1937 VFL season
The 1937 VFL season was the 41st season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 24 April until 25 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
| 1937 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
 Geelong captain-coach Reg Hickey | |
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Geelong 3rd premiership |
| Minor premiers | Geelong 5th minor premiership |
| Brownlow Medallist | Dick Reynolds (Essendon) |
| Leading Goalkicker Medallist | Dick Harris (Carlton) |
| Matches played | 112 |
| Highest | 88,540 |
The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club for the third time, after it defeated Collingwood by 32 points in the 1937 VFL Grand Final.
Background
In 1937, 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 1937 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.
Home-and-away season
Ladder
| (P) | Premiers |
| Qualified for finals |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geelong (P) | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 1824 | 1348 | 135.3 | 60 |
| 2 | Melbourne | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 1945 | 1482 | 131.2 | 60 |
| 3 | Collingwood | 18 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 1908 | 1479 | 129.0 | 52 |
| 4 | Richmond | 18 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1647 | 1525 | 108.0 | 46 |
| 5 | Carlton | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1624 | 1464 | 110.9 | 44 |
| 6 | St Kilda | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1600 | 1580 | 101.3 | 40 |
| 7 | Fitzroy | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 1386 | 1488 | 93.1 | 28 |
| 8 | Hawthorn | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 1413 | 1675 | 84.4 | 28 |
| 9 | South Melbourne | 18 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 1527 | 1698 | 89.9 | 26 |
| 10 | Essendon | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1530 | 1689 | 90.6 | 20 |
| 11 | Footscray | 18 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 1409 | 1722 | 81.8 | 16 |
| 12 | North Melbourne | 18 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 1188 | 1851 | 64.2 | 12 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 88.0
Source: AFL Tables
Finals series
Grand final
Season notes
- Still struggling to recover from the injury that kept him out of the 1936 Grand Final, Bob Pratt only played six matches (kicking 12 goals) for South Melbourne in the 1937 season.
- Having kicked Collingwood's only goal in the last quarter of the Grand Final, Gordon Coventry retired having played 306 senior VFL games and having scored 1299 goals.
- In Round 15, Coventry became the first player to play 300 VFL games
- In Round 16, Collingwood and Melbourne set numerous records for high scoring:
- a record match aggregate of 295 points, beating by two the record of Essendon and North Melbourne in 1934
- highest losing score, beating Collingwood's own record against St. Kilda in 1931 and still a club record for Collingwood[1]
Awards
- The 1937 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Harris of Richmond with 64 goals.
- The winner of The Argus' "Player of the Year" was Dick Reynolds of Essendon.
- The winner of the 1937 Brownlow Medal was Dick Reynolds of Essendon with 27 votes.
- North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1937.
- The seconds premiership was won by Geelong. Geelong 12.12 (84) defeated Collingwood 9.11 (65) in the Grand Final, played as a stand-alone game on Thursday 30 September (Show Day holiday) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[2]
References
- Atkinson, p. 20.
- "New football record". The Argus. Melbourne. 1 October 1937. p. 20.
- Atkinson, G. (1982) Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking, The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. ISBN 0 86788 009 0.
- 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
Sources
- 1937 VFL season at AFL Tables
- 1937 VFL season at Australian Football