1948 VFL premiership season
Melbourne Football Club team, premiers
Teams12
PremiersMelbourne
6th premiership
Minor premiersEssendon
9th minor premiership
Brownlow MedallistBill Morris (Richmond)
Leading Goalkicker MedallistLindsay White (Geelong)
Matches played119
Highest86,198

The 1948 VFL season was the 52nd 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 9 October, and comprised a 19-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Melbourne Football Club for the sixth time, after it defeated Essendon by 39 points in the 1948 VFL Grand Final Replay.

Background

In 1948, 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 19 rounds; matches 12 to 19 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 8.

Once the 19 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1948 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Home-and-away season

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

Round 19

Ladder

(P)Premiers
Qualified for finals
# Team P W L D PF PA  % Pts
1Essendon19162118381340137.266
2Melbourne (P)19136016821347124.952
3Collingwood19136017751500118.352
4Footscray19127014991453103.248
5Richmond19117118951509125.646
6Carlton19109017681564113.040
7Fitzroy19910015291355112.836
8North Melbourne1981101328158983.632
9Geelong1971201558173789.728
10South Melbourne1971201512182682.828
11Hawthorn1951401280169075.720
12St Kilda1921701124187859.98

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 82.4
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Collingwood 3.8 6.11 12.14 17.17 (119)
Footscray 4.3 8.9 9.9 12.12 (84)
Attendance: 71,514
Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Essendon 3.2 8.9 12.12 13.16 (94)
Melbourne 3.2 4.3 8.8 8.10 (58)
Attendance: 72,394

Preliminary final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Melbourne 4.6 11.13 19.15 25.16 (166)
Collingwood 6.2 8.5 11.8 15.11 (101)
Attendance: 63,500

Grand final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Essendon 0.6 2.15 6.21 7.27 (69)
Melbourne 3.0 4.5 6.8 10.9 (69)
Attendance: 86,198

Grand final replay

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Essendon 0.3 5.5 6.6 7.8 (50)
Melbourne 6.2 9.3 11.6 13.11 (89)
Attendance:52,226

Season notes

  • All VFL matches were now scheduled to start at 2:15pm; previously it had been 2:30pm.
  • In round 7, Melbourne champion Norm Smith played his two hundredth game. He was reported for abusing the umpire; despite his claim that he had only said "don't be silly", he was suspended for four weeks.
  • After Carlton's round 11 loss at home to North Melbourne, police drew their batons to protect the umpires from Carlton fans.
  • In the round 16 match between Footscray and Geelong at the Western Oval the north wind was so fierce that when the Geelong full-back Bruce Morrison kicked the ball off after Footscray had scored a behind, the ball floated back over his head and went through the goal; the Goal umpire signalled a "forced behind". Only 1.1 (7) of the game's combined score of 18.40 (148) was scored against the wind.
  • The 1948 Grand Final was the first drawn Grand Final in VFL history. The second was the 1977 VFL Grand Final, and the third was the 2010 AFL Grand Final.

Awards

References

  1. "Geelong wins VFL seconds title". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 October 1948. p. 15.
  • 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

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