1954 VFL season

1954 VFL premiership season
Footscray team, premiers
Teams	12
Premiers	Footscray 1st premiership
Minor premiers	Geelong 9th minor premiership
Brownlow Medallist	Roy Wright (Richmond)
Leading goalkicker medallist	Jack Collins (Footscray)
Matches played	112
Highest	80,897

The 1954 VFL season was the 58th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 17 April until 25 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club for the first time, after it defeated Melbourne by 51 points in the 1954 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1954, 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 1954 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
	Qualified for finals

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Geelong	18	13	5	0	1630	1225	133.1	52
2	Footscray (P)	18	11	6	1	1423	1095	130.0	46
3	North Melbourne	18	11	6	1	1355	1361	99.6	46
4	Melbourne	18	11	7	0	1504	1239	121.4	44
5	Richmond	18	10	8	0	1503	1310	114.7	40
6	Essendon	18	10	8	0	1471	1364	107.8	40
7	Collingwood	18	10	8	0	1312	1301	100.8	40
8	Carlton	18	8	10	0	1382	1391	99.4	32
9	Hawthorn	18	8	10	0	1177	1337	88.0	32
10	South Melbourne	18	6	12	0	1209	1482	81.6	24
11	Fitzroy	18	4	13	1	1174	1604	73.2	18
12	St Kilda	18	4	13	1	1149	1580	72.7	18

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 75.4
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

	First semi-final
Saturday, 4 September 2:30pm	North Melbourne	def. by	Melbourne	MCG (crowd: 42,166)
	3.4 (22) 5.7 (37) 7.12 (54) 11.14 (80)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	1.4 (10) 4.7 (31) 9.11 (65) 16.14 (110)	Umpires: Barbour
Templar 5 Aylett 3 Brooker, Grambeau, Spencer 1		Goals	6 Clarke 3 Albiston, Case 1 Barassi, Collins, Johnson, McKenzie
Brady, Marchesi, Lawrence, Templar, Brooker		Best	McGivern, Clarke, Case, Williams, Marquis, Beckwith, Arnold, Barassi

	Second semi-final
Saturday, 11 September 2:30pm	Geelong	def. by	Footscray	MCG (crowd: 64,686)
	4.5 (29) 4.8 (32) 7.10 (52) 8.14 (63)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	3.1 (19) 7.7 (49) 7.10 (52) 11.19 (85)	Umpires: Robinson
Goninon 2 Sharp, Flanagan, Palmer, Trezise, Davis, McMahon 1		Goals	4 Collins 2 Kerr, Stevens 1 Duffy, Edwards, Gilmore
Hovey, Williams, Smith, Davis, Pianto		Best	Stevens, Whitten, Box, Kerr, Ross

Preliminary final

	Preliminary Final
Saturday, 18 September 2:30pm	Geelong	def. by	Melbourne	MCG (crowd: 51,985)
	2.3 (15) 4.3 (27) 5.6 (36) 7.8 (50)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	1.1 (7) 3.3 (21) 7.5 (47) 10.7 (67)	Umpires: Jamieson
Wiltshire 2 Pianto, Goninon, Davis, Turner, Trezise 1		Goals	3 Clarke, Albiston 1 Barassi, Laidlaw, Johnson, Spencer
Pianto, Smith, Middlemiss, Williams, Turner, Sharp		Best	Cordner, Melville, Case, Williams, McLean, Albiston
Williams (cramp)		Injuries

Grand final

Main article: 1954 VFL Grand Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Footscray	6.3	8.5	12.9	15.12 (102)
Melbourne	1.4	4.6	6.7	7.9 (51)

Season notes

• Despite winning the 'wooden spoon', St Kilda defeated both Grand Final teams during the home and away rounds.
• North Melbourne are renamed "The Kangaroos" from "The Shinboners".
• In round 8, Essendon champion full-forward John Coleman sustained a career-ending knee injury (he left the field having scored 42 goals in five and a half matches). With two other players also injured, Essendon finished the match with 17 men.
• A group of Fitzroy players and supporters, who were offered a series of side bets at 10/1, back Fitzroy. Fitzroy produces a shock result, beating Collingwood 12.9 (81) to 6.13 (49), and the punters collect around £2,000 (approx. $40,000 in 2007).
• An injured Charlie Sutton (he had not played in the second semi-final) is picked in Footscray's Grand-Final team. Although not playing in his usual back-pocket position, he plays reasonably well in the forward-pocket, and kicks three goals.

Awards

• The 1954 VFL Premiership team was Footscray. This was the first premiership won by Footscray since it entered the VFL in 1925, and their last until 2016.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Jack Collins of Footscray who kicked 84 goals (including 11 goals in the final series).
• The winner of the 1954 Brownlow Medal was Roy Wright of Richmond with 29 votes (he had missed one match through illness, but still won the medal by 10 votes).
• St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1954.

References

• Hogan, P., The Tigers of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• 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

Sources

• 1954 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1954 VFL season at Australian Football