1960 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1960


imagesize =
caption =
teams = 12
premiers = AFL Mel
count =
minor premiers = AFL Mel
mpcount =
matches =
top goal scorer = Ron Evans (AFL Ess)
brownlow medalist = John Schultz (AFL Foo)Results and statistics for the VFL/AFL season of 1960.

Premiership season

In 1960, 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 1960 VFL "Premiers" were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".

Alterations to 1960 match fixtures

Round 1 of the 1960 competition was a split round, with 3 matches on Easter Saturday (16 April) and three matches on Easter Monday (18 April).

Round 2 of the competition was also a split round, with four matches scheduled for the Saturday (23 April) and two for the Monday (ANZAC Day, 25 April). The four Saturday matches were postponed because of the extremely wet conditions.

Despite pressure from the Victorian Premier, Henry Bolte, the VFL refused to play the four postponed matches on ANZAC Day (which, by custom, would have contributed to "patriotic funds"), and scheduled the postponed matches for the following Saturday (30 April). As a consequence of this delay all of the season's matches from round 3 to the Grand Final were actually played a week later than had been originally scheduled.

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

Ladder

Preliminary Final

Umpire - Jack Irving

Awards

* The 1960 VFL Premiership team was Melbourne.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Ron Evans of Essendon who kicked 67 goals.
* The winner of the 1960 Brownlow Medal was John Schultz of Footscray with 20 votes.
* Richmond took the "wooden spoon" in 1960.

Notable Events

* The entire season is plagued by bad weather; this is reflected in the overall low scores of the full-forwards: Ron Evans (Essendon) 67 goals in 18 games, Leo Brereton (Carlton) 44 goals in 18 games, Max Oaten (South Melbourne) 39 goals in 18 games, Ian Ridley (Melbourne) 38 goals in 20 games, John Dugdale (North Melbourne) 38 goals in 13 games, Bill Young (St Kilda) 37 goals in 16 games, Ray Baxter (Footscray) 37 goals in 15 games, and John Peck (Hawthorn) 29 goals in 18 games.
* John Kennedy takes over as coach of Hawthorn. The flamboyant Hawthorn centreman, Brendan Edwards, at the time a physical education teacher at the junior school of the nearby Swinburne Technical College, introduces circuit training.
* In the round 3 match between Hawthorn and Footscray at Glenferrie Oval, Footscray defeats Hawthorn 6.17 (53) to 6.9 (45). The match was so affected by the strong wind conditions and, especially, the negative play of the Hawthorn back-line — at a time when one could kick the ball out of bounds on the full without penalty (the career-long defensive tactic of Melbourne back-man John Beckwith) — that the prescribed playing time of 100 minutes was extended by an astonishing 32 minutes and 33 seconds of "time on" (including 10 minutes 46 seconds in the first quarter alone), meaning that the match's playing time was extended by a total of one and one third quarters.
* In round 13 Hawthorn beats Collingwood at Victoria Park for the first time. Full forward John Peck marked on the siren and kicked a goal. Hawthorn won by a point.
* The Brownlow Medal was won by Footscray Football Club's ruckman John Schultz. Schultz was the second of the only two amateur players to win the Brownlow Medal, the first had been Melbourne's Don Cordner, also a ruckman, in 1946.
* Former classmates at Caulfield Grammar School, John Schultz and Ron Evans win the Brownlow Medal and top the VFL Goalkicking List respectively in the same VFL season.
* Melbourne plays in its seventh successive Grand Final, thrashing Collingwood 8.14 (62) to 2.2 (14). Collingwood's low score is a Grand Final record.
* At the end of the 1960 season, the VFL estimated that the live telecast of the last quarter of three VFL matches each Saturday afternoon had cost at least 245,000 spectators. The VFL decided to discontinue this practice (which had been introduced in 1957).

References

* 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
* Ross, J. (ed.), "The Australian Football Hall of Fame", HarperCollinsPublishers, (Pymble), 1999. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X

External links

* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1960.html 1960 Season - AFL Tables]