1951 VFL season

1951 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Geelong (4th premiership)
Minor premiers	Geelong (6th minor premiership)
Matches played	112
Highest attendance	85,795
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	John Coleman (Essendon)
Brownlow Medallist	Bernie Smith (Geelong)
← 1950 1952 →

The 1951 Victorian Football League season was the 55th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1951, 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 1951 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page-McIntyre System.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

1951 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Geelong (P)	18	14	4	0	1485	1097	135.37	56
2	Collingwood	18	14	4	0	1499	1193	125.65	56
3	Essendon	18	13	5	0	1530	1262	121.24	52
4	Footscray	18	12	6	0	1316	1165	112.96	48
5	Fitzroy	18	10	6	2	1373	1305	105.21	44
6	Richmond	18	10	8	0	1551	1327	116.88	40
7	Carlton	18	8	9	1	1341	1253	107.02	34
8	South Melbourne	18	8	9	1	1399	1505	92.96	34
9	North Melbourne	18	7	11	0	1224	1433	85.42	28
10	St Kilda	18	5	13	0	1311	1595	82.19	20
11	Hawthorn	18	4	14	0	1136	1515	74.98	16
12	Melbourne	18	1	17	0	1230	1745	70.49	4
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Finals

First Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Essendon	3.2	4.4	6.7	8.13 (61)
Footscray	6.1	7.1	7.5	8.5 (53)
Attendance: 66,135

Second Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	2.3	10.6	13.14	22.20 (152)
Collingwood	6.3	7.5	9.7	10.10 (70)
Attendance: 74,085

Preliminary Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	1.2	7.4	9.7	10.8 (68)
Essendon	1.2	3.3	5.7	10.10 (70)
Attendance: 73,539

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	3.8	4.10	9.13	11.15 (81)
Essendon	1.0	6.2	6.4	10.10 (70)
Attendance: 85,795

Awards

• The 1951 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was George Goninon of Geelong with 86 goals (including the finals series).
  • John Coleman of Essendon kicked 75 goals in the home-and-away season and did not play in the final series — thus, if there had been such a thing as a Coleman Medal in 1951, he would have won it.
• The winner of the 1951 Brownlow Medal was Bernie Smith of Geelong with 23 votes.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1951.

Notable events

• The maximum match payment to players permissible under the league's "Coulter Law" was increased from £4-0-0 to £5-0-0 per match.
• The VFL established the Dr. W. C. McClelland Club Trophy, which was awarded on the basis of an aggregate of the performances of all three club teams, week by week, over the entire season. A First Eighteen win was worth 10 points, a Second Eighteen win was worth 4 points, and a Third Eighteen win was worth 2 points. In the case of a drawn match the relevant points are halved.
• In the best performance by a centre half-back since "Duncan's match" in 1927, South Melbourne's centre half-back Ron Clegg took 32 marks in the drawn match against Fitzroy.
• Essendon's full-forward John Coleman was reported for striking Carlton's back-pocket Harry Caspar in the last home and away match of the season. Coleman had scored seven goals during the match. Coleman was suspended for four matches and, as a consequence, he missed the entire final series (see Harry Caspar: "the man who cost Essendon the flag").
• In a desperate effort to cover for the loss of players through suspension, illness and injury, Essendon's coach Dick Reynolds came out of retirement and played in the Grand Final as 20th man. Reynolds came on in the last quarter. He did not score any goals and, when he accidentally bumped into Keith McDonald, he prevented McDonald taking a critical mark.

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6
• 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. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

External links

• 1951 Season - AFL Tables