1961 VFL season
The 1961 VFL season was the 65th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 15 April until 23 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
| 1961 VFL Premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Hawthorn (1st premiership) |
| Minor premiers | Hawthorn (1st minor premiership) |
| Consolation series | Geelong (1st Consolation series win) |
| Matches played | 112 |
| Highest attendance | 107,935 |
| Coleman Medallist | Tom Carroll (Carlton) |
| Brownlow Medallist | John James (Carlton) |
The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the first time, after it defeated Footscray by 43 points in the 1961 VFL Grand Final.
Premiership season
In 1961, 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 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1961 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
Ladder
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawthorn (P) | 18 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1467 | 1173 | 125.1 | 56 | Finals |
| 2 | Melbourne | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 1510 | 1151 | 131.2 | 50 | |
| 3 | St Kilda | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1373 | 1173 | 117.1 | 44 | |
| 4 | Footscray | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1334 | 1216 | 109.7 | 44 | |
| 5 | Fitzroy | 18 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1469 | 1258 | 116.8 | 42 | |
| 6 | Geelong | 18 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1367 | 1362 | 100.4 | 42 | |
| 7 | Essendon | 18 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 1462 | 1335 | 109.5 | 38 | |
| 8 | Carlton | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 1279 | 1325 | 96.5 | 36 | |
| 9 | Collingwood | 18 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 1166 | 1375 | 84.8 | 22 | |
| 10 | Richmond | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1126 | 1428 | 78.9 | 20 | |
| 11 | South Melbourne | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1187 | 1644 | 72.2 | 20 | |
| 12 | North Melbourne | 18 | 4 | 13 | 1 | 1133 | 1433 | 79.1 | 18 |
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers
Consolation Night Series Competition
The 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 season.
Final: Geelong 9.20 (74) defeated North Melbourne 9.8 (62)
Finals series
The 1961 VFL finals series was contested under the Page-McIntyre System, which had been used since 1931.
Week one
| First Semi-final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF1: Saturday, 2 September (2:30 pm) | St Kilda 8.12 (60) | def. by | Footscray 9.15 (69) | MCG (crowd: 86,411) | Report |
Week two
| Second Semi-final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF2: Saturday, 9 September (2:30 pm) | Hawthorn 12.8 (80) | def. | Melbourne 11.7 (73) | MCG (crowd: 87,744) | Report |
Week three
| Preliminary final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 16 September (2:30 pm) | Melbourne 8.10 (58) | def. by | Footscray 13.7 (85) | MCG (crowd: 86,118) | Report |
Week four
| Grand final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 23 September (2:50 pm) | Hawthorn 13.16 (94) | def. | Footscray 7.9 (51) | MCG (crowd: 107,935) | Report |
| |||||
Awards
- The 1961 VFL Premiership team was Hawthorn.
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Tom Carroll of Carlton who kicked 54 goals.
- The winner of the 1961 Brownlow Medal was John James of Carlton with 21 votes.
- North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1961.
- The reserves premiership was won by St Kilda. St Kilda 7.14 (56) defeated Geelong 5.16 (46) in the Grand Final, which was held as a stand-alone match on 30 September because the second semi-final was drawn and required a replay; the match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 15,242.[1]
Notable events
- St Kilda ended a twenty-two year finals appearance drought making the finals for the first time since 1939. This currently stands as the fourth longest finals appearance drought in league history.
- Following a VFL investigation of a complaint that game officials had not reported the incident, rugged South Melbourne ruckman Ken Boyd was suspended for 12 matches, for striking Carlton ruckman John Nicholls.
- In Round 16, Richmond was held goalless by St Kilda. This was the first time a team had been held goalless in a match since Round 11, 1921; and (as of 2021) is the last time it has occurred.
- Having decided to abandon its (1957–1960) experiment of allowing live telecasts of the last quarter of three VFL matches each Saturday afternoon on ABV-2, HSV-7, and GTV-9, the VFL rejected offers from the three television stations to broadcast replays on Saturday evenings. A separate arrangement was made to allow a replay of the entire Grand Final match.
- In November, Collingwood announced that it has delisted sixteen players from its 1961 playing list, including Ian Brewer and Barry "Hooker" Harrison.
References
- Rex Pullen (2 October 1961). "Saints run hot to take flag". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 39.
- 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