1952 VFA season

1952 VFA Premiership season
Teams	14
Premiers	Oakleigh (4th premiership)
Minor premiers	Port Melbourne (4th minor premiership)
← 1951 1953 →

The 1952 Victorian Football Association season was the 71st season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club, after it defeated Port Melbourne by 21 points in the Grand Final on 4 October. It was Oakleigh's fourth VFA premiership.

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over twenty matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

1951 VFA Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	Pct	PTS
1	Port Melbourne	20	18	2	0	1911	1245	153.5	72
2	Coburg	20	15	5	0	1709	1272	134.4	60
3	Oakleigh (P)	20	13	7	0	1494	1226	121.9	52
4	Yarraville	20	13	7	0	1537	1434	107.2	52
5	Brunswick	20	12	8	0	1366	1278	106.9	48
6	Camberwell	20	11	8	1	1411	1363	103.6	46
7	Prahran	20	11	9	0	1511	1501	100.7	44
8	Moorabbin	20	10	10	0	1301	1326	98.1	40
9	Northcote	20	10	10	0	1270	1321	96.1	40
10	Williamstown	20	8	12	0	1767	1571	112.5	32
11	Preston	20	7	12	1	1495	1576	94.9	30
12	Sandringham	20	7	13	0	1393	1743	79.9	28
13	Box Hill	20	2	18	0	1228	1856	66.2	8
14	Brighton	20	2	18	0	1036	1717	60.3	8
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points								Source[1]

Finals

	Semi Finals
Saturday, 13 September	Oakleigh 14.19 (103)	def.	Yarraville 13.15 (93)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 16,000)	[2]
Saturday, 20 September	Port Melbourne 11.8 (74)	def.	Coburg 5.11 (41)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 16,000)	[3]

	Preliminary Final
Saturday, 27 September	Coburg 8.10 (58)	def. by	Oakleigh 11.13 (79)	St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 17,000)	[4]

	1952 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 4 October	Port Melbourne	def. by	Oakleigh	St Kilda Cricket Ground (Crowd: 39,500)	[5][6]
	1.4 (10) 2.7 (19) 5.12 (42) 8.15 (63)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	2.5 (17) 5.9 (39) 9.12 (66) 11.18 (84)	Umpires: Merrington
Bonnett 3, Caris 2, Bower, Houlihan, Murray		Goals	Scott 5, Wenn 3, Lambert, Newton, Watson
Murray (ribs), Tucker (knee)		Injuries	Cunningham ( knee), Savory (cramp)
Johnson, for kicking Lambert in the second quarter Murray, for unseemly conduct (interfering with the umpire) in the second quarter		Reports

Awards

• The leading goalkicker for the season was Johnny Walker (Williamstown), who kicked 103 goals in the home-and-home season and did not participate in finals.^[1]
• The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Frank Johnson (Port Melbourne), who polled 47 votes. Jim Bohan (Camberwell) was second with 45 votes, and Bill Morris (Box Hill) was third with 23 votes.^[7]
• Yarraville won the seconds premiership. Yarraville 14.13 (97) defeated Moorabbin 12.15 (87) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain raiser to the firsts Grand Final on 4 October.^[5]

Notable events

• The Association's Thirds competition, contested by players under the age of 19, was established in 1952.^[8] Most clubs already operated Thirds teams, but they were fielded in local leagues rather than a dedicated Association-operated competition.
• In its first match of the season on 19 April, Oakleigh 14.10 (94) comfortably defeated Brunswick 4.9 (33). However, two of Oakleigh's new recruits – Eric Guy and Bill Botten, both from the Carrum Football Club – were played before their clearances from the Mornington Peninsula Football League were formally lodged with the Association; as a result, on 5 May the Association awarded the match and the four premiership points to Brunswick, and Oakleigh was fined £10. Oakleigh argued that the paperwork error was made by the Permit Committee, not the club; but the Association found that the onus was on Oakleigh to ensure the paperwork was lodged correctly.^[9] In August, the club took the Association to the Supreme Court of Victoria, seeking to overturn the penalties and injunct the Association from staging the finals if the penalty affected Oakleigh's finishing position,^[10] but dropped the case prior to the final round of home-and-home matches after the injunction was refused and an unfavourable reserved judgement was delivered.^[11] Ultimately, the club's third placing on the ladder was unaffected by the penalty, and it went on to win the premiership. The legal action cost the club an estimated £453.^[12]
• On 3 May, Box Hill won its first senior match in the Association, defeating Brighton 12.14 (86) d. 12.12 (84), to end a 22-game winless streak which included one draw.^[13]

External links

• List of VFA/VFL Premiers

References

1. Gavin Cook (8 September 1952). "Yarraville wins way to first V.F.A. semi-final". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 25.
2. Gavin Cook (15 September 1952). "Oakleigh stamina must improve to have final chance". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 25.
3. Gavin Cook (22 September 1952). "Port is favoured for title in V.F.A.". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 27.
4. Gavin Cook (29 September 1952). "Oakleigh is big threat to Port for title". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 25.
5. Gavin Cook (6 October 1952). "Pace, team-work, gives Oakleigh V.F.A. title win". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 23.
6. Ian McDonald (6 October 1952). "Fighting spirit gives Oakleigh third (sic) V.F.A. flag". The Argus (Melbourne). p. 10.
7. "Port ruckman wins J. J. Liston Trophy". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). 11 September 1952. p. 24.
8. Fiddian, Marc (2004), The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995, p. 36
9. Ian McDonald (6 May 1952). "Oakleigh loses four points". The Argus (Melbourne). p. 8.
10. "VFA named in writ". The Argus (Melbourne). 13 August 1952. p. 11.
11. "Legal battle dropped". The West Australian (Perth, WA). 4 September 1952. p. 22.
12. "V.F.A. recovery "in lap of Gods"". The Argus (Melbourne). 2 December 1952. p. 8.
13. Jack Oates (5 May 1952). "Box Hill's first win in V.F.A.". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne). p. 20.