1941 VFL season

1941 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Melbourne (5th premiership)
Minor premiers	Carlton (10th minor premiership)
Matches played	112
Highest attendance	79,687
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Sel Murray (North Melbourne)
Brownlow Medallist	Norman Ware (Footscray)
← 1940 1942 →

The 1941 Victorian Football League season was the 45th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1941, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th 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 1941 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

1941 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Carlton	18	14	4	0	1948	1619	120.32	56
2	Melbourne (P)	18	14	4	0	1993	1701	117.17	56
3	Richmond	18	14	4	0	1714	1469	116.68	56
4	Essendon	18	13	5	0	1864	1431	130.26	52
5	Collingwood	18	12	6	0	1743	1571	110.95	48
6	Footscray	18	10	8	0	1676	1517	110.48	40
7	Fitzroy	18	8	10	0	1695	1760	96.31	32
8	South Melbourne	18	8	10	0	1397	1552	90.01	32
9	North Melbourne	18	6	12	0	1759	1893	92.92	24
10	Geelong	18	3	15	0	1561	1880	83.03	12
11	St Kilda	18	3	15	0	1454	1775	81.92	12
12	Hawthorn	18	3	15	0	1367	2003	68.25	12
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Finals

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Melbourne defeated Essendon 19.13 (127) to 13.20 (98), in front of a crowd of 79,687 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1941 VFL Premiership team was Melbourne.
• The VFL’s leading goalkicker was Sel Murray of North Melbourne with 88 goals.
• The winner of the 1941 Brownlow Medal was Norman Ware of Footscray with 23 votes. He was the only playing coach to achieve the feat.
• Hawthorn took the “wooden spoon” in 1941.
• The seconds premiership was won by Essendon. Essendon 12.16 (88) defeated Fitzroy 9.17 (71) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the senior Grand Final on Saturday 27 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[1]

Notable events

• Owing to the military takeover of Corio Oval, Geelong moved its home games to Kardinia Park.
• During March, the players of the Geelong Football Club went on strike and refused to train over pay: the players seeking £3 per week, and the club offering £1/10/– per week. The players were upset that the club had also cut their pay during 1940 (from £3 to £1) but had finished the year in a strong financial position; the club claimed the lower offer was due to the extra expense of moving from Corio Oval to Kardinia Park and increased payments to war funds drove the decision.^[2] The players acquiesced and accepted the £1/10/– offer,^[3] but five senior players resigned from Geelong and crossed to the Victorian Football Association in the aftermath.^[4]
• In the Round 2 match between Carlton and Richmond, 11 players were injured. Highly talented Carlton rover Jack Hale broke his leg so badly in an accidental entanglement with Richmond centreman Bernie Waldron that he never played again.
• The VFL postponed its Round 5 matches and conducted its second patriotic lightning carnival at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday 24 May 1941. Collingwood won the carnival, defeating Melbourne 3.2 (20) to 3.1 (19). The carnival raised £1,526 for the war effort.
• On 31 July 1941, Melbourne rover Ron Barassi, Sr. was killed in action at the Siege of Tobruk. He was the first VFL player to be killed in the Second World War. On 16 August 1941, a brief, moving memorial tribute to Barassi was conducted (including a bugler playing "The Last Post") at the Melbourne Cricket Club by spectators, players, trainers, and officials of Melbourne and Collingwood.
• In the last minutes of the last quarter of the Second Eighteens Grand Final, which Essendon won, beating Fitzroy 12.16 (88) to 9.17 (71), a Fitzroy player felled an Essendon player and fights broke out all over the ground. As the final bell was sounding a vicious brawl broke out in which almost every player was involved, with many players felled. Both teams were reported for "unseemly conduct". Both clubs were fined £10.^[5]
• In a lop-sided senior Grand Final, Melbourne, missing at least twelve of its 1941 senior players through either injury or military service, was 47 points ahead at three quarter time, and went on to beat Essendon by 29 points: 19.13 (127) to 13.20 (98).
• After defeating Collingwood in Round 5, Carlton had a winning record over every other team in the competition in combined regular season and finals matches. They would hold this distinction until Round 8 of the 1954 VFL season.

See also

• The VFL during the World Wars
• 1916 VFL season

References

1. "Seconds' premiership". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 29 September 1941. p. 8.
2. ""Strike" at Geelong – Players' reasons". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 12.
3. Jim Blake (29 March 1941). "Five Geelong men for Association?". The Sporting Globe (Melbourne, VIC). p. 1.
4. "The tide turns at Geelong". The Sporting Globe (Melbourne, VIC). 7 May 1941. p. 10.
5. "League seconds fined". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 15 October 1941. p. 10.

• Hogan, P., The Tigers Of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• 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

• 1941 Season - AFL Tables