1971 VFA season

1971 VFA premiership season
Division 1
Teams10
PremiersDandenong
2nd premiership
Minor premiersPreston
3rd minor premiership
Division 2
Teams10
PremiersSunshine
1st D2 premiership
Minor premiersCaulfield
1st D2 minor premiership
← 1970
1972 →

The 1971 Victorian Football Association season was the 90th season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the eleventh season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Dandenong Football Club, after it defeated Preston in the Grand Final on 26 September by six points, and after a formal protest by Preston against the result of the Grand Final was dismissed on 29 September; it was Dandenong's second Division 1 premiership. The Division 2 premiership was won by Sunshine; it was the club's first and only premiership in either division in its time in the Association, and came in its ninth consecutive appearance in the Division 2 finals.

Division 1

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The Division 1 home-and-home season was played over 18 rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system. The finals were played at the St Kilda Cricket Ground.

Ladder

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1971 VFA Division 1 Ladder
TEAM P W L D PF PA Pct PTS
1 Preston 18 13 4 1 1943 1608 120.8 54
2 Dandenong (P) 18 12 6 0 2067 1668 123.9 48
3 Oakleigh 18 12 6 0 2110 1939 108.8 48
4 Sandringham 18 10 8 0 1852 1821 101.7 40
5 Prahran 18 8 9 1 1768 1897 93.2 34
6 Port Melbourne 18 8 10 0 1788 1855 96.6 32
7 Coburg 18 7 11 0 1781 1810 98.3 28
8 Waverley 18 7 11 0 1694 1948 86.9 28
9 Williamstown 18 6 12 0 1812 2000 90.6 24
10 Geelong West 18 6 12 0 1833 2101 87.2 24
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points Source[1]

Finals

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Semi-finals
Sunday, 5 September Oakleigh 15.17 (107) def. by Sandringham 21.7 (133) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,000) [2]
Sunday, 12 September Preston 11.15 (81) def. by Dandenong 24.11 (155) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,500) [3]
Preliminary Final
Sunday, 19 September Preston 17.17 (119) def. Sandringham 14.21 (105) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,000) [4]

Grand Final

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Main article: 1971 VFA Grand Final

Dandenong defeated Preston in the Grand Final by six points. However, following the match, Preston formally protested the result, on the grounds that umpire Jim McMaster had paid a free kick to Dandenong full-forward Jim Miller, from which a goal was scored, before the opening bounce was executed and therefore before the game had officially begun – which Preston contended made the free kick invalid and the resultant goal void.[5] Preston's protest was heard by the Board of Management on the evening of Wednesday 29 September, and was dismissed by an overwhelming majority, formally confirming Dandenong as premiers.[6]


1971 VFA Division 1 Grand Final
Sunday, 26 September Dandenong def. Preston St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 14,529) [7]
7.8 (50)
10.8 (68)
12.12 (84)
14.14 (98) 		Q1
Q2
Q3
Final 		3.4 (22)
8.6 (54)
9.9 (63)
13.14 (92) 		Umpires: Jim McMaster
Miller 5, Ellis 2, Flaherty 2, Orchard 2, Evans, Hibbert, Reid Goals Saltmarsh 4, Telford 2, Allen, Ashmead, Dickson, Goad, Ireland, McCarthy, Martin
Lyall Henriksen, for striking Greg Goad in the third quarter
Jim Miller, for striking Bert Thornley in the third quarter 		Reports Robert Ireland, for striking Lyall Henriksen in the third quarter
  • Preston unsuccessfully protested to have the result amended to a 92–92 draw.

Awards

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  • The leading goalkicker for the home-and-away season was Bob Johnson (Oakleigh), who kicked 87 goals; Jim Miller (Dandenong) was second with 84 goals.[8] For the completed season including finals, Miller was the leading goalkicker for the fourth consecutive season with 99 goals; Johnson was second with 91 goals.[2][3][7]
  • The J. J. Liston Trophy was won for the second time in three seasons by Laurie Hill (Preston), who polled 29 votes. Vin Crowe (Prahran) was second with 27 votes, and Maurie Gale (Coburg) finished third with 26 votes.[9]
  • Oakleigh won the seconds premiership. Oakleigh 7.20 (62) defeated Port Melbourne 8.7 (55) in the Grand Final,[4] played as a stand-alone match on Saturday 18 September at Skinner Reserve.[3]

Division 2

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The Division 2 home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system; all finals were played on Sundays at Toorak Park.

