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1961 VFL season

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Highest attendance
  
107,935

Brownlow Medallist
  
John James (Carlton)

Teams
  
12

Coleman Medallist
  
Tom Carroll (Carlton)

Start date
  
1961

Matches played
  
112

Premiers
  
Hawthorn (1st premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Hawthorn (1st minor premiership)

Consolation series
  
Geelong (1st Consolation series win)

People also search for
  
1954 VFL season, 1960 VFL season, 1963 VFL season

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

Contents

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.

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)

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.

    • 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

    1961 VFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA