1987 VFA season
| 1987 VFA Premiership Season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 22 |
| Division 1 | |
| Teams | 10 |
| Premiers |
Springvale (1st premiership) |
| Minor premiers |
Port Melbourne (14th minor premiership) |
| Division 2 | |
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers |
Prahran (2nd D2 premiership) |
| Minor premiers |
Werribee (1st D2 minor premiership) |
|
← 1986
1988 →
|
|
The 1987 Victorian Football Association season was the 106th season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the 27th season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Springvale Football Club, after it defeated Port Melbourne in the Grand Final on 20 September by 38 points; it was Springvale's first Division 1 premiership, won in just its fourth season in the first division. The Division 2 premiership was won by Prahran; it was the club's second Division 2 premiership, and the last premiership ever won by the club in either division.
The 1987 season was tumultuous on and off the field, with three separate clubs – Moorabbin, Geelong West and Caulfield – suspended from the Association at different times during the year.
In mid-1986, the Association organised the Football Organisation Review Team (FORT), which was tasked with reviewing the medium and long term structure of the Association and how it would fit within the wider Victorian football landscape. The FORT comprised: Association president and former Brunswick president Brook Andersen; former Association and Brunswick president Cr Alex Gillon; North Melbourne CEO and former National Football League consultant John Adams; with consultation from state Minister for Sports and Recreation and former Geelong player Neil Trezise MLA. The FORT was given carte blanche to review how best to structure the Association into the future.
The Association, particularly its weakest clubs, had been in decline for about a decade, struggling with the Victorian Football League entering the Sunday football market, rising costs, loss of television coverage, reduced access to former League players, and demographic shifts in former heartland municipalities. The Association had been working since 1980 to improve its overall viability, having discussed various affiliation models with the League in 1980, and undergone restructures of the divisional system in both 1982 and 1984, but about half of the Association's clubs were still struggling and long-term viability was a concern to the Association executive.
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