1978 NFL Championship Series (Australia)

1978 NFL Championship Series

NFL Escort Cup
Tournament details
Dates	25 April – 25 July 1978
Teams	16
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	South Adelaide (1st title)
Runners-up	Glenelg
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Attendance	52,529 (3,502 per match)

The 1978 NFL Championship Series was the third edition of the NFL Night Series, an NFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the SANFL, the WANFL, the VFA and State Representative Teams.

The 1978 NFL edition continued on a similar basis to the previous season with the VFL again running their own Night Series at VFL Park. However, the first signs of a breakaway appeared with the Tasmanian Representative Side choosing to participate in both the NFL and VFL competitions – making them the first non-VFL team to play in the VFL Night Series.

Qualified teams

Team	Nickname	League	Qualification	Participation (bold indicates winners)1
Port Adelaide	Magpies	SANFL	Winners of the 1977 South Australian National Football League	7th (Previous: 1890, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1976, 1977)
Glenelg	Tigers	SANFL	Runners-Up in the 1977 South Australian National Football League	4th (Previous: 1973, 1976, 1977)
West Adelaide	Bloods	SANFL	Third Place in the 1977 South Australian National Football League	5th (Previous: 1908, 1909, 1911, 1977)
South Adelaide	Panthers	SANFL	Fourth Place in the 1977 South Australian National Football League	4th (Previous: 1893, 1896, 1977)
Norwood	Redlegs	SANFL	Fifth Place in the 1977 South Australian National Football League	6th (Previous: 1888, 1907, 1975, 1976, 1977)
Perth	Demons	WANFL	Winners of the 1977 Western Australian National Football League	2nd (Previous: 1977)
East Fremantle	Sharks	WANFL	Runners-Up in the 1977 Western Australian National Football League	3rd (Previous: 1974, 1977)
West Perth	Falcons	WANFL	Third Place in the 1977 Western Australian National Football League	4th (Previous: 1975, 1976, 1977)
East Perth	Royals	WANFL	Fourth Place in the 1977 Western Australian National Football League	2nd (Previous: 1972, 1977)
Port Melbourne	Boroughs	VFA	Winners of the 1977 Victorian Football Association Premiership	2nd (Previous: 1977)
Sandringham	Zebras	VFA	Runners-Up in the 1977 Victorian Football Association Premiership	1st
Coburg	Lions	VFA	Third Place in the 1977 Victorian Football Association Premiership	1st
Australian Capital Territory	Rams	ACTAFL	State Representative Team	2nd (Previous: 1977)
New South Wales	Blues	NSWAFL	State Representative Team	2nd (Previous: 1977)
Queensland	Maroons	QAFL	State Representative Team	2nd (Previous: 1977)
Tasmania	Devils	TANFL	State Representative Team	3rd (Previous: 1974, 1977)

¹ Includes previous appearances in the Championship of Australia.

Venues

Adelaide	Melbourne	Perth	Brisbane
Norwood Oval	Lake Oval	Subiaco Oval	Brisbane Cricket Ground
Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 53,000	Capacity: 35,000

Knockout stage

Round 1

25 April 1978	Perth	94-76	West Adelaide	Subiaco Oval, Perth
	14.10 (94)		11.10 (76)	Attendance: 4,678

2 May 1978	Norwood	138-87	East Fremantle	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	21.12 (138)		13.9 (87)	Attendance: 4,500 (estimate)

7 May 1978	Queensland	105-83	Tasmania	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane
	16.9 (105)		12.11 (83)	Attendance: 10,000

9 May 1978	Port Melbourne	92-46	New South Wales	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	12.20 (92)		7.4 (46)	Attendance: 3,682

16 May 1978	South Adelaide	87-56	Port Adelaide	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	12.15 (87)		7.14 (56)	Attendance: 2,000 (estimate)

23 May 1978	Sandringham	82-78	Australian Capital Territory	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	12.10 (82)		12.6 (78)	Attendance: 2,680

30 May 1978	Glenelg	71-69	West Perth	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	10.11 (71)		10.9 (69)	Attendance: 1,500 (estimate)

6 June 1978	Coburg	71-49	East Perth	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	10.11 (71)		7.7 (49)	Attendance: 1,280

Quarter-finals

QF #1 13 June 1978	Perth	106-93	Norwood	Subiaco Oval, Perth
	16.10 (106)		14.9 (93)	Attendance: 2,209

QF #2 20 June 1978	Port Melbourne	96-60	Queensland	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	13.18 (96)		9.6 (60)	Attendance: 3,000

QF #3 27 June 1978	Glenelg	101-84	Coburg	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	15.11 (101)		13.6 (84)	Attendance: 2,500 (estimate)

QF #4 4 July 1978	Sandringham	35-94	South Adelaide	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	5.5 (35)		14.10 (94)	Attendance: 1,000

Semi-finals

SF #1 11 July 1978	Glenelg	92-70	Perth	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	13.14 (92)		10.10 (70)	Attendance: 2,500 (estimate)

SF #2 18 July 1978	Port Melbourne	63-68	South Adelaide	Lake Oval, Melbourne
	9.9 (63)		9.14 (68)	Attendance: 2,000

NFL Championship Series final

Final 25 July 1978	South Adelaide	63-26	Glenelg	Norwood Oval, Adelaide
	3.0 (18) 4.2 (26) 5.3 (33) 9.9 (63)		1.3 (9) 2.6 (18) 2.7 (19) 3.8 (26)	Attendance: 9,000 Umpires: Peter Mead
		Goals
	Ruscuklic, Hateley, Lyons 2 Harradine, Keam, Schneebichler 1		Rady, McFarlane, Cornes 1