1983 VFL Grand Final with the Bombers winning the 1984 VFL Grand Final and 1985 VFL Grand Final. 1983 VFL Grand Final The 1983 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 1983. It was the 87th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1983 VFL season. The match, attended by 110,332 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 83 points, marking that club's fifth premiership victory. It was Essendon's first Grand
Southport Australian Football Club club applied for entry into the Queensland Australian Football League in July 1981. Twelve months later, the Queensland Australian Football League officially accepted Southport's entry application for the 1983 season. In their last game as part of the Gold Coast Football League, the Southport Magpies fell in the Grand Final to Coolangatta by 28 points. The disappointment of the Grand Final loss was short lived as the rebranding from the Southport Magpies to the Southport Sharks began. The strip was changed to a black V on a white background to avoid an identity conflict with the Sherwood Magpies, who later