1970 VFL finals series

1970 premiership season
Date	5–28 September 2019
Teams	4
Premiers	Carlton (12th premiership)
Runners-up	Collingwood (1st grand final)
Minor premiers	Collingwood (14th minor premiership)
Attendance
Matches played	4
Total attendance	446,988 (111,747 per match)
Highest	121,696 (Grand Final, Collingwood vs. Carlton)
←  1969 1971  →

The 1970 Victorian Football League finals series was the 74th annual edition of the VFL/AFL final series, the Australian rules football tournament staged to determine the winner of the 1970 VFL Premiership season. The series ran over four weekends in September 1970, culminating with the 1970 VFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26 September 1970.

Qualification

See also: 1970 VFL season

The top four teams on the ladder at the end of the home-and-away rounds of the 1970 VFL Premiership season qualified for the finals series. It was the first season in which featured 22 home-and-away rounds, meaning that each club played all the others twice.

Venues

All the finals matches were hosted at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and for the second straight year, official crowd attendances at each finals match exceeded 100,000 spectators. Although VFL Park had hosted its first VFL match in April 1970, the stadium's construction was not yet complete and all finals remained contracted to the Melbourne Cricket Ground until at least 1971, and so the new would not host its first VFL final until 1972. ^[1]

Matches

See also: McIntyre system

The system used for the 1970 VFL finals series was the Page–McIntyre system, also known as the McIntyre final four system, which had been used by the VFL since 1931. The first- and second-placed teams would contest the second semi-final, while the third- and fourth-placed teams would contest the first semi-final. The loser of the first semi-final would be eliminated, while the winner would advance to the preliminary final, while the loser of the second semi-final would receive a "double chance" in the preliminary final, and the winner would advance directly to the grand final. The winner of the preliminary final would then play off in the grand final, and the loser would be eliminated.

Week one: First Semi-final (St Kilda v South Melbourne)

Teams

The First Semi-final saw third-placed St Kilda play fourth-placed South Melbourne at the MCG. South Melbourne was competing in its first VFL finals series since 1945 and were the sentimental favourite, while the Saints were competing in their seventh finals series in the last ten seasons, and still had a number of their stars from the 1966 premiership triumph. Interestingly, this was the first time the two clubs had met in a VFL final, despite being foundation members of the VFL. It was a special occasion for Swans captain Bob Skilton, who had returned to action after missing the whole of 1969 due to a snapped Achilles – he was playing his first final in his 218th game, which at the time set the record for the longest wait for any VFL/AFL player before playing in a final.

St Kilda

South Melbourne

St Kilda B: 12 Gary Colling 06 Bob Murray 16 Jon Lilley HB: 29 Neil Besanko 18 Kevin Neale 25 Daryl Griffiths C: 26 John Manzie 15 Jeff Moran 07 Stuart Trott HF: 32 Stephen Rae 09 John McIntosh 17 Barry Breen F: 23 Stephen Theodore 13 Barry Lawrence 10 Carl Ditterich Foll: 02 Brian Mynott 20 Travis Payze 03 Ross Smith Res: 21 Bob Pascoe 35 Geoff Ward Coach: Allan Jeans

South Melbourne B: 15 Graeme Jacobs 05 John Rantall 33 Greg Lambert HB: 21 John Pitura 08 Tony Haenen 27 Reg Gleeson C: 04 Keith Baskin 10 Wayne Walsh 29 David McLeish HF: 11 Peter Bedford 17 Russell Cook 07 Gary Brice F: 26 Steven Hoffman 20 John Sudholz 31 Stuart Bennett Foll: 30 Fred Way 06 John Murphy 14 Bob Skilton (c) Res: 25 Haydn McAuliffe 37 Richard Luke Coach: Norm Smith

Match summary

Bigger, more experienced, cooler in the crises, St Kilda ended the fairytale VFL season of South Melbourne and Bobby Skilton at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. A hundred and four thousand people welcomed Skilton on to the ground with a tremendous roar. The vast majority cheered for his men throughout the match, but it was not enough. Fifteen great minutes in the second quarter saw South Melbourne grab the lead at half-time. For the rest of the match it was just a case of a fine smaller team pitting determination against a slightly more gifted and appreciably bigger team with even more discipline. In the end, height, weight and discipline told, and St Kilda won comfortably by 53 points. ^[2]

Scorecard

	First Semi-final
Saturday, 5 September (2:30pm)	St Kilda	def.	South Melbourne	MCG (crowd: 104,239)	Report
	6.1 (37) 9.3 (57) 14.8 (92)  22.11 (143)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	2.5 (17) 9.8 (62) 10.10 (70)  13.12 (90)	Umpires: Sleeth Television broadcast: Seven Network
Rae 4 Payze, Mynott, Ditterich 3 Theodore, Smith, Lawrence, Breen 2 McIntosh 1		Goals	4 Hoffman 3 Bedford, Sudholz 2 Cook 1 Skilton
Smith, Colling, Payze, Mynott, Ditterich, Lilley, Manzie, Breen		Best	Hoffman, Brice, Bedford, Walsh, Murphy, Pitura, Skilton, Haenen, Cook
Griffiths (concussion / broken nose)		Injuries	Nil
Nil		Reports	Baskin (striking)

Week two: Second Semi-final (Collingwood v Carlton)

The Second Semi-final saw Collingwood play Carlton at the MCG. This was the 14th meeting between the two clubs in finals, having previously met in the 1969 Second Semi-final. Carlton had won nine of the encounters, including the last six meetings.

