1948 VFA season

1948 VFA Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Brighton (1st premiership)
Minor premiers	Williamstown (3rd minor premiership)
← 1947 1949 →

The 1948 Victorian Football Association season was the 67th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Brighton Football Club, which defeated Williamstown by nine points in the Grand Final on 9 October. It was the first and only Division 1 premiership won by the club in its time in the Association as either Brighton or Caulfield.

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over twenty matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

1948 VFA Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	Pct	PTS
1	Williamstown	20	16	4	0	2133	1543	138.2	64
2	Brunswick	20	16	4	0	2217	1712	129.5	64
3	Brighton (P)	20	13	7	0	2313	2037	113.5	52
4	Northcote	20	12	8	0	1925	1724	111.7	48
5	Oakleigh	20	12	8	0	2167	1972	109.9	48
6	Preston	20	12	8	0	2146	1971	108.9	48
7	Camberwell	20	10	10	0	1957	2052	95.4	40
8	Sandringham	19	7	12	0	1900	2240	84.8	28
9	Coburg	19	6	13	0	1939	2128	91.1	24
10	Prahran	20	6	14	0	2005	2339	85.7	24
11	Port Melbourne	20	5	15	0	1968	2412	81.6	20
12	Yarraville	20	4	16	0	1850	2390	77.4	16
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points								Source[1]

Finals

	Semi Finals
Saturday, 18 September	Brighton 17.23 (125)	def.	Northcote 12.13 (85)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,000)	[2]
Saturday, 25 September	Williamstown 17.13 (115)	def.	Brunswick 9.20 (74)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 15,000)	[3]

	Preliminary Final
Saturday, 2 October	Brunswick 12.14 (86)	def. by	Brighton 14.16 (100)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 11,000)	[4]

	1948 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 9 October	Williamstown	def. by	Brighton	St Kilda Cricket Ground (Crowd: 18,000[5])	[6]
	4.3 (27) 7.4 (46) 9.6 (60) 13.7 (85)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	2.4 (16) 7.7 (49) 10.10 (70) 13.16 (94)	Umpires: Merrington
MacPherson 3, Redmond 3, Salvas 3, Matthews 2, Peacock, Todd		Goals	Douglas 4, Warburton 3, Burke 2, Heims 2, Adamson, McIndoe

Awards

• The leading goalkicker for the home-and-home season was Ray Potter (Preston), who kicked 84 goals in the season.^[1]
• The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Rus McIndoe (Brighton), who polled 44 votes. Jack Blackman (Preston) was second with 38 votes and Reg Shaw (Brunswick) was third with 28 votes.^[7]
• Williamstown won the seconds premiership. Williamstown 15.16 (106) defeated Oakleigh 14.18 (102) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain raiser to the firsts Grand Final on 9 October.^[6]

Notable events

• On 26 June, Sandringham 11.11 (77) defeated Coburg 9.20 (74); but, Coburg protested the result due to a timekeeping error which had resulted in the final quarter being played five minutes short. The Association quashed the result of the match, and determined that a replay should be played if the match were to have an influence on the final four. Both teams were ultimately well out of finals contention, so the replay was not held, and the teams are credited with playing only nineteen matches for the season.^[8]
• Prahran played most of its home matches at Elsternwick Park during the year, sharing the ground with Brighton, because Toorak Park was unavailable due to top-dressing after the first few weeks of the season.^[9]
• Preston missed the finals on percentage, after losing its last home-and-home match to wooden-spooner Yarraville by one point, 16.10 (106) def. by 15.17 (107).^[1]
• The 1948 VFL Grand Final was drawn, so the Association Grand Final was played on the same day as the League Grand Final Replay. The Association considered postponing its Grand Final by a week to avoid competing for the gate, but the motion was defeated 12–8.^[10]

External links

• List of VFA/VFL Premiers

References

1. Follower (13 September 1948). "Yarraville's win lets Northcote into four". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.
2. Follower (20 September 1948). "Brighton's last-term runaway". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.
3. Follower (27 September 1948). "Greater dash wins for Williamstown". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.
4. Follower (4 October 1948). "Brighton's pennant chance". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.
5. "Brighton wins first VFA premiership". The Argus. Melbourne. 11 October 1948. p. 15.
6. Follower (11 October 1948). "Courage and stamina gave Brighton win". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.
7. "Brighton rover is best and fairest in VFA". The Argus. Melbourne. 14 September 1948. p. 12.
8. "Replay in V.F.A. game if needed". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 13 July 1948. p. 12.
9. "Elsternwick Park for Prahran FC". The Argus. Melbourne. 6 March 1948. p. 24.
10. Follower (5 October 1948). "No postponement of V.F.A. Grand Final". The Age. Melbourne. p. 8.