1963 VFL season

The 1963 VFL season was the 67th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 20 April until 5 October, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

1963 VFL Premiership season
Teams12
PremiersGeelong
(6th premiership)
Minor premiersHawthorn
(2nd minor premiership)
Consolation seriesFootscray
(1st Consolation series win)
Matches played112
Highest attendance101,209
Coleman MedallistJohn Peck (Hawthorn)
Brownlow MedallistBob Skilton (South Melbourne)

The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club for the sixth time, after it defeated Hawthorn by 49 points in the 1963 VFL Grand Final.

Premiership season

In 1963, 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 1963 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Alterations to 1963 match fixtures

Persistent rain throughout the week and further heavy downpours on the Friday (12 July) caused the postponement of all Round 11 matches until the following Saturday (20 July). All remaining home-and-away and finals matches were played a week later than had been scheduled.

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

Going into the final home-and-away round, Hawthorn was the only team with a guaranteed finals berth. It was down to Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and Essendon to fight it out for the remaining three play-off positions.

Ladder

1963 VFL ladder
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Hawthorn 18 13 4 1 1485 1137 130.6 54 Finals
2 Geelong (P) 18 13 4 1 1354 1056 128.2 54
3 Melbourne 18 13 5 0 1680 1136 147.9 52
4 St Kilda 18 13 5 0 1501 1071 140.1 52
5 Essendon 18 13 5 0 1470 1069 137.5 52
6 Carlton 18 10 8 0 1275 1234 103.3 40
7 North Melbourne 18 8 10 0 1059 1244 85.1 32
8 Collingwood 18 7 11 0 1365 1427 95.7 28
9 Footscray 18 7 11 0 1126 1283 87.8 28
10 Richmond 18 5 13 0 1279 1687 75.8 20
11 South Melbourne 18 4 14 0 1202 1722 69.8 16
12 Fitzroy 18 1 17 0 986 1716 57.5 4
Source: VFL ladder
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: Footscray 10.9 (69) defeated Richmond 9.9 (63)

Finals series

Week one

First Semi-final
Saturday, 14 September (2:30 pm) Melbourne 9.17 (71) def. St Kilda 8.16 (64) MCG (crowd: 88,914) Report
  • This match set new records for crowd attendance at a VFL First Semi-final and gate takings (£29,420)[1]

Week two

Second Semi-final
Saturday, 21 September (2:30 pm) Hawthorn 11.16 (82) def. by Geelong 14.17 (101) MCG (crowd: 91,471) Report

Week three

Preliminary final
Saturday, 28 September (2:30 pm) Hawthorn 11.11 (77) def. Melbourne 10.8 (68) MCG (crowd: 86,586) Report

Week four

Grand final
Saturday, 5 October (2:50 pm) Hawthorn 8.12 (60) def. by Geelong 15.19 (109) MCG (crowd: 101,209) Report

Awards

Notable events

  • In Round 5, Collingwood was the first team to score at least 100 points against Melbourne since Footscray in the 1954 Grand Final; Terry Waters kicked 7 goals in Collingwood's 15.10 (100) to 7.10 (52) victory.
  • On Saturday 15 June, South Australia beat Victoria 12.8 (80) to 10.13 (73) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 59,260 spectators. In a brutal return match, in Adelaide, a straighter-kicking Victoria beat South Australia 8.6 (54) to 5.12 (42), a match notorious for a powerful king-hit delivered by Victorian John Peck, who had been included in the team for the return match in order to provide more "grunt" and physical menace, to the jaw of an unsuspecting Brian Sawley. Sawley went some distance in the air before collapsing unconscious in the mud, and had to be carried from the field on a stretcher. Peck was reported, and at the VFL tribunal, Peck testified that the king-hit was in retaliation for Sawley having kicked him in the stomach; Peck was suspended for two weeks.
  • Fitzroy's only win during the year was against eventual premiers Geelong, and was achieved without captain-coach Kevin Murray, who was in Adelaide playing for Victoria. Reserves captain Wally Clark took over, and Geelong's weakness in terrible conditions proved their undoing.
  • Owing to extremely cold and wet weather, Round 11 was postponed from 13 to 20 July. As of 2022, this is the last time that a complete round of football has been postponed due to weather.

See also

References

  1. Atkinson & Atkinson (2009), p.261
  2. Rex Pullen (7 October 1963). "Cats too fast in Reserves". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 28.

Bibliography

  • Atkinson, Graeme; Atkinson, Brant (2009). The Complete Book of AFL Finals (4th ed.). Scoresby, Victoria: The Five Mile Press. ISBN 9781742112756.
  • 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, John, ed. (1996). 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. Ringwood, Victoria: Viking. ISBN 0-670-86814-0.
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