1971 VFL season

The 1971 VFL season was the 75th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

1971 VFL Premiership season
Teams12
PremiersHawthorn
(2nd premiership)
Minor premiersHawthorn
(3rd minor premiership)
Consolation seriesMelbourne
(1st Consolation series win)
Matches played136
Attendance3,326,436 (24,459 per match)
Highest attendance118,192
Coleman MedallistPeter Hudson (Hawthorn)
Brownlow MedallistIan Stewart (Richmond)

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the second time, after it defeated St Kilda by seven points in the 1971 VFL Grand Final. Hawthorn full-forward Peter Hudson kicked 150 goals for the season, equalling the all-time record set by Bob Pratt (South Melbourne) in 1934.

Premiership season

In 1971, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man. A player could be substituted for any reason; however, once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances.

Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1971 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

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

Ladder
1971 VFL ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Hawthorn (P) 22 19 3 0 2460 1601 153.7 76 Finals
2 St Kilda 22 16 6 0 2176 1554 140.0 64
3 Richmond 22 16 6 0 2318 1890 122.6 64
4 Collingwood 22 14 7 1 2331 1840 126.7 58
5 Carlton 22 14 8 0 2103 2014 104.4 56
6 Fitzroy 22 12 10 0 2047 1915 106.9 48
7 Melbourne 22 11 10 1 1962 1791 109.5 46
8 Footscray 22 11 11 0 1966 2217 88.7 44
9 North Melbourne 22 5 16 1 1705 2551 66.8 22
10 Geelong 22 5 17 0 2072 2523 82.1 20
11 Essendon 22 4 17 1 1705 2252 75.7 18
12 South Melbourne 22 3 19 0 1618 2315 69.9 12
Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Consolation Night Series Competition

The consolation night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the home and away rounds.

Final: Melbourne 12.7 (79) defeated Fitzroy 9.9 (63).

Premiership Finals

First Semi-Final
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Richmond 4.4 8.8 11.10 18.13 (121)
Collingwood 4.1 5.5 11.8 11.11 (77)
Attendance: : 99,771

Second Semi-Final
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Hawthorn 2.7 8.12 11.16 12.18 (90)
St Kilda 1.4 4.5 7.7 12.16 (88)
Attendance: 99,822

Preliminary Final
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
St Kilda 1.2 6.7 11.10 16.12 (108)
Richmond 3.2 7.2 9.4 12.6 (78)
Attendance: 102,494

Grand final
Main article: 1971 VFL Grand Final
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Hawthorn 2.2 4.4 5.7 12.10 (82)
St Kilda 2.1 4.6 8.9 11.9 (75)
Attendance: 118,192

Awards

Notable events
  • Fitzroy winger Trevor McGregor won the 1971, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 11.7 seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards.
  • Bill Barrot of Richmond and Ian Stewart of St Kilda swap clubs before the start of the 1971 season. Stewart went on to win his third Brownlow Medal at Richmond, while Barrott was so dissatisfied at St Kilda's demands that he play in defence that he requested, and was given, a clearance to Carlton during the season.
  • The VFL sold its Harrison House headquarters and moved to 84 Jolimont Street.
  • The Round 21 match between Fitzroy and Carlton at Junction Oval was played in a thick fog with terrible visibility – so much so that goal umpires could not see each other's flags, forcing the boundary umpires to convey messages between the goal umpires for scorekeeping purposes.[2]
  • In the Grand Final, Peter Hudson could have broken Bob Pratt's season record of 150 goals except for three incidents:
    • He kicked what would have otherwise been an easy goal into the man on the mark (Barry Lawrence).
    • He kicked a goal on the run that was disallowed because the end of the quarter siren had gone before the ball hit his boot.
    • He ran into an open goal and kicked the ball out of bounds.
  • The Committees of the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood decide not to renew the contracts of their respective coaches, Ron Barassi and Bob Rose.

References
  1. "Tigers easily". The Age. Melbourne. 27 September 1971. p. 20.
  2. Simunovich, Peter (9 June 1982). "Swans home in fog". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne.
  • Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
  • Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6
  • Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.