1961 VFL season

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)
← 1960 1962 →

The 1961 Victorian Football League season was the 65th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

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

1961 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Hawthorn (P)	18	14	4	0	1467	1173	125.06	56
2	Melbourne	18	12	5	1	1510	1151	131.19	50
3	St Kilda	18	11	7	0	1373	1173	117.05	44
4	Footscray	18	11	7	0	1334	1216	109.70	44
5	Fitzroy	18	10	7	1	1469	1258	116.77	42
6	Geelong	18	10	7	1	1367	1362	100.37	42
7	Essendon	18	9	8	1	1462	1335	109.51	38
8	Carlton	18	9	9	0	1279	1325	96.53	36
9	Collingwood	18	5	12	1	1166	1375	84.80	22
10	Richmond	18	5	13	0	1126	1428	78.85	20
11	South Melbourne	18	5	13	0	1187	1644	72.20	20
12	North Melbourne	18	4	13	1	1133	1433	79.06	18
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

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)

Premiership Finals

First Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
St Kilda	1.4	3.7	6.9	8.12 (60)
Footscray	3.3	7.7	9.11	9.15 (69)
Attendance: 86,411

Second Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Hawthorn	2.1	6.4	9.8	12.8 (80)
Melbourne	5.2	7.4	9.5	11.7 (73)
Attendance: 87,744

Preliminary Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Melbourne	0.2	2.5	4.6	8.10 (58)
Footscray	4.3	5.4	11.6	13.7 (85)
Attendance: 86,116

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Hawthorn	2.4	3.9	9.15	13.16 (94)
Footscray	4.2	5.5	6.6	7.9 (51)
Attendance: 107,935

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

• 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 2015) 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.
• Footscray did not make another grand final until 2016.

References

1. Rex Pullen (2 October 1961). "Saints run hot to take flag". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. 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

External links

• 1961 Season - AFL Tables