1971 VFL season

1971 VFL premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Hawthorn 2nd premiership
Minor premiers	Hawthorn 3rd minor premiership
Consolation series	Melbourne 1st Consolation series win
Brownlow Medallist	Ian Stewart (Richmond)
Coleman Medallist	Peter Hudson (Hawthorn)
Attendance
Matches played	136
Total attendance	3,326,436 (24,459 per match)
Highest	118,192

The 1971 VFL season was the 75th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the second time, after it defeated St Kilda by seven points in the 1971 VFL Grand Final. Hawthorn full-forward Peter Hudson kicked 150 goals for the season, equalling the all-time record set by Bob Pratt (South Melbourne) in 1934.

Background

In 1971, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1971 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	Hawthorn (P)	22	19	3	0	2460	1601	153.7	76
2	St Kilda	22	16	6	0	2176	1554	140.0	64
3	Richmond	22	16	6	0	2318	1890	122.6	64
4	Collingwood	22	14	7	1	2331	1840	126.7	58
5	Carlton	22	14	8	0	2103	2014	104.4	56
6	Fitzroy	22	12	10	0	2047	1915	106.9	48
7	Melbourne	22	11	10	1	1962	1791	109.5	46
8	Footscray	22	11	11	0	1966	2217	88.7	44
9	North Melbourne	22	5	16	1	1705	2551	66.8	22
10	Geelong	22	5	17	0	2072	2523	82.1	20
11	Essendon	22	4	17	1	1705	2252	75.7	18
12	South Melbourne	22	3	19	0	1618	2315	69.9	12

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 92.7
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Richmond	4.4	8.8	11.10	18.13 (121)
Collingwood	4.1	5.5	11.8	11.11 (77)
Attendance: : 99,771

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Hawthorn	2.7	8.12	11.16	12.18 (90)
St Kilda	1.4	4.5	7.7	12.16 (88)
Attendance: 99,822

Preliminary final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
St Kilda	1.2	6.7	11.10	16.12 (108)
Richmond	3.2	7.2	9.4	12.6 (78)
Attendance: 102,494

Grand final

Main article: 1971 VFL Grand Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Hawthorn	2.2	4.4	5.7	12.10 (82)
St Kilda	2.1	4.6	8.9	11.9 (75)
Attendance: 118,192

Consolation Night Series Competition

The consolation night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the home and away rounds.

Final: Melbourne 12.7 (79) defeated Fitzroy 9.9 (63).

Season notes

• Fitzroy winger Treva McGregor won the 1971, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 11.7 seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards.
• Bill Barrot of Richmond and Ian Stewart of St Kilda swap clubs before the start of the 1971 season. Stewart went on to win his third Brownlow Medal at Richmond, while Barrott was so dissatisfied at St Kilda's demands that he play in defence that he requested, and was given, a clearance to Carlton during the season.
• The VFL sold its Harrison House headquarters and moved to 84 Jolimont Street.
• The Round 21 match between Fitzroy and Carlton at Junction Oval was played in a thick fog with terrible visibility – so much so that goal umpires could not see each other's flags, forcing the boundary umpires to convey messages between the goal umpires for scorekeeping purposes.
• In the Grand Final, Peter Hudson could have broken Bob Pratt's season record of 150 goals except for three incidents:
  • He kicked what would have otherwise been an easy goal into the man on the mark (Barry Lawrence).
  • He kicked a goal on the run that was disallowed because the end of the quarter siren had gone before the ball hit his boot.
  • He ran into an open goal and kicked the ball out of bounds.
• The Committees of the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood decide not to renew the contracts of their respective coaches, Ron Barassi and Bob Rose.

Awards

Major awards

• The 1971 VFL Premiership team was Hawthorn.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter Hudson of Hawthorn who kicked 150 goals (including 10 goals in the finals).
• The winner of the 1971 Brownlow Medal was Ian Stewart of Richmond with 21 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1971.
• The reserves premiership was won by Richmond. Richmond 14.14 (98) defeated Essendon 8.18 (66) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September.

Leading goalkickers

• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the goalkicking at the end of that round.
• DNP = did not play in that round.

	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	SF	PF	GF	Total
1	Peter Hudson	55	49	110	717	522	325	1035	742	547	552	557	663	972	779	1291	697	9106	6112	6118	3121	9130	10140	7147		3150	150
2	Peter McKenna	44	913	316	1026	430	1040	646	753	659	564	872	173	1083	1295	6101	DNP	2103	8111	1112	8120	6126	4130	4134			134
3	Doug Wade	33	47	613	417	421	DNP	DNP	223	730	535	641	243	3 46	753	861	263	DNP	972	274	1387	390	494				94
4	Alan Davis	11	DNP	01	12	46	39	413	1023	528	533	336	541	243	346	450	353	255	257	DNP	461	263	063	DNP	669	170	70
5	Bill Ryan	33	47	411	011	213	215	419	322	729	332	032	032	335	338	038	DNP	341	647	350	757	865	267				67
6	Royce Hart	44	37	310	010	313	215	116	420	222	426	228	028	028	129	534	DNP	640	242	648	048	250	454	357	259		59
7	Alex Jesaulenko	33	DNP	69	312	214	519	DNP	DNP	120	424	125	DNP	227	DNP	532	234	741	344	347	754	155	156				56
8	Kevin Bartlett	66	17	29	413	114	317	118	422	325	328	533	235	136	137	138	139	140	141	041	445	247	249	352	153		53
9	Barry Breen	11	34	04	26	39	211	213	417	017	219	120	020	424	125	227	027	128	331	233	336	339	443	447	350	353	53
10	Barry Richardson	00	00	00	00	00	00	22	02	02	02	02	DNP	68	513	316	016	521	425	530	737	643	245	045	550		50

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

Sources

• 1971 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1971 VFL season at Australian Football