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
Brownlow Medallist	John James (Carlton)
Coleman Medallist	Tom Carroll (Carlton)
Matches played	112
Highest	107,935

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.

Background

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.

Home-and-away season

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
	Qualified for finals

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Hawthorn (P)	18	14	4	0	1467	1173	125.1	56
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. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 73.5
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

	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

	Second semi-final
SF2: Saturday, 9 September (2:30 pm)	Hawthorn 12.8 (80)	def.	Melbourne 11.7 (73)	MCG (crowd: 87,744)	Report

Preliminary final

	Preliminary final
Saturday, 16 September (2:30 pm)	Melbourne 8.10 (58)	def. by	Footscray 13.7 (85)	MCG (crowd: 86,118)	Report
Footscray qualified for their second VFL Grand Final and stopped Melbourne from playing what would have been their eighth consecutive grand final.

Grand final

Main article: 1961 VFL Grand Final

	Grand Final
Saturday, 23 September (2:50 pm)	Hawthorn 13.16 (94)	def.	Footscray 7.9 (51)	MCG (crowd: 107,935)	Report
This was the first appearance in a grand final for Hawthorn. This was the first grand final in league history which did not feature any of the VFL's foundation clubs. Hawthorn won its maiden VFL/AFL premiership.

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)

Season notes

• 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 2023) 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.

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.

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

Sources

• 1961 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1961 VFL season at Australian Football