1946 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1946


imagesize = 120px
caption = Essendon captain-coach Dick Reynolds
teams = 12
premiers = AFL Ess
count = 9th
minor premiers = AFL Ess
mpcount = 8th
matches =
top goal scorer = Des Fothergill (AFL Col)
brownlow medalist = Don Cordner (AFL Mel)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1946.

Premiership season

In 1946, 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.

The determination of the 1946 season's fixtures were complicated by the fact that both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Lake Oval were still unavailable and, because of this, Melbourne shared the Punt Road Oval with Richmond as their home ground, and South Melbourne shared the Junction Oval with St Kilda as their home ground. Melbourne resumed using the Melbourne Cricket Ground as its home ground in round 17.

Once the 19 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1946 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

Round 19

Grand Final

Essendon defeated Melbourne 22.18 (150) to 13.9 (87), in front of a crowd of 72,743 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Grand Final Teams

Awards

* The 1946 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Bill Brittingham of Essendon with 66 goals (including 8 goals in the finals series).
** Des Fothergill of Collingwood kicked 63 goals in the home-and-away season — thus, if there had been such a thing as a Coleman Medal in 1946, he would have won it.
* The winner of the 1946 Brownlow Medal was Don Cordner of Melbourne with 20 votes.
** Cordner was the first of the only two amateur players ever to win the Brownlow Medal, the second was Footscray Football Club's John Schultz, also a ruckman, in 1960.
* Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1946.

Notable Events

* The ANFC rejects a joint proposal from New South Wales and Tasmania to introduce a "send off" rule for foul play.
* The VFL introduced a second substitute player, known as the 20th man; this meant that a team was now comprised of 18 "run on" players, and two "reserves" on the bench. A player could be substituted for any reason (not just if he was injured and unable to continue). Once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances.
** As with the 19th man, the 20th man was only paid a match fee in the event that he took the field.
* The VFL introduces a new Under-19 competition, the teams are referred to as the Third Eighteens.
* The VFL resumes the Brownlow Medal award.
* The first half of round 1 is played on Easter Saturday, the second half on Easter Monday.
* In round 1, 33 year old former champion full-forward Bob Pratt returns to South Melbourne after playing for VFA club Coburg (1940-1941) and serving in the Royal Australian Air Force (1942-1945). He kicks two goals before badly injuring a leg. He never plays again.
* In a very windy round 8 match, North Melbourne beat Melbourne 9.2 (56) to 3.9 (27) despite not scoring at all in either the first or the third quarter of the match.
* From ninth position on the ladder at the end of round 8, Melbourne win 13 of their next 14 matches and play in the Grand Final.
* At half time in the closely contested Grand Final, a straighter-kicking Melbourne 10.4 (64) was three points in front of Essendon 9.7 (61); in the third quarter Essendon kicked 11.8 (74) to Melbourne's 1.1. (7).

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/1946.html 1946 Season - AFL Tables]