1971 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1971


imagesize =
caption =
teams = 12
premiers = AFL Haw
count =
minor premiers = AFL Haw
mpcount =
matches =
top goal scorer = Peter Hudson (AFL Haw)
brownlow medalist = Ian Stewart (AFL Ric)Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1971.

Premiership season

In 1971, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1971 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

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Preliminary Final

Umpire - Peter Sheales

Awards

* The 1971 VFL Premiership team was Hawthorn.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter Hudson of Hawthorn who kicked 150 goals (including 10 goals in the finals).
* The winner of the 1971 Brownlow Medal was Ian Stewart of Richmond with 21 votes.
* South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1971.

Notable Events

* Fitzroy winger Trevor McGregor wins the 1971, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 11.7 seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards.
* Bill Barrot of Richmond and Ian Stewart of St Kilda swap clubs before the start of the 1971 season.
**Stewart goes on to win his third Brownlow Medal at Richmond; whilst Barrott is so dis-satisfied at St Kilda's demands that he play in defence that he requests, and is given, a clearance to Carlton (he played 12 games with Carlton in 1971 and then retired).
* The VFL sells Harrison House and moves to 84 Jolimont Street.
* In the Grand Final, Peter Hudson would have broken Bob Pratt's season record of 150 goals except for three incidents:
**He kicked what would have otherwise been an easy goal into the man on the mark (Barry Lawrence).
**He kicked a goal on the run that was disallowed because the end of the quarter siren had gone before the ball hit his boot.
**He ran into an open goal and kicked the ball out of bounds.
* The Committees of the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood decide not to renew the contracts of their repective coaches, Ron Barassi and Bob Rose.

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/1971.html 1971 Season - AFL Tables]