With Round 5 approaching, I thought it might be worth going back 20 or 30 years to see what was happening. I was staggered when looking at round 5 in 1989, and surely this was the lowest point imaginable for the VFA. Some context:
- the VFA disbanded 2nd Division at end of 1988, so along with premiers Oakleigh, 4 other teams (Dandy, Sunshine, Werribee and Camberwell) were uplifted to form a 15 team one division comp
- Willy, Springvale, Coburg, Brunswick and Box Hill went into the round undefeated after 4 games
- Preston, Prahran, Sandy, Sunshine and Camberwell had yet to win a game.
- the average winning margin for round 5 for the 7 games was a staggering 119 points.
Abbreviated Round 5, 1989 stats:
Williamstown 27.13.175 d Port Melbourne 12.12.84 (scores were level at half time - this was the TV game)
Will: Goals: Rickman 12. Best: Rickman, McGowan, Aziz, Cahill
Port: Best: None listed.
Box Hill 19.15.129 d Sandringham 18.14.122
BH: Goals: Buttifant and Johns 4 Best: Zaraffa, Hocking, Johns
Sandy: Goals: Bergman 4 Best: Howard, Dalrymple, Bennett
Werribee 25.19.169 d Prahran 9.15.69
Werr: Goals: Taylor 6, Damian Christensen 4 Best: Moloney, Walsh, Vasilou. Pran: Best: G Giles, Hamilton, Hewitson
Coburg 46.21.297 d Camberwell 8.9.57
Cob: Goals: Williams 9, Bassett7, Ingram 6. Best: Not supplied
Camb: Best: Dino Dipiedomenico, Tribe, Greig.
Coburg kicked 17.7 in the last quarter.
Preston 49.21.315 d Sunshine 9.5.59 (this game was later expunged from the records when Sunshine dropped out of the comp mid way through the year)
Pren: Goals: Shaw 19, Jordan 9 Best: Not supplied
Sun: Best: None
Oakleigh 22.11.143 d Springvale 17.14.116 (this was an upset)
Oaks: Goals: Pretto 6 Best: Dyson, Briggs, Cunningham, Garbuio
Spr: Goals: Robinson 6 Best: Robinson, King, Dudley
Frankston 33.25.223 d Dandenong 17.7.109
Frank: Goals: Bingley 8, Gahan and Frew 5 Best: P Martin, Foyster, Sharp
Dandy: Best: Atkinson, Nicholas, Argoon
Brunswick - Bye.
