NFL Night Series The top two Association clubs from 1977 –
Prahran and
Preston – were invited to participate in the
NFL Night Series, known this year as the Escort Cup. Neither club progressed to the night portion of the series, both eliminated in the first round by their SANFL opponents in a double-header played at
Preston City Oval on Anzac Day: • Prahran lost to
Port Adelaide by 45 points • Preston lost to
Central District by eight points It was the final NFL Night series, as it was entirely superseded by the rival AFC Night Series in 1980, in which the Association clubs were not invited to compete.
Interleague matches The Association played an interleague representative match against
Queensland for the third consecutive season; it was the Association's first home representative match on an Association ground since 1965. The team was coached by
Mick Erwin (
Prahran). • On 24 June,
Frankston 26.19 (175) defeated
Preston 25.18 (168) in an extremely high scoring game. • On 4 July,
Preston was found guilty of having fielded an unregistered player, Greg Marshall, in matches early in the season; Marshall's Form 3A had not been completed when he played in two senior matches and three seconds matches at the start of the season. The two senior matches in which Marshall had illegally played were an eight-point win against
Caulfield and a draw against
Port Melbourne; as a result of the revelations, the win and four points from each match were awarded to Preston's opponent. The penalty saw Port Melbourne reach the finals at Preston's expense: had the original results stood,
ceteris paribus, Preston and Port Melbourne would have finished fourth and fifth respectively with 38 points each, Preston having the higher percentage. • In the final round of Division 2 home-and-away matches,
Sunshine back-pocket Denis Strybosch was reported for the unusual misconduct charge of indecently exposing himself to an umpire. The incident occurred late in the final quarter of Sunshine's 119-point loss to
Yarraville: Later in the evening of Strybosch's hearing, his Sunshine team-mate Brian Morley, who had been cleared of his own misconduct charge earlier in the night and had allegedly been drinking in the hours since, abused and threatened Torney as he left VFA House. Morley returned to face the honorary commission on August 28, and was initially suspended for the entire 1980 season; but this was increased to a life suspension after he threw an ashtray at the chairman of the honorary commission. == See also ==