1953 VFL season

1953 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Collingwood (12th premiership)
Minor premiers	Geelong (8th minor premiership)
Matches played	112
Highest attendance	89,149
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	John Coleman (Essendon)
Brownlow Medallist	Bill Hutchison (Essendon)
← 1952 1954 →

The 1953 Victorian Football League season was the 57th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1953, 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 1953 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

1953 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Geelong	18	15	3	0	1546	1079	143.28	60
2	Collingwood (P)	18	14	4	0	1518	1229	123.52	56
3	Footscray	18	13	5	0	1309	959	136.50	52
4	Essendon	18	13	5	0	1529	1177	129.91	52
5	Carlton	18	10	8	0	1409	1310	107.56	40
6	Fitzroy	18	10	8	0	1208	1421	85.01	40
7	North Melbourne	18	9	9	0	1388	1287	107.85	36
8	South Melbourne	18	9	9	0	1385	1323	104.69	36
9	St Kilda	18	5	13	0	1065	1561	68.23	20
10	Richmond	18	3	14	1	1220	1501	81.28	14
11	Melbourne	18	3	14	1	1137	1420	80.07	14
12	Hawthorn	18	3	15	0	974	1421	68.54	12
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
Footscray	3.7	3.8	4.11	6.13 (49)
Essendon	1.0	3.7	4.7	5.11(41)
Attendance: 68,533

Second Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	3.1	6.4	7.12	8.12 (60)
Collingwood	2.3	5.7	7.8	13.12 (90)
Attendance: 70,292

Preliminary Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	0.6	2.7	6.10	8.15 (63)
Footscray	2.1	3.4	4.5	5.7 (37)
Attendance: 58,615

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	2.4	5.6	10.10	11.11 (77)
Geelong	2.2	3.9	5.11	8.17 (65)
Attendance: 89,149

Awards

• The 1953 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was John Coleman of Essendon who kicked 97 goals (including one goal in the finals).
• The winner of the 1953 Brownlow Medal was Bill Hutchison of Essendon with 26 votes.
• Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1953.

Notable events

• Because Anzac Day fell on a Saturday, there was a fortnight between Rounds 1 and 2. On the evening of Friday 24 April a night-time exhibition match was held between Collingwood and Fitzroy, under lights, at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds for the benefit of St Vincent's Hospital. Collingwood 9.13 (67) defeated Fitzroy 4.19 (43) before a crowd of 22,000.^[1]
• In Round 2, John Coleman kicked 11 of Essendon's 13 goals.
• In Round 5, Fitzroy came close to becoming the first (and only) VFL/AFL team to be held scoreless in their match against Footscray at the Western Oval, which was played amidst heavy rain and a burst water main. Allan Ruthven managed their only scoring shot, a goal, with about six minutes remaining in the match.^[2]
• In a streak dating back to 1952, Geelong won 23 consecutive matches, and played 26 consecutive matches without defeat; as of 2014, both of these remain VFL/AFL records. The winning streak ended in Round 14, when Collingwood defeated Geelong by 20 points.
• Overall it was a low-scoring season: Footscray's 959 points against remains the lowest average points conceded per game since 1919; the season's highest score of 21.10 (136) was the lowest since 1924; and, for the first time since 1927, there was no match where both teams scored more than 100 points.
• The Collingwood Grand Final team contained three sets of brothers: Lou Richards and Ron Richards; Bob Rose and Bill Rose; Bill Twomey, Jr., Pat Twomey, and Mick Twomey.
• Collingwood supporter and businessman John Wren suffered a heart attack at the 1953 Grand Final and died one month later.

References

1. Hugh Buggy (25 April 1953). "Magpies rout Maroons in third quarter". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. p. 30.
2. Hugh Buggy (25 May 1953). "One goal debacle nears record". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. p. 12.

• 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

• 1953 Season - AFL Tables
• Ken Piesse, "Stray Cat lifts lid on Grand Final dumping", (Sunday Herald Sun, 23 September 2007)