Ladder

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1971 VFA Division 2 Ladder
TEAM P W L D PF PA Pct PTS
1 Caulfield 18 15 3 0 2388 1495 159.7 60
2 Sunshine (P) 18 15 3 0 2383 1578 151.0 60
3 Yarraville 18 14 4 0 2262 1735 130.3 56
4 Brunswick 18 10 8 0 1900 1730 109.8 40
5 Box Hill 18 8 10 0 2002 1845 108.5 32
6 Northcote 18 7 11 0 1760 1931 91.1 28
7 Camberwell 18 6 11 1 1479 2000 73.9 20
8 Mordialloc 18 6 12 0 1557 2106 73.9 24
9 Frankston 18 5 12 1 1872 2390 78.3 22
10 Werribee 18 3 15 0 1421 2217 64.0 12
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points Source[10]

Finals

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Semi-finals
Sunday, 22 August Yarraville 14.15 (99) def. by Brunswick 18.20 (128) Toorak Park (crowd: 6,000) [11]
Sunday, 29 August Caulfield 10.12 (72) def. by Sunshine 13.24 (102) Toorak Park [12]
Preliminary Final
Sunday, 5 September Caulfield 18.17 (125) def. by Brunswick 19.13 (127) Toorak Park (crowd: 6,500) [2]


1971 VFA Division 2 Grand Final
Sunday, 12 September Sunshine def. Brunswick Toorak Park (crowd: 10,000) [3]
7.3 (45)
11.13 (79)
15.17 (107)
22.26 (158) 		Q1
Q2
Q3
Final 		6.4 (40)
8.6 (54)
13.8 (86)
16.8 (104) 		Umpires: Anderson
Darul 5, Ferguson 5, Benson 2, Crawford 2, Wagland 2, Bean, Brown, Chadwick, Goold, Nicholson, Prior Goals Cook 4, Ogston 3, Schimmelbusch 3, Allan 2, Dalton, Dimattina, Horsington, Nivan
Chadwick (concussion) Injuries Egan (leg), Horsington (leg)

Awards

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  • The leading goalkicker for Division 2 was Greg Barnett (Box Hill), who kicked 69 goals in the home-and-away season and did not participate in finals.[10]
  • The J. J. Field Medal was won by Rodney Evans (Camberwell), who polled 45 votes. Evans finished ahead of Graeme Cliff (Caulfield), who finished second with 39 votes, and Ian McOrist (Northcote), who finished third with 31 votes.[13]
  • Brunswick won the seconds premiership. Brunswick 15.15 (105) defeated Box Hill 14.9 (93) in the Grand Final,[2] held as a stand-alone match on Saturday 4 September at Skinner Reserve.[1]

Notable events

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  • On Sunday 21 March, late in the first quarter of a pre-season practice match between Sunshine and Benalla in Benalla, Sunshine full-forward George Allen suddenly collapsed and died on the field. He had crashed heavily to the ground on his side in a marking contest a few minutes earlier, but had returned to full forward and shown no ill-effects from the contest until his collapse. The match was called off after Allen's death.[14] Allen was 22 years old, and had been the Division 2 leading goalkicker in each of the previous two seasons.[15]
  • Frankston played its first home Sunday matches this season, becoming the last of the twenty clubs to begin doing so.[16]
  • On Sunday 4 July, Oakleigh 26.4 (160) defeated Port Melbourne 11.20 (86); it was such a wide disparity in goal-kicking accuracy that Port Melbourne lost by 74 points despite having one more scoring shot than Oakleigh.[17]
  • Prahran dropped three players from its team for its final round match against Geelong West for disciplinary reasons. Among them was Liston Trophy runner-up Vin Crowe, denying him the opportunity to score the winning votes in the final round; Crowe had led the count by four votes after Round 17, but Laurie Hill polled six votes in the last game to pass him and claim the award.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Association details". The Age. Melbourne. 30 August 1971. p. 21.
  2. ^ a b c d Terry O'Halloran (6 September 1971). "Sandringham lays claim for VFA flag". The Age. Melbourne. p. 21.
  3. ^ a b c d Terry O'Halloran (13 September 1971). "Dandenong's great day". The Age. Melbourne. p. 21.
  4. ^ a b Terry O'Halloran (20 September 1971). "Kicking costly for Zebras". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  5. ^ O'Halloran, Terry (27 September 1971), "When did the match start?", The Age, Melbourne, p. 22
  6. ^ "No replay", The Sun News-Pictorial, Melbourne, p. 68, 30 September 1971
  7. ^ a b O'Halloran, Terry (27 September 1971), "Dandenong in dicey Grand Final win", The Age, Melbourne, p. 21
  8. ^ Terry O'Halloran (30 August 1971). "Roosters win, but relegated". The Age. Melbourne. p. 21.
  9. ^ a b Terry O'Halloran; Peter McFarline (2 September 1971). "Second Liston to Laurie Hill". The Age. Melbourne. p. 26.
  10. ^ a b Terry O'Halloran (16 August 1971). "Siren saves the Bullants". The Age. Melbourne. p. 23.
  11. ^ Terry O'Halloran (23 August 1971). "Zebras hold on". The Age. Melbourne. p. 21.
  12. ^ Terry O'Halloran (30 August 1971). "Sunshine in Div. Two Grand Final". The Age. Melbourne. p. 21.
  13. ^ Terry O'Halloran (19 August 1971). "Trophy to Rod Evans". The Age. Melbourne. p. 24.
  14. ^ Jack Chigwidden (24 March 1971). "Trip ended in tragedy". The Sunshine–St. Albans Advocate. p. 38.
  15. ^ "Vale George Allen". The Sunshine–St. Albans Advocate. 24 March 1971. p. 38.
  16. ^ Fiddian, Marc (2004), The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995, p. 40
  17. ^ Murray Hubbard (5 July 1971). "Big Bob kicks 11 goals". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 46.
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