1951 VFL season

The 1951 VFL season was the 55th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 21 April until 29 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 Geelong Football Club for the fourth time, after it defeated Essendon by eleven points in the 1951 VFL Grand Final.

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.

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 75.9
Source: AFL Tables

• 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.

• 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 was the leading goalkicker for the home-and-away season with 75 goals.
• The winner of the 1951 Brownlow Medal was Bernie Smith of Geelong with 23 votes.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1951.

• 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

• 1951 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1951 VFL season at Australian Football