1946 VFL season

The 1946 VFL season was the 50th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria.

1946 VFL Premiership season
Essendon Football Club team, premiers
Teams12
PremiersEssendon
(8th premiership)
Minor premiersEssendon
(8th minor premiership)
Matches played119
Highest attendance77,370
Leading Goalkicker MedallistDes Fothergill (Collingwood)
Brownlow MedallistDon Cordner (Melbourne)

The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 20 April until 5 October, and comprised a 19-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs. The league's thirds/under-19s competition played its inaugural season.

The premiership was won by the Essendon Football Club for the eighth time, after it defeated Melbourne by 63 points in the 1946 VFL Grand Final.

Premiership season

In 1946, 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 19 rounds; matches 12 to 19 were the "home-and-away reverse" of matches 1 to 8.

The determination of the 1946 season's fixtures were complicated by the fact that both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Lake Oval were still unavailable and, because of this, Melbourne shared the Punt Road Oval with Richmond as their home ground, and South Melbourne shared the Junction Oval with St Kilda as their home ground. Melbourne resumed using the Melbourne Cricket Ground as its home ground in round 17.

Once the 19 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1946 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

Ladder
1946 VFL ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Essendon (P) 19 15 4 0 1980 1407 140.7 60 Finals
2 Collingwood 19 13 6 0 1849 1477 125.2 52
3 Footscray 19 13 6 0 1917 1628 117.8 52
4 Melbourne 19 13 6 0 1700 1622 104.8 52
5 Richmond 19 11 8 0 1921 1659 115.8 44
6 Carlton 19 11 8 0 1724 1688 102.1 44
7 South Melbourne 19 10 9 0 1627 1528 106.5 40
8 Fitzroy 19 9 10 0 1589 1339 118.7 36
9 North Melbourne 19 8 11 0 1536 1685 91.2 32
10 Geelong 19 4 15 0 1505 2124 70.9 16
11 St Kilda 19 4 15 0 1332 1902 70.0 16
12 Hawthorn 19 3 16 0 1487 2108 70.5 12
Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final
Main article: 1946 VFL Grand Final

Essendon defeated Melbourne 22.18 (150) to 13.9 (87), in front of a crowd of 72,743 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

Notable events
  • The ANFC introduced a second substitute player, known as the 20th man; this meant that a team was now composed of 18 "run on" players, and two "reserves" on the bench. A player could be substituted for any reason (not just if he was injured and unable to continue). Once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances. As with the 19th man, the 20th man was paid a match fee only in the event that he took the field.
  • The ANFC rejected a joint proposal from New South Wales and Tasmania to introduce an "order off" rule for foul play.
  • The VFL introduced a new Under-19 competition; the teams are referred to as the Third Eighteens.
  • The VFL resumes the Brownlow Medal award.
  • In Round 1, 33-year-old former champion full-forward Bob Pratt returned to South Melbourne after playing for VFA club Coburg (1940–1941) and serving in the Royal Australian Air Force (1942–1945). He kicked two goals before badly injuring a leg, and never played again.
  • In Round 2, North Melbourne won its first ever VFL away match against Richmond, having lost the previous 15 meetings.
  • From ninth position on the ladder at the end of Round 8, Melbourne won 13 of its next 14 matches and play in the Grand Final.
  • At half time in the closely contested Grand Final, a straighter-kicking Melbourne 10.4 (64) was three points in front of Essendon 9.7 (61); in the third quarter Essendon kicked 11.8 (74) to Melbourne's 1.1 (7).

Notes
  1. "Rough play in seconds final:Richmond win". The Argus. Melbourne. 30 September 1946. p. 16.
  2. "Junior football". The Sporting Globe. Melbourne. 21 September 1946. p. 3.

References
  • 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
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