The 1990 AFL season was the 94th season of the Australian Football League (AFL) and the first under this name, having been known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. It was the highest level senior Australian rules football competition and administrative body in Victoria; and, as it featured clubs from New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, it was the de facto highest level senior competition in Australia. The season featured fourteen clubs, ran from 31 March until 6 October, 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 Collingwood Football Club for the 14th time, after it defeated Essendon by 48 points in the 1990 AFL Grand Final.

Club leadership

Foster's Cup

Essendon defeated North Melbourne 17.10 (112) to 10.16 (76) in the final.

Home-and-away season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

• The St Kilda-Essendon game was the only one in which all 4 Daniher brothers (Anthony, Terry, Neale, and Chris) played in the same match.

Ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 100.1
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

• The Victorian Football League (VFL) was renamed and re-badged, with a new logo), as the Australian Football League in 1990.
• VFL Park was re-designated as Waverley Park, although it took about two or three years for football commentators and sporting editors to relinquish the usage of the old name for the ground.
• Prior to the season, it was announced that Fitzroy and Footscray – both in serious financial difficulty – would be merging to form a single club known as the Fitzroy Bulldogs, which was to have commenced in the AFL in 1990. Less than three weeks after the announcement, a successful grass-roots campaign by Footscray supporters restored their club to a position of financial viability, and the merger was cancelled.^[4]
• Five minutes into the third quarter of the Round 1 game between Geelong and Hawthorn, the Cats led the Hawks 10.6 (66) to 9.11 (65): Hawthorn then outscored Geelong 19.13 (127) to 1.5 (11) in the rest of the game to win by 115 points.^[5]
• Under the AFL rules at the time, the drawn qualifying final between Collingwood and West Coast was replayed on the following weekend. This meant that minor premier Essendon was given a second consecutive bye week, giving them three weeks between games: Essendon ultimately reached the Grand Final through the preliminary final, but they were soundly beaten in both the second Semi-final and Grand Final, to which many laid partial blame upon the extended layoff. Additionally, the one-week delay caused scheduling issues for venues and hotels, as a large number of league and corporate events related to the finals, and particularly in the week of the Grand Final, had to be rescheduled: the extent of this was unprecedented, as the number and scale of such events had increased significantly since the last drawn early weeks finals match, the 1972 Second Semi-final.^[6] The AFL introduced the provision to play extra time in drawn finals matches, except the Grand Final, in future years to prevent any repeat of these logistical problems, with extra time being implemented in the Grand Final in 2016.
• The Port Adelaide Football Club from the South Australian National Football League made a bid to join the AFL; the application was rejected, with a composite SANFL team, christened the "Adelaide Crows", being admitted to the AFL competition in the 1991 season. Port Adelaide would ultimately enter the competition in 1997.
• The Brisbane-Melbourne game in round 5 was the 10,000th VFL/AFL match.
• North Melbourne won the Under 19's premiership. North Melbourne 16.12 (108) defeated Melbourne 5.14 (44) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the reserves grand final on 6 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• Carlton won the reserves premiership. Carlton 14.14 (98) defeated Melbourne 11.15 (81) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors grand final on 6 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[7]

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Tony Liberatore of Footscray.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to John Longmire of North Melbourne.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Tony Shaw of Collingwood
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Darren Millane of Collingwood
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Brisbane
• The Under 19's Grand Final was won by North Melbourne against Melbourne
• The Reserves Grand Final was won by Carlton against Melbourne
• The Seniors Grand Final was won by Collingwood against Essendon