1962 VFL season

1962 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Essendon (11th premiership)
Minor premiers	Essendon (11th minor premiership)
Consolation series	Richmond (1st Consolation series win)
Matches played	113
Highest attendance	99,203
Coleman Medallist	Doug Wade (Geelong)
Brownlow Medallist	Alistair Lord (Geelong)
← 1961 1963 →

The 1962 Victorian Football League season was the 66th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1962, 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 1962 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

1962 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Essendon (P)	18	16	2	0	1574	1207	130.41	64
2	Geelong	18	14	4	0	1690	1213	139.32	56
3	Melbourne	18	14	4	0	1374	1092	125.82	56
4	Carlton	18	13	5	0	1361	1205	112.95	52
5	Footscray	18	11	7	0	1390	1281	108.51	44
6	St Kilda	18	9	9	0	1379	1267	108.84	36
7	Collingwood	18	9	9	0	1365	1386	98.48	36
8	Richmond	18	5	13	0	1308	1446	90.46	20
9	Hawthorn	18	5	13	0	1307	1510	86.56	20
10	Fitzroy	18	5	13	0	1222	1529	79.92	20
11	North Melbourne	18	4	14	0	1152	1575	73.14	16
12	South Melbourne	18	3	15	0	1193	1604	74.38	12
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: Richmond 8.16 (64) defeated Hawthorn 9.6 (60)

Premiership Finals

First Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Melbourne	2.4	6.4	11.9	11.10 (76)
Carlton	2.3	6.5	9.7	11.12 (78)
Attendance: 82,773

Second Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Essendon	3.3	7.6	10.13	14.21 (105)
Geelong	2.8	6.13	7.15	7.17 (59)
Attendance: 95,393

Preliminary Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	4.2	7.4	9.5	13.7 (85)
Carlton	3.3	4.4	8.9	12.13 (85)
Attendance: 87,824

Preliminary Final Replay

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	3.2	5.9	7.12	10.13 (73)
Carlton	1.4	5.8	9.9	10.18 (78)
Attendance: 99,203

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Essendon	6.5	7.7	10.10	13.12 (90)
Carlton	1.1	5.6	7.8	8.10 (58)
Attendance: 98,385

Awards

• The 1962 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Doug Wade of Geelong who kicked 68 goals (including 6 goals in the final series).
• The winner of the 1962 Brownlow Medal was Alistair Lord of Geelong with 28 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1962.
• The reserves premiership was won by Footscray. Footscray 13.13 (91) defeated St Kilda 10.8 (68) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Preliminary Final Replay at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 22 September.^[1]

Notable events

• Having abandoned live telecasts of the last quarters of VFL matches at the end of 1960, and having forbidden Saturday evening replays during the 1961 season, the VFL agreed to allow television stations to broadcast one hour of replays each Saturday evening, provided no more than 30 minutes of any one match was broadcast. A separate arrangement was made to allow a replay of the entire Grand Final match.
• St Kilda won its first match against Collingwood at Victoria Park since Round 2, 1919.
• On Anzac Day, a representative match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between the Victorian team from the 1961 Brisbane Carnival, and a team representing the rest of the league. The Rest 13.7 (85) defeated the Carnival team 10.17 (77) in front of a crowd of 17,068.^[2]
• In the Round 10 match between Carlton and Fitzroy at the Brunswick Street Oval, scores were level at 51 apiece when the final siren sounded; but, play was at the opposite end of the venue to the grandstand where the siren was located, and the umpire did not hear it. From the ensuing ball-up, Carlton's Martin Cross punched the ball through for a rushed behind, and Carlton won by that point. Fitzroy did not protest the result;^[3] it did request that the Fitzroy Cricket Club install new sirens at the other end of the field, but the request was rejected.^[4]
• In September, the VFL purchased land to the east of Melbourne, at Mulgrave, upon which later built VFL Park.
• The Preliminary Final replay between Carlton and Geelong was by Carlton won by 5 points. In the final moments of the match, Geelong full forward Doug Wade took a strong mark directly in front of the Geelong goals, but he was penalised for interfering with Carlton full-back Peter Barry.
• In the Grand Final, a badly injured Geoff Leek played one of the best matches in his career to nullify Carlton's John Nicholls and pave the way for a sound 32 point win by Essendon.

References

1. "Bulldogs subdue St Kilda's dash". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 24 September 1962. p. 18.
2. Kevin Hogan (26 April 1962). "Another dent for side's pride". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 46.
3. Rex Pullen (2 July 1962). "That "late" win – no protest". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 34.
4. "Lions fail to get sirens". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. 7 July 1962. p. 43.

• Hogan, P., The Tigers Of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• 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
• Ross, J. (ed.), The Australian Football Hall of Fame, HarperCollinsPublishers, (Pymble), 1999. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X

External links

• 1962 Season - AFL Tables