refused a $2.8 million rescue package for struggling Fitzroy.

Administration

The VFL admitted West Coast by an 8 to 4 vote of its twelve clubs, while Brisbane got in unanimously, with each newcomer paying a $4 million licence fee.

The fee was split among the existing twelve clubs, many of them desperate for cash.

Administration

Foxtel's Fox Footy Channel signed off after a 4.00am replay of the 2006 Grand Final, with Foxtel saying a 24-hour football channel was not viable with only three live games a week.

Media

American singer Meat Loaf performed a 12 and a half minute medley before the Collingwood v Geelong Grand Final, a set widely panned as largely off-key.

It was later reported he had suffered health issues, including a heart attack and a hemorrhaged vocal cord, in the weeks before.

Media

Brendon Goddard became the first big name to use the AFL's new free agency when he signed with Essendon from St Kilda at 11am on the first day.

Essendon offered more pay and a four-year deal after Goddard refused a new three-year contract at St Kilda.

Drafts and trades

Grand Final

AFL · MCG · crowd 99,981

Grand Final

AFL · MCG · crowd 99,537

Grand Final

AFL · MCG · crowd 93,860

Grand Final

VFL · MCG · crowd 98,491

Grand Final

VFL · MCG · crowd 69,724

Grand Final

VFL · MCG · crowd 34,551

Grand Final

VFL · MCG · crowd 42,790

Qualifying Final

AFL · Adelaide Oval · crowd 22,755

Semi Final

VFL · MCG · crowd 37,813

Grand Final

WAFL · Leederville Oval · crowd 16,971

Grand Final

SANFL · Football Park · crowd 45,786

Grand Final

SANFL · Football Park · crowd 50,313