Played concurrently with the premiership season, the Night Series was contested among twelve clubs from the VFL, SANFL and WANFL invited based on their finishing positions from the previous year.
[2][3] The VFL successfully ran their own rival Night Series in 1977-78 and in July 1978 announced the establishment of a proprietary limited company named Australian Football Championships Pty Ltd to run the 1979 Night Series, and offered shareholdings to the other state leagues in an attempt to lure other states into the competition.
The size of the competition was reduced from 1982, and thereafter only the top two or three teams from the SANFL and WAFL and the winner of the minor states' annual carnival were invited.
Swan Districts received a two-year ban from Night Series competition in 1982[7] after sending a team of colts and reserves players instead of his senior line-up to avoid disrupting his premiership season preparations;[8] the young squad lost to Richmond by a record margin of 186 points.
Other than some of the early qualification round matches, games were played under floodlights at VFL Park on Tuesday nights, and were broadcast on television in colour.
The best performance by a non-VFL club was reaching the semi-finals, achieved three times: East Perth 1979, Claremont 1980 and North Adelaide 1986.