1971 VFL premiership season
Teams12
PremiersHawthorn
2nd premiership
Minor premiersHawthorn
3rd minor premiership
Consolation seriesMelbourne
1st Consolation series win
Brownlow MedallistIan Stewart (Richmond)
Coleman MedallistPeter Hudson (Hawthorn)
Attendance
Matches played136
Total attendance3,326,436 (24,459 per match)
Highest118,192

The 1971 VFL season was the 75th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the second time, after it defeated St Kilda by seven points in the 1971 VFL Grand Final. Hawthorn full-forward Peter Hudson kicked 150 goals for the season, equalling the all-time record set by Bob Pratt (South Melbourne) in 1934.

Background

In 1971, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1971 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Home-and-away season

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

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

(P)Premiers
Qualified for finals
# Team P W L D PF PA  % Pts
1Hawthorn (P)22193024601601153.776
2St Kilda22166021761554140.064
3Richmond22166023181890122.664
4Collingwood22147123311840126.758
5Carlton22148021032014104.456
6Fitzroy221210020471915106.948
7Melbourne221110119621791109.546
8Footscray22111101966221788.744
9North Melbourne2251611705255166.822
10Geelong2251702072252382.120
11Essendon2241711705225275.718
12South Melbourne2231901618231569.912

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 92.7
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Richmond 4.4 8.8 11.10 18.13 (121)
Collingwood 4.1 5.5 11.8 11.11 (77)
Attendance: : 99,771
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Hawthorn 2.7 8.12 11.16 12.18 (90)
St Kilda 1.4 4.5 7.7 12.16 (88)
Attendance: 99,822

Preliminary final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
St Kilda 1.2 6.7 11.10 16.12 (108)
Richmond 3.2 7.2 9.4 12.6 (78)
Attendance: 102,494

Grand final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Hawthorn 2.2 4.4 5.7 12.10 (82)
St Kilda 2.1 4.6 8.9 11.9 (75)
Attendance: 118,192

Consolation Night Series Competition

The consolation 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 home and away rounds.

Final: Melbourne 12.7 (79) defeated Fitzroy 9.9 (63).

Season notes

  • Fitzroy winger Treva McGregor won the 1971, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 11.7 seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards.
  • Bill Barrot of Richmond and Ian Stewart of St Kilda swap clubs before the start of the 1971 season. Stewart went on to win his third Brownlow Medal at Richmond, while Barrott was so dissatisfied at St Kilda's demands that he play in defence that he requested, and was given, a clearance to Carlton during the season.
  • The VFL sold its Harrison House headquarters and moved to 84 Jolimont Street.
  • The Round 21 match between Fitzroy and Carlton at Junction Oval was played in a thick fog with terrible visibility – so much so that goal umpires could not see each other's flags, forcing the boundary umpires to convey messages between the goal umpires for scorekeeping purposes.[1]
  • In the Grand Final, Peter Hudson could have broken Bob Pratt's season record of 150 goals except for three incidents:
    • He kicked what would have otherwise been an easy goal into the man on the mark (Barry Lawrence).
    • He kicked a goal on the run that was disallowed because the end of the quarter siren had gone before the ball hit his boot.
    • He ran into an open goal and kicked the ball out of bounds.
  • The Committees of the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood decide not to renew the contracts of their respective coaches, Ron Barassi and Bob Rose.

Awards

Major awards

Leading goalkickers

  • Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the goalkicking at the end of that round.
  • DNP = did not play in that round.

References

  1. ↑ Simunovich, Peter (9 June 1982). "Swans home in fog". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne.
  2. ↑ "Tigers easily". The Age. Melbourne. 27 September 1971. p. 20.
  • 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

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