The 1931 Victorian Football League season was the 35th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
In 1931, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th 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 1931 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system. This was the first season to feature the new finals format, with the league predominantly using variations of the Argus System over the previous thirty seasons.
Round 6 was a split round, but the two halves of the round were unusually played almost three weeks apart. Three matches played on King's Birthday Monday (8 June), and the other three matches played Saturday 27 June – the Saturday between Rounds 8 and 9. This means that six teams played their Round 7 and 8 matches before their Round 6 match.
All of the 1931 finals were played at the MCG so the home team in the Semi Finals and Preliminary Final is purely the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the Grand Final the home team was the team that won the Preliminary Final.
The 1931 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
The VFL's leading goalkicker was Harry "Soapy" Vallence of Carlton with 86 goals.
In his first VFL season, and only 20 years old, the winner of the 1931 Brownlow Medal was Haydn Bunton, Sr of Fitzroy with 26 votes.
North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1931.
The seconds premiership was won by Melbourne. Melbourne 8.13 (61) defeated Geelong 8.5 (53) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the firsts Grand Final on 10 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The VFL changed its Brownlow Medal voting procedure. The field umpire now voted for the three "fairest and best" on the ground in each match, casting 3, 2, and 1 votes. If there was a tie, the player with the most "3" votes would be declared the winner.
The VFL altered the manner in which it determined its premiership team. Abandoning the "amended Argus system" that had operated from 1902 to 1930 (except in 1924), the VFL instituted the Page-McIntyre System which, amongst other innovations, guaranteed that there would be a "Grand Final" at the end of every season (this system continued to operate until 1972).
Prior to the season, the VFL and the Grounds Management Association (which represented the operators of most of the VFL grounds) entered a dispute over the use of the grounds for football matches. The dispute covered financial arrangements and the demarcation between the football and cricket seasons. After arbitration from the Minister for Lands, it was agreed that cricket clubs would be required to pay the league £20 per 100 members, ending the long-standing practice of cricket club members receiving free admission to football games; but that the grounds management would still retain all receipts for admission to reserve areas, with the league receiving none of these takings. During the stand-off, the VFL arranged for the Motordrome and the Exhibition Oval to be available to serve as alternative venues during the year, and drew up a fixture which saw each of those grounds holding twelve games – with Fitzroy, Carlton, North Melbourne, St Kilda, Collingwood and Essendon each playing four of their nine home games at one the replacement grounds.
In round 2, Richmond set the record for highest score in a game, scoring 30.19.199 against North Melbourne. This beat South Melbourne's 1919 record by ten points, and remained unbeaten until 1969.
In round 12, Carlton rover Tommy Downs was reported for kicking Richmond captain Maurie Hunter; despite the efforts of future Australian Prime Minister R. G. Menzies, K.C., Downs was suspended for the remainder of the 1931 season and the whole of the 1932 season.
In the first Semi-Final, Carlton thrashed Collingwood 20.10 (130) to 5.12 (42). Harry "Soapy" Vallence, at full-forward for Carlton kicked a (Finals) record 11 goals, including six in the last quarter. Vallance would have had 12 goals if his last shot (the last kick in the match) had not hit the goal-post, and only counted as a "behind".
The Round 17 match between St Kilda and Collingwood was the first where both sides scored twenty goals. Both Bill Mohr and Gordon Coventry kicked eleven goals. Coventry was the first to kick ten for a losing side.
