1953 VFL season
Encyclopedia
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 season of 1953
.

Premiership season

In 1953, 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 1953 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".

First Semi-Final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Footscray 3.7 3.8 4.11 6.13 (49)
Essendon
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

1.0 3.7 4.7 5.11(41)
Attendance: 68,533

Second Semi-Final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...

3.1 6.4 7.12 8.12 (60)
Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

2.3 5.7 7.8 13.12 (90)
Attendance: 70,292

Preliminary Final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...

0.6 2.7 6.10 8.15 (63)
Footscray 2.1 3.4 4.5 5.7 (37)
Attendance: 58,615

Grand final

Team 1 Qtr 2 Qtr 3 Qtr Final
Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

2.4 5.6 10.10 11.11 (77)
Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...

2.2 3.9 5.11 8.17 (65)
Attendance: 89,060

Awards

  • The 1953 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

    .
  • The VFL's leading goalkicker
    Coleman Medal
    The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...

     was John Coleman of Essendon
    Essendon Football Club
    The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     who kicked 97 goals (including one goal in the finals).
  • The winner of the 1953 Brownlow Medal
    Brownlow Medal
    The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...

     was Bill Hutchison of Essendon
    Essendon Football Club
    The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     with 26 votes.
  • Hawthorn
    Hawthorn Football Club
    The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

     took the "wooden spoon" in 1953.

Notable events

  • Because ANZAC Day
    ANZAC Day
    Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...

     fell on a Saturday, there was a fortnight between rounds 1 and 2. On the evening of Friday 24 April a night-time "exhibition match" is held between Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     and Fitzroy
    Fitzroy Football Club
    The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

    , under lights, at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds
    Royal Melbourne Showgrounds
    The Melbourne Showgrounds is located in the inner north-western suburb of Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia, next door to Flemington Racecourse. Is the home of the annual Royal Melbourne Show, as well as major exhibitions, trade shows, and music concerts....

    . Collingwood win 12.12 (84) to Fitzroy's 5.8 (38).
  • In round 2, John Coleman kicks 11 of Essendon's
    Essendon Football Club
    The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     13 goals.
  • In a very wet game in Round 5, Fitzroy
    Fitzroy Football Club
    The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

     came close to becoming the first VFL team to be held scoreless. Allan Ruthven
    Allan Ruthven
    Allan Ruthven was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. He played his entire 222 game career with Fitzroy. In 1950, Ruthven won the prestigious Brownlow medal.- Playing career :...

     managed their only scoring shot, a goal, with ten minutes remaining in the game.
  • The low scoring of the year in comparison to the previous three decades can also be seen in that:
    • Footscray's 959 points "Against" remains the lowest average points conceded per game since 1919
    • The season's highest score of 21.10 (136) was the lowest since 1924
    • For the first time since 1927 there was no match where both teams scored a century. This has since occurred only in 1955, 1961 and 1963.
  • In round 14, Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     defeats Geelong
    Geelong Football Club
    The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...

     at Kardinia Park 10.15 (75) to 7.13 (55). Prior to this defeat, Geelong had won 23 consecutive matches (still a VFL/AFL record), and had played 26 consecutive matches without a loss (also still a VFL/AFL record).
  • In round 17, Keith Bromage
    Keith Bromage
    Keith Bromage is a former Australian rules footballer. He played with Collingwood and Fitzroy in his Victorian Football League career....

     plays his first senior match for Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     at 15 years and 287 days (still a VFL/AFL record).
  • The Collingwood
    Collingwood Football Club
    The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

     Grand Final team contained three sets of brothers:
    • Lou Richards
      Lou Richards
      Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards is a retired Australian rules footballer, who played 250 games with the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1941 and 1955...

       and Ron Richards.
    • Bob Rose
      Bob Rose (footballer)
      Robert "Bob" Rose was an Australian rules footballer and coach in the VFL. He is widely regarded as the greatest player ever to play for Collingwood.-Playing career:...

       and Bill Rose
      Bill Rose (footballer)
      William 'Bill' Rose was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood in the Victorian Football League during the early 1950s....

      .
    • Bill Twomey, Jr., Pat Twomey
      Pat Twomey
      Pat Twomey was an Australian rules footballer, who played in the Victorian Football League, .Pat Twomey joined Collingwood in 1947, he had two stints with the Magpies, punctured by a spell with country club Warragul. Pat mainly played across the centreline or on a flank and started as a winger...

      , and Mick Twomey
      Mick Twomey
      Michael Twomey is a former Australian rules footballer, who played in the Victorian Football League, .At in height, Collingwood's Mick Twomey was taller than his brothers Bill and Pat, and played most of his 157 VFL games between 1951 and 1961 as a ruckman.Over the course of his 10 year career...

      .
  • Collingwood supporter and controversial businessman John Wren
    John Wren
    John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series...

    suffered a heart attack at the 1953 Grand Final and died one month later.

External links

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