The 1991 Australian Football League season was the 95th season of the elite Australian rules football competition and the 2nd under the name 'Australian Football League', having switched from 'Victorian Football League' after 1989.
Foster's Cup
defeated 14.19 to 7.12 in the final.
Premiership season
The league expanded to 15 teams with the admission of the Adelaide Crows, meaning byes were required for the first time since 1943. Each team played 22 games for the season with two byes: seven teams had a bye in round 1, and one team had a bye in each subsequent round.
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
Round 23
Round 24
Finals series
Elimination finals
Qualifying final
Semi finals
Preliminary final
Grand final
Ladder
All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. An additional 7 games were played during the finals series. A team based in the state of South Australia, christened the "Adelaide Crows" after the epithet bestowed upon those from South Australia by those living in other Australian states was admitted to the AFL competition in 1991.
Match attendance
Total match attendance for the home-and-away season was 3,810,868 people. Total attendance for the finals series was 381,707 people. Attendance at the Grand Final was 75,230 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 55,735 people for the v game of Round 6.
In round 6, and kicked 32.18 in the first half. It is the only aggregate of 200 points for a half in VFL/AFL history.
In round 11, kicked its only goal through Mark Arceri 33 seconds from the end of their match with Footscray. It was the Blues' lowest score since 1904, and the closest a team has come to a goalless match since 1961.
In round 21, Essendon hosted its last senior VFL/AFL match at Windy Hill—its home venue since 1922. Essendon played its home matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the remainder of the 1990s.
did not concede more than 100 points in any game during the home-and-away season, being the first team to do this since 1967.
The qualifying final at Subiaco Oval between West Coast and Hawthorn was the first finals match played outside Melbourne since 1897, when one finals match was played in Geelong; it was the first final ever played outside Victoria.
The capacity of the Melbourne Cricket Ground was reduced by half during 1991 as the new Great Southern Stand was constructed in preparation for the 1992 Cricket World Cup, to be played there in the summer of 1991/92. One consequence of this was that Waverley Park hosted all finals that were played in Melbourne, including the grand final. The other was that Hawthorn's plans move its home games from Princes Park to Waverley Park were delayed by one year: Hawthorn had played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park in 1990 as part of transitional arrangements for a permanent move in 1991, but the AFL reneged on the deal when it became clear that the ground was needed for blockbuster games throughout the year; as a compromise, Hawthorn again played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park during 1991, and then moved permanently to Waverley Park in 1992.
By the end of the year, Hawthorn captain Michael Tuck retired from the game, having played a then-record 426 VFL/AFL matches. The record stood until passed by Brent Harvey in 2016.
