1994 VFA season

1994 VFA Premiership Season
Teams	12
Premiers	Sandringham (5th premiership)
Minor premiers	Sandringham (4th minor premiership)
← 1993 1995 →

The 1994 Victorian Football Association season was the 113th season of the Australian rules football competition; and, it was the final season contested under the administration of the Association as an independent body, before control of the competition was ceded to the Victorian State Football League at the end of the year.^[1] The premiership was won by the Sandringham Football Club, after it defeated Box Hill in the Grand Final on 25 September by nine points; it was the fifth premiership won by the club.

Premiership season

In the home-and-away season, each team played eighteen games; the top five then contested the finals under the McIntyre Final Five system. Finals were played for the first time at Victoria Park.

Ladder

1994 VFA Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	Pct	PTS
1	Sandringham (P)	18	16	2	0	2253	1248	194.3	64
2	Box Hill	18	13	5	0	2130	1526	139.6	52
3	Springvale	18	13	5	0	1804	1413	127.7	52
4	Dandenong	18	13	5	0	2048	1812	113.0	52
5	Frankston	18	11	7	0	1975	1640	120.4	44
6	Werribee	18	9	9	0	1803	1663	108.4	36
7	Port Melbourne	18	9	9	0	1827	1773	103.8	36
8	Williamstown	18	8	10	0	1490	1802	80.3	32
9	Preston	18	5	13	0	1512	1884	80.3	20
10	Oakleigh	18	4	14	0	1611	2339	68.9	16
11	Coburg	18	4	14	0	1379	2081	66.3	16
12	Prahran	18	3	15	0	1427	2250	63.4	12
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points								Source[2]

Finals

	Qualifying final
Saturday, 3 September	Box Hill 10.14 (74)	def.	Springvale 7.14 (56)	Victoria Park (crowd: 1,908)	[3]

	Elimination final
Sunday, 4 September	Dandenong 19.15 (129)	def.	Frankston 9.17 (71)	Victoria Park (crowd: 2,316)	[4]

	First semi-final
Saturday, 10 September	Springvale 16.19 (115)	def.	Dandenong 11.7 (73)	Victoria Park (crowd: 2,292)	[5]

	Second semi-final
Sunday, 11 September	Sandringham 12.21 (93)	def.	Box Hill 12.15 (87)	Victoria Park (crowd: 2,935)	[6]

	Preliminary Final
Sunday, 18 September	Box Hill 18.12 (120)	def.	Springvale 7.12 (54)	Victoria Park (crowd: 2,318)	[7]

	1994 VFA Grand Final
Sunday, 25 September	Sandringham	def.	Box Hill	Victoria Park (Crowd: 13,168)	[8]
	0.2 (2) 2.6 (18) 5.9 (39) 11.12 (78)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	3.2 (20) 6.3 (39) 9.9 (63) 10.9 (69)	Umpires: Kieron Nicholls, G. Caulfield Norm Goss Memorial Medal: Anthony Allen (Sandringham
Gorozidis 5, Allen, Amiet, Foley, Herman, Moloney, Tarpey		Goals	Wilkinson 3, Daly 2, Disney, Evans, Livingstone, Swan, Trewella
		Injuries	Bourke, O'Neill

Awards

• The leading goalkicker for the season was Rino Pretto (Dandenong), who kicked 87 goals including finals.
• The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Cory Young (Oakleigh), who polled 20 votes. Young finished ahead of Justin Crough (Sandringham), who was second with 17 votes, and Shaun Smith (Werribee), who polled 16 votes.^[9]
• The Fothergill-Round Medal was won by Bruce Cohen (Box Hill).^[10]
• Sandringham won the reserves premiership for the second consecutive season. Sandringham 15.12 (102) defeated Port Melbourne 10.9 (69) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors Grand Final on 25 September. Sandringham also won the Under-19s premiership, giving it the premiership in all three grades for the season.^[8]
• Frankston won the pre-season competition. Frankston 15.13 (103) defeated Werribee 15.4 (94) in the Grand Final,^[11] held on 9 April.^[12]

Notable events

Interleague matches

The Association played one interleague match, against the Northern Territory Football League, during 1994. The match was played on 9 April, making it a pre-season match for the Association, and a post-season match for Northern Territory (which plays its season during the Australian summer), giving Northern Territory a form advantage. Northern Territory defeated the Association by 23 points.^[13]

	1994 Interleague matches
Saturday, 9 April	V.F.A. 12.8 (80)	def. by	N.T.F.L. 15.13 (103)	Victoria Park	[13]

Other notable events

• Most of the Association's clubs were in such severe financial difficulty that the Association waived the $25,000 affiliation fee for the season.^[14]
• Springvale played a couple of night matches at the Newcomen Road Oval during the 1994 season, including the season opening match against Prahran on Friday, 15 April. Springvale had previously hosted night matches as recently as 1978 while it was in the Federal League, but had never staged a night match during its time in the Association.^[15]
• On Saturday, 7 May, Rino Pretto (Dandenong) kicked his 1000th career goal. Pretto was the second and, as of 2015, last player to reach the goalkicking milestone.^[16]
• On 4 June, Oakleigh led Werribee by 46 points at half time (14.9 (93) led 7.5 (47)), before Werribee recovered to win by 19 points: Werribee 21.16 (142) d. Oakleigh 18.15 (123).^[17]
• On 5 June, Coburg 15.9 (99) defeated Prahran 14.9 (93) to end a 30-match losing streak dating back to late 1992.^[18]

See also

• List of VFA/VFL premiers
• Australian Rules Football
• Victorian Football League

References

1. Adrian Dunn (13 October 1994). "Plan a 'victory' for VFA identity". Herald Sun (Afternoon ed.) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 73.
2. "National scoreboard". Herald Sun (Afternoon ed.) (Melbourne, VIC). 29 August 1994. p. 50.
3. Ross Booth (4 September 1994). "Mustangs in box seat after early goal burst". The Sunday Age (Sport Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 12.
4. Stewart Oldfield (5 September 1994). "Redlegs shrug underdog tag". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 34.
5. Ross Booth (11 September 1994). "Scorpions sting Redlegs". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 17.
6. Stewart Oldfield (11 September 1994). "Zebras win berth in grand final". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 33.
7. Stewart Oldfield (19 September 1994). "Box Hill powers to a grand final berth". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 31.
8. Stewart Oldfield (26 September 1994). "Zebras fight back to grab flag". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 30.
9. "Liston win". Herald Sun (Morning ed.) (Melbourne, VIC). 1 September 1994. p. 85.
10. "Fothergill-Round Medallists". Sportingpulse. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
11. David Eastman. "VFA pre-season cup". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
12. Ross Booth (1 May 1994). "Box Hill is too slow to hold down Springvale". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 16.
13. Ross Booth (10 April 1994). "Slick Northern Territory runs VFA ragged". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 17.
14. Caroline Overington (15 April 1994). "Clubs kick off into financial nightmare". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 26.
15. Stewart Oldfield (16 April 1994). "Springvale alight in VFA opener". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 39.
16. Ross Booth (8 May 1994). "Tigers find form under lights to beat Scorpions". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 16.
17. Ross Booth (5 June 1994). "Werribee wins with a 10-goal quarter". The Sunday Age (Sports Liftout) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 16.
18. Stewart Oldfield (6 June 1994). "Cellar-dwelling Coburg ends 30-game run of losses". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6 June 1994.