The 1962 VFL season was the 66th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 21 April until 29 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
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.
The night series was 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.
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.
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.[1]
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;[2] it did request that the Fitzroy Cricket Club install new sirens at the other end of the field, but the request was rejected.[3]
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 five 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.
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.[4]
References
↑Kevin Hogan (26 April 1962). "Another dent for side's pride". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p.46.
↑Rex Pullen (2 July 1962). "That "late" win – no protest". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p.34.
↑"Lions fail to get sirens". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 7 July 1962. p.43.
↑"Bulldogs subdue St Kilda's dash". The Age. Melbourne. 24 September 1962. p.18.
Hogan, P., The Tigers of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN0-646-18748-1
Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN0-9591740-2-8
Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN0-670-90809-6
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. ISBN0-670-86814-0
Ross, J. (ed.), The Australian Football Hall of Fame, HarperCollinsPublishers, (Pymble), 1999. ISBN0-7322-6426-X
Known as the Victorian Football League from 1897–1989; no grand finals were held in 1897 and 1924
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