The 1987 VFL season was the 91st season of the Victorian Football League (VFL). The season ran from 27 March until 26 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs. The season saw the beginning of a decade-long period of expansion of the Victorian league to the rest of Australia, with the admission of two newly established clubs: the West Coast Eagles, based in Perth, Western Australia, and the Brisbane Bears, based in South East Queensland. While the league remained the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria, it also became the de facto highest level senior competition in Australia, with representation across four states. In the pre-season, the first modern VFL draft was held. The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the 15th time, after it defeated by 33 points in the 1987 VFL Grand Final.

Night series

defeated 8.10 (58) to 8.6 (54), to win the Night Series Grand Final at VFL Park.

Home-and-away season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Rounds 16 and 17

Rounds 16 and 17 were played concurrently over three weekends: five matches were played on the weekends of 11 and 18 July, and four matches were played on the weekend of 25 July. This fixturing effectively gave each team one bye during the three-week period. However, the matches are still grouped into two complete rounds rather than three partial rounds, which results in a chronological anomaly in which six teams played their Round 17 matches before their Round 16 matches.

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

The final round of the 1987 VFL home-and-away season turned out to be one of the most dramatic and significant in VFL/AFL history. The composition of the final five would be determined by a number of scenarios: The round began on the Friday night with Richmond and the fledgling Brisbane Bears playing for the wooden spoon; the Bears won easily to ensure they didn't come last in their first season. The significant matches to determine the final five were all played on Saturday afternoon, and they were all thrillers.

Ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Average score: 104.7 Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

Awards

Major awards

Leading goalkickers

Sources