1967 VFL season
| 1967 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Richmond 6th premiership |
| Minor premiers | Richmond 6th minor premiership |
| Consolation series | Footscray 3rd Consolation series win |
| Brownlow Medallist | Ross Smith (St Kilda) |
| Coleman Medallist | Doug Wade (Geelong) |
| Matches played | 112 |
| Highest | 109,396 |
The 1967 Victorian Football League season was the 71st season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
Premiership season
In 1967, 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 1967 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
Ladder
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond (P) | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 1869 | 1281 | 145.9 | 60 | Finals |
| 2 | Carlton | 18 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1425 | 1133 | 125.8 | 58 | |
| 3 | Geelong | 18 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 1625 | 1323 | 122.8 | 52 | |
| 4 | Collingwood | 18 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 1629 | 1232 | 132.2 | 48 | |
| 5 | St Kilda | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1630 | 1328 | 122.7 | 44 | |
| 6 | Essendon | 18 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 1406 | 1327 | 106.0 | 34 | |
| 7 | Melbourne | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1258 | 1417 | 88.8 | 32 | |
| 8 | North Melbourne | 18 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 1234 | 1310 | 94.2 | 30 | |
| 9 | South Melbourne | 18 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 1446 | 1763 | 82.0 | 22 | |
| 10 | Hawthorn | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1241 | 1766 | 70.3 | 20 | |
| 11 | Fitzroy | 18 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 1193 | 1655 | 72.1 | 16 | |
| 12 | Footscray | 18 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 1060 | 1481 | 71.6 | 16 |
Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers
Night Series Competition
The night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the season.
Final: Footscray 15.11 (101) defeated South Melbourne 8.8 (56).
Premiership Finals
Semi-finals
| First Semi-final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 2 September 2:30pm | Geelong | def. | Collingwood | MCG (crowd: 91,715) | |
| 4.5 (29) 8.7 (55) 10.10 (70) 16.12 (108) |
Q1 Q2 Q3 Final |
4.2 (26) 8.3 (51) 10.9 (69) 11.12 (78) |
Umpires: Crouch Television broadcast: Seven Network | ||
| Wade 8 Goggin 3 Andrews 2 Sharrock, Ryan, Mitchell 1 |
Goals | 4 Dunne 2 W. Richardson, Tuddenham 1 Waters, Britt, K. Rose | |||
| Farmer, Goggin, Walker, Rosenow, Marshall, Wade, Closter, Eales | Best | W. Richardson, K. Rose, Dunne, Thompson, Tully, Britt, Adamson, Price | |||
| Reports | Tuddenham by field umpire Crouch for striking Ainsworth | ||||
| |||||
| Second Semi-final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 9 September 2:30pm | Richmond | def. | Carlton | MCG (crowd: 99,051) | |
| 5.8 (38) 10.13 (73) 14.16 (100) 20.21 (141) |
Q1 Q2 Q3 Final |
3.4 (22) 7.9 (51) 11.12 (78) 14.17 (101) |
Umpires: Sheales Television broadcast: Seven Network | ||
| Hart 6 Brown, Patterson 3 B. Richardson, Northey, Guinane 2 Barrot, Bartlett 1 |
Goals | 3 Munari, Nicholls 2 Kekovich, Barassi, Jesaulenko 1 Silvagni, Gallagher | |||
| Barrot, Hart, Clay, Dean, Guinane, Burgin | Best | Nicholls, Goold, Munari, Barassi, Silvagni, Gallagher | |||
| Crowe for striking Nicholls | Reports | ||||
| |||||
Preliminary Final
| Preliminary Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 16 September 2:30pm | Geelong | def. | Carlton | MCG (crowd: 95,542) | |
| 1.0 (6) 6.2 (38) 14.3 (87) 17.6 (108) |
Q1 Q2 Q3 Final |
5.2 (32) 10.5 (65) 11.7 (73) 11.13 (79) |
Umpires: Sheales Television broadcast: Seven Network | ||
| Wade 5 Sharrock 4 Ryan, Mitchell, Andrews 2 Polinelli, Newland 1 |
Goals | 3 Gallagher 2 Jesaulenko 1 Collins, Stone, Nicholls, Barassi, Robertson, Auchettl | |||
| Sharrock, Goggin, Farmer, Polinelli, Ryan, Closter, Mitchell, Walker | Best | Nicholls, Barassi, Collis, Hall, Gill, Goold, Gallagher, Collins | |||
Grand final
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond | 4.3 | 9.10 | 12.15 | 16.18 (114) |
| Geelong | 3.3 | 7.6 | 13.7 | 15.15 (105) |
| Attendance: 109,396 |
Umpires: P. Sheales, A. Cook, R. Kidd, L. Barratt, B. Grant.[1]
Awards
- The 1967 VFL Premiership team was Richmond (its first since 1943).
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Doug Wade of Geelong who kicked 96 goals (including 17 goals in the final series).
- The winner of the 1967 Brownlow Medal was Ross G. Smith of St Kilda with 24 votes.
- Footscray took the "wooden spoon" in 1967.
- The reserves premiership was won by North Melbourne. North Melbourne 15.13 (103) defeated Richmond 10.19 (79) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 September.[2]
Notable events
- Former Carlton ruckman Graham Donaldson, now coaching in Morwell, Victoria, was also the manager of one of the district's State Savings Bank of Victoria (SSB) branches. He convinced the Bank's head office to sponsor a new competition involving children (under 12), representing their VFL club and playing in their club colours, to be played during the half-time break in the senior VFL game each Saturday. The SSB Mini League, which eventually evolved into the "Little League", conducted its first matches during the 1967 VFL season.
- Fitzroy moved to Carlton's home ground, Princes Park, sharing the ground on alternate weeks.
- Hawthorn, having instituted an exhaustive schedule of pre-season and regular in-season training developed by coach John Kennedy and former star centreman, now gymnasium owner, Brendan Edwards, as a consequence of them having undertaken this gruelling schedule in addition to their normal, on-going skills training, the Hawthorn players became known as "Kennedy's Commandos".
- On Anzac Day, a representative match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between the Victorian team from the 1966 Hobart Carnival, and a team representing the rest of the league. The Carnival team wore Victoria's traditional Big V guernsey; the Rest team wore a red Guernsey with blue yoke and white collar. The Rest 18.13 (121) defeated the Carnival team 9.13 (67) in front of a crowd of 15,613.[3]
- In the Second Semi-Final between Richmond and Carlton Richmond's Neville Crowe and Carlton's John Nicholls were wrestling for the ball when Nicholls hit Crowe "in the guts", Crowe stepped back with the football grasped to his chest in his left hand and attempted to slap Nicholls with his open right hand. Crowe missed making any contact with Nicholls by about three inches. Nicholls immediately lifted his own left hand to his face, and pretended to have been badly affected, reeled away from Crowe. Despite Crowe's protests, he was reported for striking Nicholls. At the tribunal Crowe, received no assistance from Nicholls who was reluctant to admit that he was only acting. Crowe was suspended for four weeks; he missed the Grand Final, and never played VFL football again.
- At the end of the season, Harry Beitzel's squad of players drawn mainly from the VFL, known as "The Galahs", played matches in Ireland, England, and the United States.
Footnotes
- ^ VFL/AFL Grand Final umpires 1897-2005 Archived 1 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 2011-06-06)
- ^ Rex Pullen (25 September 1967). "Kangaroos too good". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 55.
- ^ Kevin Hogan (26 April 1967). ""Clash" was so friendly". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 72.
References
- Hogan, P., The Tigers Of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
- 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