• This season saw the introduction of two new interstate sides: the West Coast Eagles, based in
Perth, Western Australia, and the Brisbane Bears, based in
Gold Coast, Queensland. They were the first new clubs to join the league since the expansion of
1925, and the first time the league changed from twelve teams since
1943. The clubs were admitted to the league in a meeting on 1 October 1986, with West Coast admitted by an 8–4 majority of the twelve clubs, and Brisbane admitted unanimously. The two new clubs each paid a
$A4 million licence fee which was divided equally amongst the existing twelve clubs, many of whom were in desperate need of such a cash injection. • When the
Seven Network refused to offer a significant increase on its previous deal – which the VFL thought was warranted, given the broader audience that interstate expansion would bring – the VFL sold the television rights to on-seller Broadcom, who sold them to the
ABC and satellite network Sportsplay. The deals lasted one year, and Seven purchased the exclusive rights back from Broadcom in 1988 at almost double the 1986 rate. Free-to-air broadcasts, alongside the nationally aired games on ABC (and all locally broadcast games via ABV in Victoria), were split on state lines with Seven retaining broadcasts for Western Australia via TVW-7, the games were broadcast as well on
SBS Television and
The Prime Network (New South Wales) and on
Network 10 (Queensland and South Australia). • The Round 10 match between West Coast and Collingwood was played on the Foundation Day public holiday, which is not observed in Victoria. • In awful conditions in Round 13, Collingwood kicked only 2.6 (18), the lowest score by any team since 1968.
Brian Taylor kicked their only goals in the first few minutes of the second quarter. • In three home games from Round 16 to Round 18, the
Sydney Swans amassed the most prolific string of high scores in VFL history, scoring a total of 97.53 (635). Their individual scores were: 30.21 (201) against West Coast, winning by 130 points; 36.20 (236) against Essendon, winning by 163 points; and 31.12 (198) against Richmond, winning by 91 points. • The VFL made a loss on the Round 17 match between and , which drew a meagre crowd of only 5,824 to
Princes Park, despite being one of only three matches in Melbourne that weekend. The league had considered rescheduling the match as the first half of a double-header with one of the other two senior matches that weekend to reduce overall operating expenses, but contracts already in place precluded double-headers from being staged. • Melbourne ended the third-longest finals drought in league history (twenty-two seasons) by finishing fifth, making the finals for the first time since
1964. • The Under-19s Grand Final, in which 13.16 (94) defeated 13.11 (89), ended in controversy when the final siren was alleged to have been blown early. The timekeeper, who was independent of the clubs, was alleged to have blown the siren after only two minutes of
time on; but there had been five goals kicked in the final quarter, which would usually have been expected to result in four or five minutes of time on. Richmond lodged a complaint against the timekeeper, but did not protest the result or seek a replay of the match. ==Awards==