1961 VFL Grand Final
Encyclopedia
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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... |
2.4 | 3.9 | 9.15 | 13.16 (94) |
| Footscray Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne... |
4.2 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.9 (51) |
The 1961 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
game contested between the Footscray Football Club
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...
and Hawthorn Football Club
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...
, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 23 September 1961. It was the 65th annual Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
of 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...
, staged to determine the premiers for the 1961 VFL season
1961 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1961.-Premiership season:In 1961, 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...
. The match, attended by 107,935 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 43 points, marking that club's first premiership victory.
Hawthorn, who were competing in their inaugural VFL Grand Final despite being in the competition since 1925, came into the game as minor premiers and favourites. Footscray, the 1954 premiership
1954 VFL Grand Final
The 1954 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Footscray Football Club and Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September 1954. It was the 58th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers...
winners, had finished the home and away season in fourth place but upset the Ron Barassi
Ron Barassi
Ronald Dale Barassi, Jr AM is a former Australian rules football player and coach. During a long and decorated career, Barassi has been one of the most important figures in the history of Australian football. His father, Ron Barassi, Sr., was the first Australian footballer killed at Tobruk during...
-led Melbourne by 27 points in the Preliminary Final to end the Demons' sequence of seven consecutive Grand Final appearances.
It was a young Footscray side, with only two players coming into the game with more than 80 VFL games behind them, although one of them was veteran Ted Whitten
Ted Whitten
Edward James "EJ" Whitten was an Australian rules football player and media personality. He played a then-record 321 Victorian Football League games for the Footscray Football Club between 1951 and 1970...
. Hawthorn's Brendan Edwards
Brendan Edwards
Brendan Edwards Brendan Edwards Brendan Edwards (Born 18 March 1936 is a former Australian rules football footballer who played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League VFL from 1956 to 1961 and again in the 1963 season. He won their best and fairest award in 1960 and represented Victoria at...
was playing in his 100th VFL game and dominated in the centre. Despite trailing at half time, Hawthorn won comfortably in the end courtesy of a dominant third quarter in which they kicked six goals to just one by Footscray.
The Bulldogs are yet to appear in another Grand Final.
The 1961 Grand Final is the oldest currently available from the Visual Entertainment Group on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Channel Seven
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
did originally have videos of the 1962
1962 VFL Grand Final
The 1962 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Essendon Football Club and Carlton Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 29 September 1962. It was the 66th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine...
, 1963
1963 VFL Grand Final
The 1963 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Geelong Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 5 October 1963. It was the 67th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the...
and 1964 Grand Finals
1964 VFL Grand Final
The 1964 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 19 September 1964. It was the 68th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...
, but these were lost when Seven destroyed most of its early VFL footage in 1990.
Teams
Goal kickers
Hawthorn:
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Footscray:
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See also
- 1961 VFL season1961 VFL seasonResults and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1961.-Premiership season:In 1961, 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...