Match summary

Collingwood, the hottest VFL favourite in a decade, won its way into the 1970 grand final on Saturday, but three players almost confounded its expectations. Collingwood had a far more even team, won the ball more often, outmarked its opponents by 77 to 51 yet lost the lead in every quarter and got home by only 10 points. Amid the tension bordering on delirium which always accompanies a Collingwood-Carlton finals clash, the lead changed 10 times before the biggest semi-final crowd in history. ^[3]

Scorecard

	Second Semi-final
Saturday, 12 September (2:30pm)	Collingwood	def.	Carlton	MCG (crowd: 112,838)	Report
	5.2 (32) 9.7 (61) 12.11 (83)  17.16 (118)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	5.0 (30) 9.2 (56) 14.3 (87)  17.6 (108)	Umpires: Crouch Television broadcast: Seven Network
McKenna 9 Thompson 4 Tuddenham, Waters, Dunne, M Richardson 1		Goals	8 Jesaulenko 2 Thornley, Hopkins 1 Gallagher, Hall, Walls, Crosswell, Jackson
Selwood, Guthrie, Ratugolea, Hawkins, Tuohy, Menegola		Best	Gaff, Hurn, Darling, Naitanui, Yeo, Jetta
Nil		Injuries	Nil
Adamson (striking)		Reports	Jackson (striking)

Week three: Preliminary final (Carlton v St Kilda)

The Preliminary final saw Carlton play St Kilda at the MCG on Saturday, 19 September. This was the fourth final between the two clubs, having previously met in the finals in 1907, 1908 and 1929, with Carlton winning all three encounters.

Match summary

In what was predicted to be a close match, Carlton blew away St Kilda in the second half. In what turned out to be a chilling premonition, esteemed veteran journalist Rohan Rivett wrote the following in his article covering the game for the Canberra Times :

As Collingwood's coach, Bob Rose, watched Carlton's weak links of the previous week becoming bastions of strength, he must have wondered if once again his hopes of a Collingwood premiership will be dashed at the eleventh hour. ^[4]

.

Scorecard

	Preliminary final
Saturday, 19 September (7:50pm)	Carlton	def.	St Kilda	MCG (crowd: 108,215)	Report
	2.6 (18) 6.12 (48) 13.16 (94)  17.21 (123)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	1.4 (10) 4.12 (36) 6.16 (52)  7.19 (61)	Umpires: Jolley Television broadcast: Seven Network
Jackson 6 Jesaulenko, Jones 4 Walls 2 Nicholls 1		Goals	2 McIntosh, Breen 1 Lawrence, Mynott, Payze
Crosswell, Jackson, Nicholls, Gallagher, Jesaulenko, Jones, Robertson, Crane		Best	Smith, Breen, Mynott, McIntosh, Trott, Moran, Manzie, Rae
Graham (shoulder), Broad (concussion)		Injuries	Nil
Nil		Reports	Nil

Week four (Grand Final)

Main article: 1970 VFL Grand Final

This marked the fourth meeting in a VFL Grand final between Carlton and Collingwood.

	Grand final
26 September (2:30 pm)	Collingwood	def. by	Carlton	MCG (crowd: 121,696)	Report
	4.8 (32) 10.13 (73) 13.16 (94)  14.17 (101)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	0.3 (3) 4.5 (29) 12.5 (77)  17.9 (111)	Umpires: Jolley Television broadcast: Seven Network
McKenna 6 4:Martin 2: Lynch 1: Rioli, Pickett, Lambert, Soldo, Bolton, Cotchin		Goals	4 Hopkins 3 Jesaulenko, Hopper, Himmelberg
Martin, Riewoldt, Prestia, Pickett, Edwards, Vlastuin, Houli		Best	Taranto, Shaw, Haynes, Hopper, Williams
Nil		Injuries	Nil
Nil		Reports	Nil

References

1. "VFL finals". The Canberra Times. Canberra, ACT. 5 November 1971. p. 18.
2. Rivett, Rohan (7 September 1970). "Size, experience win for St. Kilda". The Canberra Times . Vol. 45, no. 12, 690. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. p. 10. Retrieved 24 July 2021– via National Library of Australia.
3. Rivett, Rohan (14 September 1970). "Teamwork gives Collingwood victory". The Canberra Times . Vol. 45, no. 12, 696. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. p. 12. Retrieved 26 July 2021– via National Library of Australia.
4. Rivett, Rohan (21 September 1970). "Carlton swamps St Kilda". The Canberra Times . Vol. 45, no. 12, 702. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. p. 10. Retrieved 26 July 2021– via National Library of Australia.

Bibliography

• Atkinson, Graeme; Atkinson, Brant (2009). The Complete Book of AFL Finals (4th ed.). Scoresby, Victoria: The Five Mile Press. ISBN   9781742112756.
• Dowsing, Jeff (2015). Collingwood's 50 Most Sensational Games (ePUB). ISBN   9781458168610.

External links

• Sports portal
• Australia portal

• AFL finals series official website