The 1979 Australian Football Championships Night Series was the 1st edition of the AFC Night Series, a VFL-organised national club

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

tournament between the leading clubs from the VFL, the WANFL and State Representative Teams. In June 1978 the VFL announced their plans to form a new company to oversee a night series that would be broadcast nationally and Australian Football Championships Pty. Ltd. was incorporated on 28 July 1978 to run a rival national night competition, in opposition to the NFL Night Series. By October 1978, The VFL were joined by the WAFL, TANFL, NSWAFL and ACTAFL in the joint venture and transferred from NFL Night Series to the AFC Night Series. However, the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

rejected the VFL's overtures, choosing to remain aligned with the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

instead. They were joined by the VFA and QAFL in a greatly-reduced NFL Series.

Qualified Teams

¹ Includes previous appearances in the

Championship of Australia The Championship of Australia was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested between football clubs from the Victoria, Australia, Victorian and South Australian football leagues for most of its history, with clubs from the West ...

and NFL Night Series.

Venues

Knockout stage

Round 1

Round 2

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Australian Football Championships Night Series Final

References

{{AFL pre-season seasons Australian rules interstate football History of Australian rules football Australian rules football competitions in Australia 1979 in Australian rules football