Night Grand Finals

In 1956 the VFL introduced a post-season competition for the teams that did not make the final four. The matches were played in a knockout competition format, under lights, at the Lake Oval, South Melb. The competition ran until 1971 when the following years introduction of the final five made it impractical. Matches counted towards an umpire's (and player's) career match total.

From 1965 the competition attracted companies who sponsored it: Golden Fleece (1965-69), Radiant (1970), Heinz (1971).

The VFL Night Series recommenced in 1977 and since then has evolved from a competition played during the season, mainly on week nights, to a competition played in the pre-season, mainly on weekends and not neccessaril;y at night!

Initially involving only VFL clubs, over the seasons non-VFL clubs took part and, with the inception of the AFL competition, it was limited to those AFL teams.

Variously called the Amoco/Herald Australian Football Championships(1977-78), Escort Championships (1979-82), Sterling Cup (1983-84), CUB Cup (1985-86), Channel Seven Cup (1986) National-Panasonic Cup (1987-88) Panasonic Cup (1989), Fosters Cup (1990-94), Ansett Australia Cup (1995-2001), the Wizard Home Loans Cup (2002-2005) and, mostrecently, The NAB Cup (2006-2010).

Matches have counted towards an umpire's VFL match total only in the years 1977-1979 but do count for field umpires towards AFL 200 Club and AFL Life Membership.

During the period from 1994 umpiring crew configurations changed regularly as experiments were trialled in the pre-season cup.

The third field umpire was added in 1993 and was so successful that it was immediately incorporated into the season proper. The following year a third boundary umpire was added. The boundary umpires would interchange at each break.

2003 saw the introduction of a fourth field umpire who rotated off the bench. That year boundary umpires began interchanging mid-quarter to spread the load more evenly.

A change in the laws governing bringing the ball back into play following a behind led to an increase in goal umpires from two to four in 2003 - two at each end.

The last two seasons have seen four boundary umpires on the ground at once to cater for speedier throw-ins and 2006 saw a reduction of goal umpires back to two in anticipation of a new kick-in law that would be used in the season proper - without additional goal umpires. Goal umpires did rotate quarter by quarter in an attempt to give each umpire as much exposure as possible to the new law prior to the premiership season.