1939 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1939


imagesize =
caption =
teams = 12
premiers = AFL Mel
count = 3rd
minor premiers = AFL Mel
mpcount = 1st
matches =
top goal scorer = Ron Todd (AFL Col)
brownlow medalist = Marcus Whelan (AFL Col)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1939.

Premiership season

In 1939, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th 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 1939 VFL "Premiers" were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".

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

Grand Final

"See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list."

Melbourne defeated Collingwood 21.22 (148) to 14.11 (95), in front of a crowd of 78,110 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Ladder

Awards

* The 1939 VFL Premiership team was Melbourne.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Ron Todd of Collingwood with 98 goals (121 after finals).
* "The Argus" newspaper's "Player of the Year", was shared between Jack Dyer of Richmond and Dick Reynolds of Essendon.
* The winner of the 1939 Brownlow Medal was Marcus Whelan of Collingwood with 23 votes.
* South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1939.

Notable Events

* In the round 10 match between Essendon and Hawthorn there is 28 minutes and 11 seconds of time on.
* All round 18 matches are postponed for a week because all grounds are under water from constant rain.
* In a broadcast from the Cabinet Room in Melbourne on Sunday 3 September 1939, the day after the last home-and-away match of the 1939 season, avid Carlton fan and Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies announces to the nation:::"It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."

References

* Maplestone, M., "Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996", Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-959-17402-8
* 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

External links

* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1939.html 1939 Season - AFL Tables]