The1991 AFL season was the 95th season of theAustralian Football League (AFL), which was known previously as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season ran from 22 March until 28 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by afinals series featuring the top six clubs, an increase from the top five clubs which had contested the finals since 1972.
The season saw expansion of the league to fifteen clubs, with the admission of the newly establishedAdelaide Crows, based inAdelaide, South Australia. With at least one team representing each of the three major Australian rules football states, the league was now the highest level seniorAustralian rules football competition across Australia, as well as the top administrative body for football in Victoria.
This was the first time since1981 that a match for VFL/AFL premiership points had been staged atThe Gabba. Under the insistence of their new coachRobert Walls, theBears would eventually relocate there permanently in1993. The match is also noticeable withGeelong’sBill Brownless kicking 11 goals in the match, which remains the record for most goals kicked in a match at the venue.
St Kilda starsNicky Winmar andTony Lockett marked their long-awaited return to action with outstanding performances as the Saints set a new club record for biggest win, eclipsing their 110-point win against Fitzroy in1970. The signs were ominous when Lockett goaled in the opening minute after marking a pass fromRobert Harvey, eventually finishing with 12 goals. The Crows weren't helped by the loss ofAndrew Jarman to a shoulder injury in the first quarter.[1]
In their match at the MCG,Brisbane Bears ledMelbourne for much of the afternoon, and appeared to have won when former Geelong playerShane Hamilton put the Bears 19 points ahead at the 19-minute mark of the final quarter. The Demons mounted a comeback whenDarren Cuthbertson goaled from a controversial free kick after Bears defenderJohn Gastev was penalized for holding the ball, and hit the front with goals toJim Stynes andRicky Jackson to eventually run out 13-point winners. Cuthbertson andDarren Bennett kicked five goals each for the winners.[2]
In the Friday evening game in Perth,West Coast continued their unbeaten start to the season and extended their winning streak to 12 games when they poundedFootscray by 118 points, equalling their biggest winning margin which was set againstBrisbane Bears in1988. Full-forwardPeter Sumich became the first Eagles player to kick ten or more goals in a game and finished with a career-best 13 goals.
Going into three-quarter time with a one-point lead,Adelaide kicked six goals to none in the final quarter to defeatRichmond and win their first game in Melbourne. After the match, Crows coachGraham Cornes acknowledged the significance of the win and took the opportunity to accuse the Victorian football media of a "xenophobic" attitude towards non-Victorian teams, also claiming that South Australian football crowds were "angels" compared to the crowds at Melbourne's suburban football grounds.[3]
The game betweenMelbourne andGeelong marked the much-anticipated return ofGary Ablett from his premature retirement announcement earlier in the year. He had a modest game with ten touches and two goals, while teammateBill Brownless took several spectacular marks and kicked seven goals as the Cats ran out winners by 30 points and consigned the Demons to a fourth straight loss.[4]
Carlton produced its second major upset of the season, shaking off four consecutive narrow losses and surviving a last-quarter fightback from second-placedGeelong to win by two points. The Blues players kept a promise to coachDavid Parkin that they would produce a four-quarter effort, while Cats coachMalcolm Blight lamented his side's inconsistency.[5]
St Kilda broke an eighteen year finals drought, making the finals for the first time since 1973.
In round 6,North Melbourne andSydney kicked a combined 32.18 (210) in the first half. It is the only aggregate of 200 points for a half in VFL/AFL history.
In round 11,Carlton kicked its only goal through Mark Arceri 33 seconds from the end of its match withFootscray.[6] It was the Blues' lowest score since1904, and the closest a team has come to a goalless match since1961.
In round 21, Essendon hosted its last senior VFL/AFL match at Windy Hill, its home venue since 1922. Essendon played its home matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the remainder of the 1990s.
Jim Stynes became the first, and as of 2024 only, foreign-born winner of the highest individual award, theBrownlow Medal.
West Coast did not concede more than 100 points in any game during the home-and-away season, being the first team to do this since1967.
In May, the AFL Commission adopted conditions to allow finals matches to be played outside Victoria for the first time, if the higher ranked team was non-Victorian and its ground managers could demonstrate there would be at least a comparable financial result to the match being played in Melbourne.[7] The season's qualifying final between West Coast and Hawthorn, played atSubiaco Oval, became the first finals match played outside Victoria under these conditions.
The capacity of theMelbourne Cricket Ground was reduced by half during 1991 as the new Great Southern Stand was constructed in preparation for the1992 Cricket World Cup, to be played there from February 1992. One consequence of this was thatWaverley Park hosted all finals that were played in Melbourne, including the grand final for the first and only time in its history. The other was that Hawthorn's plans move its home games from Princes Park to Waverley Park were delayed by one year: Hawthorn had played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park in 1990 as part of transitional arrangements for a permanent move in 1991, but the AFL reneged on the deal when it became clear that the ground was needed for blockbuster games throughout the year: as a compromise, Hawthorn again played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park during 1991, and then moved permanently to Waverley Park in 1992.[8]
The final under-19s premiership was won byNorth Melbourne. The AFL under-19s competition was shut down at the end of the season, being replaced by anunder-18s competition featuring six district-based clubs in Victoria that were unaffiliated to the VFL/AFL clubs.
At the end of the season, Hawthorn captain Michael Tuck retired, having played a then-record 426 VFL/AFL matches (including seven premierships from 11 grand finals). The record stood until passed byBrent Harvey (North Melbourne) in Round 19 of 2016.
