The Division 1 premiership was won by theCoburg Football Club, after it defeatedGeelong West in the grand final on 23 September by eight points; it was Coburg's fourth Division 1 premiership, and its first since1928, ending a 51-year Division 1 premiership drought. The Division 2 premiership was won byCamberwell; it was the first premiership in either division ever won by the club since its admission to the Association in 1926, 53 years earlier.
The Division 1 home-and-away season was played over 18 rounds; the top four then contested the finals under thePage–McIntyre system. The finals were played at theJunction Oval.
The leading goalkicker for the home-and-away season wasRenato Serafini (Frankston), who kicked 95 goals and did not participate in finals. Across the entire season including finals, the joint-leading goalkickers wereKim Smith (Prahran) and Joe Radojevic (Geelong West), who each finished with 97 goals; in the home-and-away season, Smith finished second with 94 goals, and Radojevic finished third with 81 goals.[1][5]
Sandringham won the seconds premiership. Sandringham 12.17 (89) defeatedPreston 10.10 (70) in the Grand Final, played as a stand-alone match on Saturday 15 September atToorak Park.[4]
Sandringham won the last everlightning premiership. Sandringham 3.5 (23) defeatedYarraville 2.5 (17) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the senior Grand Final on Sunday 23 September.[5]
The Division 2 home-and-away season was played over eighteen rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system; all finals were played on Sundays atToorak Park.
The leading goalkicker for the Division 2 home-and-away season wasMark Fotheringham (Yarraville) who kicked 129 goals and did not participate in finals. The leading goalkicker across the whole season including finals wasPeter Neville (Mordialloc), who was second behind Fotheringham with 125 goals in the home-and-away season,[7] and kicked 132 goals overall.[2][8]
The J. Field Medal was won by a comfortable margin by Jeff Edwards (Northcote), who polled 58 votes. Edwards polled more than double the votes of David Wenn (Oakleigh), who was second with 26 votes; Peter Kerr (Williamstown) andKevin Sait (Yarraville), were equal-third with 23 votes each.[6]
Yarraville won the seconds premiership. Yarraville 17.16 (118) defeatedOakleigh 9.23 (77) in the Grand Final, played as a stand-alone match on Saturday, 8 September.[3]
The top two Association clubs from 1977 –Prahran andPreston – were invited to participate in theNFL Night Series, known this year as the Escort Cup. Neither club progressed to the night portion of the series, both eliminated in the first round by their SANFL opponents in a double-header played atPreston City Oval on Anzac Day:[10]
It was the final NFL Night series, as it was entirely superseded by the rival AFC Night Series in 1980, in which the Association clubs were not invited to compete.
The Association played an interleague representative match againstQueensland for the third consecutive season; it was the Association's first home representative match on an Association ground since 1965.[11] The team was coached byMick Erwin (Prahran).[12]
After having lost away matches against Queensland in both 1977 and 1978, the Association won this year's match easily. Queensland did not register its first score until the second quarter, by which stage the Association had already scored 9.13 (67), and the final margin was 154 points.[12]
On 3 June,Prahran won its first game againstPort Melbourne atNorth Port Oval since 1951, a streak lasting 28 years (in 21 of which the two clubs competed in the same division).[13]
On 24 June,Frankston 26.19 (175) defeatedPreston 25.18 (168) in an extremely high scoring game.[14]
On 4 July,Preston was found guilty of having fielded an unregistered player, Greg Marshall, in matches early in the season; Marshall's Form 3A had not been completed when he played in two senior matches and three seconds matches at the start of the season. The two senior matches in which Marshall had illegally played were an eight-point win againstCaulfield and a draw againstPort Melbourne; as a result of the revelations, the win and four points from each match were awarded to Preston's opponent.[15] The penalty saw Port Melbourne reach the finals at Preston's expense: had the original results stood,ceteris paribus, Preston and Port Melbourne would have finished fourth and fifth respectively with 38 points each, Preston having the higher percentage.[1] Preston was also fined $1150, comprising $500 for each senior match and $50 for seconds match in which Marshall played. It was the first case of points being stripped for playing an unregistered player since1952.[15]
In the final round of Division 2 home-and-away matches,Sunshine back-pocket Denis Strybosch was reported for the unusual misconduct charge of indecently exposing himself to an umpire. The incident occurred late in the final quarter of Sunshine's 119-point loss toYarraville:[7] dominant Yarraville full-forwardMark Fotheringham was lining up for goal from the behind post with Strybosch on the mark when Sunshine full-back Peter Simpson walked across the mark; umpire Bill Torney paid a15-metre penalty, to which Strybosch turned around, lowered his shorts andmooned Torney; Strybosch was reported by all four umpires at that end of the ground, and was immediatelybenched by his coach. At his hearing on 14 August, Strybosch claimed the gesture was a tactic to distract Fotheringham; but he also criticised Torney's umpiring and Fotheringham's play, none of which particularly helped his case. Strybosch was suspended for ten weeks.[17] Later in the evening of Strybosch's hearing, his Sunshine team-mate Brian Morley, who had been cleared of his own misconduct charge earlier in the night and had allegedly been drinking in the hours since, abused and threatened Torney as he left VFA House. Morley returned to face the honorary commission on August 28, and was initially suspended for the entire 1980 season; but this was increased to a life suspension after he threw an ashtray at the chairman of the honorary commission.[18][19]
