| 1979 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Carlton 12th premiership |
| Minor premiers | Carlton 14th minor premiership |
| Night series | Collingwood 1st Night series win |
| Brownlow Medallist | Peter Moore (Collingwood) |
| Coleman Medallist | Kelvin Templeton (Footscray) |
| Attendance | |
| Matches played | 138 |
| Total attendance | 3,574,281 (25,901 per match) |
| Highest | 113,545 |
The 1979 VFL season was the 83rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 31 March until 29 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the twelfth time, after it defeated Collingwood by five points in the 1979 VFL Grand Final.
The season saw the beginning of the league's expansion into the interstate and Sunday television markets, with two Sunday matches played in Sydney, New South Wales.
Collingwood defeated Hawthorn 12.8 (80) to 7.10 (52) in the final.
Despite being formally a part of Round 3, the Essendon vs Carlton match was played as a stand-alone match on the Saturday before Round 1, and was therefore the opening match of the season.
| Round 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 25 April (2:10 pm) | Hawthorn 29.15 (189) | def. | South Melbourne 15.5 (95) | VFL Park (crowd: 37,276) | Report |
| Wednesday, 25 April (2:10 pm) | Melbourne 16.23 (119) | def. | Richmond 15.19 (109) | MCG (crowd: 44,708) | Report |
| Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm) | Fitzroy 11.16 (82) | def. by | Carlton 20.19 (139) | Junction Oval (crowd: 21,577) | Report |
| Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm) | Collingwood 31.21 (207) | def. | St Kilda 3.11 (29) | Victoria Park (crowd: 29,380) | Report |
| Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm) | Footscray 20.8 (128) | drew with | Essendon 19.14 (128) | Western Oval (crowd: 26,981) | Report |
| Saturday, 28 April (2:10 pm) | Geelong 10.13 (73) | def. by | North Melbourne 19.9 (123) | Kardinia Park (crowd: 21,353) | Report |
| |||||
Fitzroy's 190 point winning margin is the biggest in AFL/VFL history
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlton (P) | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 2772 | 1986 | 139.6 | 76 | Finals |
| 2 | North Melbourne | 22 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 2574 | 2083 | 123.6 | 68 | |
| 3 | Collingwood | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2501 | 1974 | 126.7 | 60 | |
| 4 | Fitzroy | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2699 | 2198 | 122.8 | 60 | |
| 5 | Essendon | 22 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2236 | 2127 | 105.1 | 50 | |
| 6 | Geelong | 22 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2149 | 2140 | 100.4 | 48 | |
| 7 | Hawthorn | 22 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 2332 | 2336 | 99.8 | 40 | |
| 8 | Richmond | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2451 | 2512 | 97.6 | 36 | |
| 9 | Footscray | 22 | 7 | 14 | 1 | 2015 | 2463 | 81.8 | 30 | |
| 10 | South Melbourne | 22 | 6 | 16 | 0 | 2424 | 2666 | 90.9 | 24 | |
| 11 | Melbourne | 22 | 6 | 16 | 0 | 2093 | 2759 | 75.9 | 24 | |
| 12 | St Kilda | 22 | 3 | 19 | 0 | 1857 | 2859 | 65.0 | 12 |
|
Main article: 1979 VFL Grand Final |
Carlton defeated Collingwood 11.16 (82) to 11.11 (77), in front of a crowd of 113,545 people at the MCG.